July 4, 2021: MSN.com “National Educator’s Association approves of critical race theory”
The nation’s largest teachers union has approved a plan to promote critical race theory in all 50 states and 14,000 local school districts. The argument that ‘critical race theory isn’t in K-12 schools’ is officially dead.’
The union has also approved funding for “increasing the implementation” of CRT in K-12 curricula and for attacking conservative groups who oppose CRT indoctrination.
The teachers union has made critical race theory its #1 priority—and want to implement it nationwide.
During the National Education Association’s 2021 Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly held June 30 – July 3, 2021, the NEA adopted New Business Item 39, a resolution which states, in part, “We oppose attempts to ban critical race theory.”
The NEA is the largest labor union in the United States representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staff at colleges and universities.
Many of the parents in our group find the NEA’s push to fight movements against teaching CRT to be alarming. In fact, the NEA’s adoption resolves to provide “an already-created, in-depth, study that critiques… patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression.”
We strongly urge parents to read the text of the resolution below, as days after the NEA’s assembly ended, the NEA removed the text from this adopted resolution from their website. Before they pulled it down, this resolution was located at https:/ra.nea.org/business-item/2021-nbi-039/
You can read an exact archive of this webpage which was captured before its removal at Archive.org or Archive.today.
We are presenting the full text of the resolution under fair use. Fair use permits the use of a copyrighted work without the copyright owner’s permission for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, or research.
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New Business Item 39
Action: Adopted as Modified
The NEA will, with guidance on implementation from the NEA president and chairs of the Ethnic Minority Affairs Caucuses:
A. Share and publicize, through existing channels, information already available on critical race theory (CRT) — what it is and what it is not; have a team of staffers for members who want to learn more and fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric; and share information with other NEA members as well as their community members.
B. Provide an already-created, in-depth, study that critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society, and that we oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project.
C. Publicly (through existing media) convey its support for the accurate and honest teaching of social studies topics, including truthful and age-appropriate accountings of unpleasant aspects of American history, such as slavery, and the oppression and discrimination of Indigenous, Black, Brown, and other peoples of color, as well as the continued impact this history has on our current society. The Association will further convey that in teaching these topics, it is reasonable and appropriate for curriculum to be informed by academic frameworks for understanding and interpreting the impact of the past on current society, including critical race theory.
D. Join with Black Lives Matter at School and the Zinn Education Project to call for a rally this year on October 14—George Floyd’s birthday—as a national day of action to teach lessons about structural racism and oppression. Followed by one day of action that recognize and honor lives taken such as Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, and others. The National Education Association shall publicize these National Days of Action to all its members, including in NEA Today.
E. Conduct a virtual listening tour that will educate members on the tools and resources needed to defend honesty in education including but not limited to tools like CRT.
F. Commit President Becky Pringle to make public statements across all lines of media that support racial honesty in education including but not limited to critical race theory.
NBI has been modified by its mover.
Rationale/Background
USA’s economy/social order is built on interactions between different cultures/races. To deny opportunities to teach truth about Black, Brown, and other marginalized races minimalizes the necessity for students to build efficacy. The ancient African proverb says, “Know Thyself.”
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Days after the NEA adopted Item 39, the NEA removed the text of the controversial resolution from their website in a apparent effort to hide it from the public. This action was noticed by multiple news outlets immediately following the deletion:
- Largest US teachers union vows to ‘fight back’ against CRT critics (NY Post)
- Teachers union officials’ pro-critical race theory comments (Yahoo)
- Pages on CRT, anti-racism and mandatory vaccine resolutions disappear from NEA website (Fox News)
- National Educator’s Association approves of critical race theory (MSN)