For Immediate Release

August 30, 2021

SAN DIEGO, CA -- August 30, 2021- On Saturday, August 28th, 2021, Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER), seven supporting organizations and community members rallied in front of the San Diego County Administration Building to celebrate the 58th anniversary of the historic speech "I have a dream" by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28th, 1963. This timely event was supported by distinguished speakers, special guests and most importantly, San Diego residents of diverse backgrounds, who came together to showcase a unified front against the pervasive invasion of critical race theory (CRT) in K-12 schools.

"While we celebrate Dr King's majestic speech, it is extremely alarming to witness the idea of dividing people based on race and ethnicity being flushed into public education under the veneer of systemic racism, critical race theory and anti-racism," commended Frank Xu, the President of CFER. "I am grateful to so many volunteers and participants who joined us on this Saturday morning to push back against these divisive and counterproductive ideas. We all believe in the same American Dream in spite of our divergent backgrounds!"

Among an impressive list of featured speakers were U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Dr. Gail Heriot, Assemblyman Kevin Kiley who has championed the fight against CRT at the State Legislature, Professor Maimon Schwarzschild, and Mr. Michael DC Bowen, Co-founder and co-editor of Free Black Thought. Educators, parents, and grassroots leaders based in San Diego also informed the energetic rally audience on the importance of unifying against CRT's various applications in San Diego schools and beyond.

Dr. King's dream and the American Dream must be continuously safeguarded because they have withheld the test of time to stay true to fundamental American values of freedom, equality, liberty and merit. While the divisive doctrine of CRT and its variegated vehicles including liberated ethnic studies, diversity and inclusion initiatives, racial equity policies, and etc. present new challenges to these values and our dreams, Americans of diverse racial, ethnic and political backgrounds are unpersuaded by the temptations of racializing our society to placate toxic identity politics at the expense of our public education.  

With the Saturday rally as an encouraging milestone of our ongoing counter-movement against CRT, CFER will continue to raise public awareness on harms of race-based thinking and values of true equality by combining community organizing with robust research projects and ambitious alliance building.

The National Association of Scholars, Free Black Thought, Latino American Political Association, California School Choice Foundation, San Diego Asian Americans for Equality, Moms for Liberty and We the Parents Coronado joined our rally as supporting organizations. The rally was also part of a national coalition to renew and rekindle the American Dream and Dr. King's dream.