When Nikole-Hannah Jones and her notorious 1619 Project claimed that the War for Independence was fought to “preserve slavery,” scholars quickly debunked her. The 1619 project surreptitiously removed the absurd claim.
Unfortunately, the teaching of false history in service of so-called “anti-racism” does not stop here. Anyone following the debate over critical race theory in public schools has heard about Loudoun County — the Virginia suburb that has made headlines over the past months.
Now, some 35 miles away, Fairfax County, Virginia, faces a similar controversy. In conjunction with Teaching Tolerance, a social justice education initiative created by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Fairfax County schools are revamping their history curriculum to include teaching that “the United States was founded on protecting the interests of white, Christian men who owned property.” The county and its newfound initiative, called “One Fairfax,” emphasizes “equity,” a laser focus on race, and, in a video that has since been taken down, “woke” kindergartners.
Critical race theory is a complicated activist theory. That said, there are several problematic tenets of the ideology that are apparent in too many schools. Among others, these include a focus on equality of outcome at the expense of equality of opportunity and an attempt to view every policy, interaction, and institution as a battle between oppressor and oppressed races.
From their intent to view educational policies through the “lens” of race to their focus on “equity” rather than equality, Fairfax County school policy bears many of the hallmarks of critical race theory.
“One Fairfax,” first adopted in a November 2017 meeting, is filled with talk of “equity.” For the critical race theorists, any disparate outcome is itself proof of racism. As popular critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi put it in his book How to be an Antiracist, “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic explain in their book Critical Race Theory: An Introduction that “CRT’s critique of merit” has to do with its critique of a focus on “color blindness and equal opportunity, rather than equal results.”
Taking a page out of the book of critical race theory, Fairfax County schools would ensure that, in their own words, “The Focus Remains on Race.” This would mean focusing on eliminating “unequitable outcomes.”
Investigative reporting from Luke Rosiak of the Daily Caller revealed that, in collaboration with the Soros-funded group Local and Regional Government Alliance on Race and Equity, school officials learned how to substitute “politically difficult” language for easier words such as “equity.” The document shows a “strategic plan” to advance such initiatives and recommends officials “apply equity policy to Early Childhood education as a starting point.”
School officials who are serious about addressing inequality should reject policies that are infused with an ideology that promotes race essentialism, collective guilt, and rejection of meritocracy. Addressing Jim Crow, domestic terrorism from the Ku Klux Klan, and slavery does not demand that we lie about the American founders in 1776. Nor does it require an unhealthy and regressive obsession with race and color. Nor does it require that we misrepresent every policy that results in an unequal outcome as fundamentally racist in nature.
Instead, for Fairfax County, as with every county in the nation, an honest, empowering education demands the rejection of critical race theory.
Sarah H. Weaver is a graduate student at Hillsdale College and a writer. Follow her on Twitter: @SarahHopeWeaver.
