A black mom blasted critical race theory as racist during a Florida school board meeting — arguing that it is only necessary if “you believe that whites are better than blacks” in a searing takedown of the academic movement.
“That is not teaching the truth,” Keisha King said Thursday, according to Fox News.
“Unless you believe that whites are better than blacks.”
The mom went on to explain how it is racist to divide people into two camps — “oppressors” and “oppressed.”
“Just coming off of May 31, marking the 100 years [since] the Tulsa riots, it is sad that we are even contemplating something like critical race theory, where children will be separated by their skin color and deemed permanently oppressors or oppressed in 2021,” King said, according to the outlet.
“Telling my child or any child that they are in a permanent oppressed status in America because they are black is racist – and saying that white people are automatically above me, my children, or any child is racist as well. This is not something that we can stand for in our country.”
King’s comments — which came the same day that Gov. Ron DeSantis successfully lobbied the board to block critical race theory from schools — were lauded by many other CRT critics on social media.
“Excellently put Keisha King. Thank you,” Twitter user @CarterQuincy wrote, along with a clip of King’s speech.
“Beautifully put by Keisha King, and I have to continue to commend everyone speaking out against the racist, neomarxist, dangerously misguided and divisive ideology,” @ElCaminoChavez added, along with a retweet of the clip.
According to the Miami Herald, King is a Duval County parent who was representing a group, Moms for Liberty, at the school board meeting.
CRT views racism as a social construct that is systemically ingrained and which perpetuates racial inequities — but its opponents argue it is a narrative that only furthers racial divisions.
In lobbying for a ban on teaching the theory in schools, DeSantis claimed CRT sends the message to kids that “the country is rotten and that our institutions are illegitimate.”
On Thursday, a new amendment was then unanimously passed by the Sunshine State’s Board of Education to stop subjects that “distort historical events” from coming into schools — including CRT, the 1619 Project, and any lessons that downplay or deny the Holocaust.
But the ban was also met with fierce opposition, with some two dozen pro-CRT residents protesting the decision in Jacksonville on Thursday, chanting, “Allow teachers to tell the truth!”
Florida Education Association president Andrew Spar also opposed the ban, saying “students deserve the best education we can provide, and that means giving them a true picture of their world and our shared history as Americans.”