Conservative Connecticut state Sen. Rob Sampson (R) told Breitbart News in an interview Monday he views the move by Democrats to push Critical Race Theory into the nation’s culture and schools “Trojan reparations.”
“Essentially what they’re trying to do is, the Democratic Party operates by creating victims,” he explained. “And this is a mechanism built to perpetuate the myth that this is a racist country and to, to perpetuate the notion that, if you’re a minority in this country, you can’t get ahead, and therefore, you have victimhood status and you need someone to advocate on your behalf.”
“And, lo and behold, the Democratic Party is here to save you,” he said.
“But what’s really interesting is that they’ve been pushing this agenda for the last decade, I think pretty aggressively, without a lot of pushback,” said Sampson, who is now serving his 11th year in the Connecticut legislature, and is one of the few conservative lawmakers in the Democrat-led state.
“We’ve had countless bills, pushing this agenda in various forms, and, generally speaking, my Republican colleagues, you know, they just keep their heads down and let it slide by,” he said.
Sampson said his exasperation reached a peak this year, in particular.
“I just had enough this year, I really did,” he said, describing how Connecticut Democrats “got so out of control, almost every bill that came through the General Assembly this year has the term ‘equity’ included in the title. And it’s just a constant part of this narrative.”
As Breitbart News reported last week, even the bill signed by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) to legalize recreational marijuana use was framed as a measure to combat “racial disparities.”
The measure will place with a Social Equity Council the task of how to regulate the state’s new legal marijuana market so that it becomes a means to address racial inequity.
“Those communities were hardest hit by the war on drugs — making up for some lost time there,” Lamont said, adding he expects his state’s new law will be “viewed as a national model.”
Sampson said, “Just to prove my point, during the marijuana debate, I drafted an amendment to legalize marijuana in one page, which I did not call because I’m not in favor of it. But I drafted the amendment just to show that that’s what you’re telling people of Connecticut you’re doing, and yet the actual marijuana bill that they passed was 300 pages of all of this stuff about social equity.”
Sampson introduced an amendment to the Democrats’ signature legislation this session, Senate Bill 1, which, he noted, contains “shocking” provisions, including making “racism a public health crisis.”
The measure sets targets for data collection by race and ethnicity, creates a “gun intervention” commission, requires “implicit-bias” training for healthcare providers who treat pregnant women, and requires a program to recruit and retain healthcare workers of color.
“It requires the teaching of something called ‘cultural humility,’” Sampson observed.
“Sadly, most of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, in the House voted for it, because they felt like they were going to be pressured, and may be called racist, for not voting for it,” he stated.
The state lawmaker said, however, that, in the midst of debate on the measure, he saw an opportunity to introduce an amendment to stop the teaching of Critical Race Theory.
The amendment stated:
No curriculum developed and adopted by the State Board of Education, Department of Education or any local or regional board of education or taught in any school in this state … shall include the teaching of divisive concepts to students in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade. Any such adopted curriculum shall prohibit making any individual feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual’s race or sex.
The amendment defined “divisive concepts” as those that are associated with Critical Race Theory ideology, i.e., the nation is “fundamentally racist or sexist;” “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive,” etc.
Sampson said people in Connecticut have been complaining about Critical Race Theory teaching and training in schools, though they have been doing so “very silently and quietly.”
“I’ve received a lot of emails and phone calls over the last couple of years on this subject, but people were really unwilling to speak out publicly,” he observed. “And I just think this is, this is happening all across the country. It’s reached a boiling point where, you know, patriotic Americans are finally willing to speak up because it’s reached that point.”
Sampson said after he introduced his amendment against the teaching of Critical Race Theory concepts, “of course, they did the typical thing – Hartford Courant – called me a racist.”
While Sampson’s amendment failed, it did earn the support of every Republican in the state Senate.
Noting the Republican Party in Connecticut just elected Ben Proto as its new chairman, Sampson said he hopes he will be “forceful.”
“Because the debate in Connecticut really is between Republicans who want to go along to get along,” who are of the opinion that “Connecticut is a blue state and we can’t win no matter what,” and “the few of us that say, you know, the Republican Party’s values and principles have value, and, if we stand for them, we can win.”
Sampson said he himself is proof of that perspective because he wins in his district “successfully and repeatedly.”
“But, it’s hard because it does take courage to stand up against the tide,” he acknowledged. “But I’m going to continue to do it. No matter what happens, and I’m very thankful that people have responded by backing me up. I’ve got a lot of private citizens coming forward now to say no, that this is baloney.”
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