Below is our response to the Star Tribune’s recent claims on critical race theory in Minnesota schools. The article in question remains unaltered as of this writing.

To the editor,

Critical race theory is controversial because it makes race and racial oppression the central fact of American identity, threatening to divide Americans by color just as profoundly as Jim Crow-era legislation once did. This is the root of its deep unpopularity in the American electorate, and the reason why GOP operatives are making it a “wedge issue” in advance of the 2022 elections.

Moreover, critical race theory is not only found in academia. It has made its way even to local schools. How then can Star Tribune’s Briana Bierschbach state in the July 18th issue of the paper that “Critical race theory is not being taught in Minnesota's K-12 classrooms?” (“GOP teeing up critical race theory for midterms in Minnesota, across the nation”, July 17, 2021) The paper must clarify or retract this statement to avoid creating a false impression in its readers.

To give only three examples of CRT in Minnesota classrooms, in late June, Minnesota Public Radio reported on critical race theory in Pequot Lakes Public Schools (“Inside one Minnesota school district’s battle over an equity training program,” MPR News, June 30, 2021), and in September, MinnPost reported on educators in Saint Paul Public Schools stumbling over themselves to embrace it (“How Minnesota school leaders are advancing equity work in a shaky back-to-school environment,” MinnPost, September 11, 2020). Even more recently, an op-ed appeared in the Star Tribune only a few days ago by a social studies teacher from Robbinsdale, Bill Boegeman, who lays out in detail how he brings critical race theory to the classroom (“What critical race theory looks like in my social studies classroom”, July 16, 2021)

To be sure, advocates of critical race theory do not often accept the term as readily as Boegaman has done. Instead, they play a shell game, dubbing their efforts “equity training programs,” (Pequot Lakes Schools) or “anti-racism efforts” (Saint Paul Public Schools), and accuse their opponents of fogging the issue when they point out that these things are textbook critical race theory.

As defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica, CRT holds that institutions, particularly “legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites.” This is something educators all over Minnesota, by their own admission, are teaching in the classroom. No wonder it has created a furor among parents and community members.

Progressives in school districts and elsewhere must be honest about the racial agenda which they expect Americans to go along with. At Minnesota Family Council, we believe that the power of the Gospel brings unity and healing to people of all races and colors equally, since we are “all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) This is incompatible with the “gospel” of Critical Race Theory, which states that our identity as members of oppressed or oppressing groups is totalizing and ineluctable. 

Learn more about Minnesota Family Council’s hopeful approach to the issues facing our state and our nation at mfc.org/tfb.

Sincerely,

Moses Bratrud

Director of Communications

Minnesota Family Council