Lance Izumi: The Critical Race Theory Debate Is Turning Parents Into Unlikely Activists

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is among the most divisive doctrines to ever threaten America’s schoolchildren, and it has sparked an unprecedented grassroots uprising of parents whose stories of ideological resistance have been detailed in our new book The Great Parent Revolt.

A multidisciplinary education philosophy that places race at the center of American history and culture, CRT is akin to racial Marxism — with whites viewed as oppressors and non-whites framed as the oppressed. CRT is at the heart of many high-profile intellectual initiatives, including The New York Times’ controversial 1619 Project, This claim asserts that slavery and antiblack racism are the heart of American history.  In The Great Parent RevoltWe profile over a dozen parents, students and grassroots leaders who courageously fought against CRT.

One unlikely hero is Gabs Clark, a low-income widowed African-American mother of five kids who lived in a Las Vegas motel.

Her high school-aged son, William, was in a local charter school which required  a course called Sociology of Change.  Clark, Students were required to complete an assignment. “to list your identities, your race, your gender, your sexual orientation, your religion.”

William, who is mixed race with blonde hair and blue eyes, refused to complete the assignment and was given a failing grade for the class, which kept him from graduating. According to Clark, because of his fair complexion, the class viewed her son  as “a dirty filthy oppressor. “ 

Clark filed a federal lawsuit charging the school with violating William’s First Amendment free speech rights, Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights, and federal anti-discrimination rights for compelling him to complete the race-based assignment. The matter was eventually settled out of court.

Parents, says Clark, must realize that it is up to them to challenge CRT’s impact on education as she did. “Just because you have these rights,” She stated, “if you don’t fight for them, then it’s like you ain’t got them.”

William’s case is no anomaly.  Joshua, a California student, was interviewed by us. He shared shocking stories about the CRT-type exercises that he had to endure in school.

As a seventh grader, he was required to participate in “The Seventh Grade” “privilege walk.”  In this absurd exercise,  the entire class fOrmed a line as their teacher read out characteristics of privilege, such as “I am white” or “I am male;” If a characteristic was applicable to students, they had to take a step ahead.

Joshua stated that it felt like a criminal group of students. “singled out for privileges that they really can’t help or control.” 

Those personal details “shouldn’t be the concern of other students in my class and they aren’t entitled to that information,” Joshua, who happens to be white, agreed. He stated that both students and teachers are alike. “scared about what they say for fear that they may mess up regarding one’s race or pronouns or identities.”

If this sounds like Communist China, ask immigrant mom Xi Van Fleet.

Now living in Virginia, Van Fleet grew up in China during Mao Zedong’s dreaded Cultural Revolution, which resulted in millions of deaths. She recalls Mao’s Red Guards, who were mostly middle and high school-aged students, identifying supposed anti-revolutionaries and parading them into town and organizing public trials.

“In China, we were taught at a very young age to just shut up,” says Van Fleet, who sees similarities between today’s hyper-racialized climate and Mao-era China..

“Everything that’s going on here happened in China during the Cultural Revolution,” She told us that CRT was the reason for her comments.  “should have no place in our schools.”

She claims that CRT will lead to “the total control of the population by a few on top.”

This type of control is on display in Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School, the state’s top academic school, which is located in Fairfax County. 

Asra Nomani, an immigrant mom from India whose father marched with Mahatma Gandhi, has been a key parent leader protesting against the school’s change in admissions policy that de-emphasizes grades and test scores in favor of subjective factors like student “lived” Experiences and limiting admissions from Asian-heavy schools. She says that the goal is to make it more accessible. “is to keep out too many Asian-American students.”

Nomani believes CRT is to blame. “which praises or blames members of a particular race solely because they happen to be that race.” However, supporters of the new admissions policies denigrate Asian parents and label them as White-adjacent. Nomani disagreed. “we were unapologetic.”

Nomani helped start a coalition of Thomas Jefferson parents that is suing to overturn the school’s admissions policy.  They also led to Jason Miyares, Virginia Attorney General, investigating the school for possible violations state law.

We also spoke with Lia Rensin, a California mom Rensin, who is the grand-daughter of Holocaust survivors.   Rensin is fighting against what she calls a CRT-influenced form of ethnic studies that has been commonly referred to as “Research by Technology.” “liberated ethnic studies,” These documents formed the basis of the draft California education model curriculum for ethnic studies.  This draft also contained anti-semitic elements This song is a demonizing song about Jewish control of media. 

A huge grassroots outcry from groups such as Rensin’s own Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies fCalifornia officials forced to remove the extremist draft curriculum and approved a more moderate model curriculum in ethnic studies.  

“The resistance,” Rensin says, “has to come from people who are aware of what’s going on, who push back and say…you’re not supposed to be indoctrinating my kids.”

The Pledge of Allegiance declares that we are one nation and indivisible. As I found out while researching our book, such parents are true American heroes fighting to make America a country of liberty and justice for all.

Lance Izumi, senior director at the Center for Education at Pacific Research Institute is Lance Izumi.  He is co-author of the new PRI book with Wenyuan Wu, McKenzie Richards and McKenzie Richards. The Great Parent Revolt: How Parents and Grassroots Leaders Are Fighting Critical Race Theory in America’s Schools.