Teachers union advises members on defending critical race theory — like not using the term

One will immediately note Education Minnesota’s tactics from the document’s title — “Responding to racially motivated attacks on racial equity in schools.” It’s not CRT but “equity.” Criticisms are “racially motivated.”

A “key concept” of the document says teachers should stay away from using the actual words “critical race theory” because it has been “redefined” by conservatives as an “all-purpose racial dog whistle.”

This ties in to another key concept: “ascribe motivations to the opposition.”

“Unfortunately, a few billionaires and the promoters and talking heads they pay for have launched a national campaign to mislead Americans about the lessons educators teach about history, culture, gender and politics,” the document reads. “Once again, they’re trying to distract and divide us so we don’t come together to demand the richest 1 percent and the largest corporations pay what they owe for what our communities need, like smaller class sizes, degrees without debt and affordable health care for all.”

The (conservative) wealthy are blamed again in the union’s advice on how to respond to parents who might say the United States should be “colorblind” and that “race shouldn’t matter”: “We should live in a state where anything is possible for anyone to achieve. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, but the promoters and their billionaire funders are manufacturing outrage to divide us along racial lines.”