State and local countermeasures against critical race theory (CRT)—a quasi-Marxist framework that views the United States as systemically racist—are on the rise in 2023, at a pace equal to or faster than that of 2021 and 2022, according to a new report (pdf) released by CRT Forward, an initiative advocating for CRT in schools at the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law.
Anti-CRT measures in higher education and pushback on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies are also trending higher in 2023, according to LaToya Baldwin Clark, a co-author of the report and an assistant law professor at UCLA, at a webinar releasing the report’s findings on April 12.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and an expert on CRT, said the UCLA report is “fascinating.”
“What it does is it quantifies the impact that the resistance to CRT has been,” he told The Epoch Times.
“About two weeks ago, Ibram X. Kendi went on CNN and complained that their momentum had been crushed by organized resistance. And there was a panel that included Robin DiAngelo; they complained about the same thing,” Gonzalez noted of two major CRT authors.
“They said they had great hopes in 2020 and the beginning of 2021. But then, they encountered this level of resistance from the American people and their elected representatives. And the tide is changing. So I think this is what this report is about.
“I think that the conservatives should not say mission accomplished. There’s a lot to be done, a lot, a lot. But I think conservatives should be comforted by the fact that there has been significant resistance.”
According to the UCLA report, 563 measures were introduced at the state and local levels in 2021 and 2022 to restrict CRT in either classroom teaching or curricular materials; among them, 241 became adopted policies. Measures recorded in the report include legislation, resolutions, regulations, official statements, and policies; they affect 22 million children, about half of the 50.8 million U.S. public school students, Clark said.
By Terri Wu
