Public Counsel, a left-wing law firm, and the Ballard Spahr law firm are suing the school district in Temecula, California, in Riverside County, over a ban on the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT), alleging that the ban violates children’s civil rights.
Breitbart News, which was the first to bring the problem of CRT to public attention, noted in 2012 that it was seeping into left-wing education, starting with then-President Barack Obama, who taught the works of CRT pioneer Derrick Bell to law students.
CRT is a race-oriented philosophy that holds that American life and American institutions are deeply contaminated by racism.
As Breitbart News explained in 2021:
Critical Race Theory claims that all of our institutions — our government, our economy, our culture — are based on racial hierarchy, with whites on top and blacks at the bottom. Even things that look race-neutral are, on closer inspection, racist.
The idea has its origins in something called Critical Theory, which Andrew Breitbart explained in his memoir, Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World!.
Breitbart News also noted:
Critical Race Theory holds that the United States is racist by design, because its Constitution and all of its other institutions emerged in a context where slavery was legal. According to the theory, the very institution of private property in the U.S. is corrupt because it was enshrined in a system that saw black people as chattels.
The State of Florida, under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), banned CRT from public schools. Other states and school districts, including some in California, have followed suit — while Democrats, such as Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have accused Republicans of suppressing history and propagating racist ideas.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
The Temecula Valley Unified School District faces litigation over a ban it enacted on critical race theory, taking the culture-war battle over classroom instruction about racism to state court.
The suit filed Wednesday alleges that the Temecula board’s ban violates the California Constitution’s guarantee of a “fundamental right” to an education that protects students from racial discrimination. It also alleges that the ban violates state laws that set out mandatory learning standards that include discussions about racism, inequality and how past events are relevant in the present day.
Critical race theory examines how racial inequality and racism are systemically embedded in American institutions.
The lawsuit could encourage similar efforts by left-wing organizations and activists throughout the country, the Times notes.
People hold up signs during a rally against “critical race theory” (CRT) being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Virginia on June 12, 2021. – “Are you ready to take back our schools?” Republican activist Patti Menders shouted at a rally opposing anti-racism teaching that critics like her say trains white children to see themselves as “oppressors.” “Yes!”, answered in unison the hundreds of demonstrators gathered this weekend near Washington to fight against “critical race theory,” the latest battleground of America’s ongoing culture wars. The term “critical race theory” defines a strand of thought that appeared in American law schools in the late 1970s and which looks at racism as a system, enabled by laws and institutions, rather than at the level of individual prejudices. But critics use it as a catch-all phrase that attacks teachers’ efforts to confront dark episodes in American history, including slavery and segregation, as well as to tackle racist stereotypes. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
When asked by Breitbart News to describe “systemic racism” in 2020, then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said it was “racism that’s built into systems.”
Separately, the State of California is pressuring another Riverside County school district, in Chino Valley, where the school board adopted a policy requiring parents to be notified if children in the district change their genders.
Public Counsel defines itself as “a nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to advancing civil rights and racial and economic justice, as well as to amplifying the power of our clients through comprehensive legal advocacy.” Ballad Spahr is a national law firm that does some pro bono work and champions the cause of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” according to its website.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.