How It Works 

Critical Race Theory, 3 of 6

   Last year, the FBI was holding workshops on intersectionality theory. The Dept. of Homeland Security was telling white employees they were committing "microinequities" and had been "socialized into oppressor roles." The Treasury Dept. told staff members that "virtually all white people contribute to racism" and that they must convert "everyone in the federal government" to the ideology of "antiracism." 

   The Sandia National Laboratories, which designs America's nuclear arsenal, sent white male executives to a three-day reeducation camp, where they were told that "white male culture" was analogous to the "KKK" "white supremacists" and "mass killings." The executives were forced to renounce their "white male privilege" and write letters of apology to fictitious women and people of color. 

   In Cupertino, California, an elementary school forced first-graders to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, and rank themselves according to their "power and privilege." In Springfield, Missouri, a middle school forced teachers to locate themselves on an "oppression matrix," based on the idea that straight, white, English-speaking, Christian males are members of the oppressor class and must atone for their privilege and "covert white supremacy." 

   In Philadelphia, an elementary school forced fifth-graders to celebrate "Black communism" and simulate a Black Power rally to free 1960s radical Angela Davis from prison. And in Seattle, the school district told white teachers that they are guilty of "spirit murder" against black children and must "bankrupt (their) privilege in acknowledgement of (their) thieved inheritance." 

   Christopher Rufo is just one investigative journalist, but he claims to have a database of more than 1,000 of these stories. He says critical race theory is becoming the operating ideology of our public institutions - from universities to bureaucracies to k-12 school systems. It has permeated the collective intelligence and decision-making process of American government, with no sign of slowing down, he told his audience at Hillsdale College. 

   When originally established, he said, government institutions were neutral, technocratic and oriented toward broadly-held perceptions of the public good. Today, they are being turned against the American people - from Washington to states, even red states, to county public health departments, small Midwestern school districts and more. This ideology will not stop until it has devoured all our our institutions. 

Monday: Futile Resistance 

Wednesday: Political Engagement

Friday: Courage