After the Los Angeles Unified School District insisted in a PowerPoint presentation that “Critical Race Theory is not taught in schools,” the Curriculum and Instruction Committee of the Board of Education of Los Angeles is set to meet tomorrow to discuss the curriculum for Ethnic Studies classes and has invited Daniel Solorzano, the Director of UCLA’s Center for Critical Race Studies in Education, to give a presentation.
The agenda notes that the meeting will begin with remarks from Chairwoman Jackie Goldberg before Solorzano speaks on the “Ethnic Studies Perspective.” The agenda simply identifies Solorzano as a professor of Social Science and Comparative Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, but does not list his role at the Center for Critical Race Studies, a particularly relevant fact given recent controversies surrounding education and CRT throughout the country.
The Center is operated by UCLA and says that it is “dedicated to producing and publishing research with the goal of exploring questions related to theoretical frameworks, methodology, methods, conceptual tools, and practice associated with Critical Race Studies.”
The Center goes on to note that “Centering the role of race, racism, and their intersectionality with other forms of discrimination such as sexism, classism, homophobia, and ableism, is key to the CCRSE mission.” The Center has also focused on “cultural intuition, racial battle fatigue, racial microaggressions,” and “critical race history methodology.”
Solorzano’s own research focuses on “critical race theory in education; racial microaggressions; critical race pedagogy, and critical race spatial analysis.”
An academic article that Solorzano co-authored titled “Examining Transformational Resistance Through a Critical Race and Latcrit Theory Framework: Chicana and Chicano Students in an Urban Context” provides valuable insight on the intellectual framework that underpins his belief system and how he intends to influence the education system. In it, he highlights “five themes that form the basic perspectives, research methods, and pedagogy of a CRT … framework in education.”
One such theme is the centrality of race and intersectionality. He also argues that CRT is a “challenge to dominant ideology,” which exists to serve the “self interest, power, and privilege of dominant groups.” He contends that CRT can prompt students to engage in “transformational resistance.”
The article even discusses how to train students to engage in coordinated left-wing political action, calling on teachers to “cultivate their students’ transformational resistance strategies to challenge anti-affirmative-action, anti-bilingual-education, anti-immigrant, and heterosexist legislation and policies.”
Given that Solorzano’s entire career has focused on CRT and strategies to inject it into the American education system, the Board of Education of Los Angeles not only is doubtless aware of Solorzano’s views and academic background, but has decided to host him specifically because of his research focus. The board apparently does not want to publicize this fact, as evidenced by their omission of Solorzano’s role as the Director of the Center for Critical Race Studies at UCLA.
This revelation confirms suspicions that Ethnic Studies courses, rather than innocently teaching students about the respective histories and cultures of various people groups, are often being intentionally used to implant CRT into K-12 education.
The meeting, which will take place at 4 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday, Dec. 2 and can be viewed online, will also feature updates and presentations from Estevan Leyva, a coordinator for Ethnic Studies, Humanities, and Related Social Sciences, and Dr. Ingrid Fey, an Ethnic Studies teacher.
Los Angeles government schools have a history of obscuring, and even outright lying, about their role in promoting CRT. This week, it was revealed that the Los Angeles Unified School District lied to its community and claimed that CRT was not taught in schools while the district had been doing exactly that. They had even previously hosted a different CRT scholar from UCLA named Tyrone C. Howard, who gave staff members an “anti-racism” training that instructed teachers to “challenge whiteness.”
LAUSD Communications Officer Shannon Haber did not respond to a request for comment.
Source: The Federalist
