As the Covid-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd rocked the nation in 2020, equitable recovery became a priority. Businesses across the nation showed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and several employers enacted policies to promote diversity and inclusion. Still, reactions to the racial reckoning are divided.
On Sept. 24, 2020, then-President Donald Trump wrote a memo to federal agencies to end racial sensitivity training, specifically calling for a stop to “critical race theory.”
Even after President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Trump’s disdain for critical race theory echoed among his supporters. By the summer of 2021, parents at school board meetings in places like Loudoun County, Va., were protesting against critical race theory potentially being taught to their children. But how valid is that concern? Is CRT actually being taught in K-12 classrooms, and why is it under attack?
POLITICO Video spoke with Jonathan Butcher, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation; Gary Peller, a law professor at Georgetown University; and Delece Smith-Barrow, education editor at POLITICO to discuss why critical race theory has become a political hot topic.
