A Chicago-area lawsuit not only shows critical race theory’s transgressions against reason and decency but also makes a compelling case that it is illegal to teach it in public schools.
I wrote yesterday about how the school district in the Chicago suburb of Evanston teaches that the nuclear family must be aggressively undermined as a vehicle of white supremacism. I wrote about how this ideology holds that “the very foundations” of republican government and its “principles of constitutional law” must be challenged. The lawsuit in Evanston and the related findings by a Department of Education investigation make for essential reading for anyone who is currently in denial about this or doubts that the misnamed “anti-racism” training being used in our schools amounts to a moral disaster.
The legal case against this stuff looks as strong as the moral case, and here’s predicting that this and any similar suits will succeed. In those formal findings (now in limbo as part of a broader policy review), the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education noted four ways (there probably are more) in which Evanston is violating three clauses of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
Title VI says that no person may be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, or national origin. In particular, it states that no applicable program (this includes public schools receiving federal aid) may “subject an individual to segregation or separate treatment in any matter related to his receipt of any service, financial aid, or other benefit.”
Focus just on two of the four counts listed by the civil rights office. First, the school system created “various racially exclusive affinity groups that separated students, parents, and community members by race.” Second, and most hideously, it conducted “a ‘Colorism Privilege walk activity’ with students during a ‘racial equity summit’ at King Arts, in March 2019, that treated students differently and separated students solely based on their race and color.”
The lawsuit lays out this “privilege walk” in some detail. With students standing along a line, they are told to respond to a series of questions or prompts, such as: “If you are white, take two steps forward. If you are a person of color with light skin, take one step back. If you are a person of color with dark skin, take one step back.”
In the end, of course, the white children are all standing well ahead of the others and are made to feel guilty about it. (Here’s an example of this practice that is sweeping the country, although it’s not clear from what locale it comes. Note the students’ sullen, uncomfortable faces amid such intellectual child abuse.)
Meanwhile, faculty in Evanston are specifically segregated by race for the “affinity groups” during mandatory “anti-racism” training. This is an obvious facial violation of Title VI.
The lawsuit also alleges that the practices violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Indeed, they do because the training openly and specifically teaches that “equality” itself is objectionable and even an idea that supports white supremacism. The curriculum in Evanston for pre-K through eighth grade says this message against equality must be promoted: “To ‘treat everybody equally’ is a colorblind message, and ‘color blindness helps racism.’”
The Orwellian nature of this doublespeak is breathtaking.
It should be obvious that any doctrine encouraging segregation, preaching against racial equality, and promoting the overthrow of “principles of constitutional law” is likely to violate that same Constitution and its equal protections.
This lawsuit asks for nominal damages of just $1 because the teacher filing it isn’t aiming to get rich. What she wants is an injunction forcing the Evanston school system to stop these objectionable practices. If there is any justice, this lawsuit will succeed, and the injunction will be granted.
