For Immediate Release

June 4, 2021

SAN DIEGO, CA -- June 4, 2021- On June 3rd, 2021, Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER), in collaboration with local groups, organized a rally during the Poway Unified School District (PUSD) board meeting. Via the rally, CFER and the groups raised public awareness about  PUSD's incorporation of critical race theory (CRT) tenets and teaching in its "Racial Equity & Inclusion" plan and its new Ethnics Studies and Ethnic Literature courses.

PUSD's "Racial equity & Inclusion" plan unequivocally refers to such controversial critical race theorists as Ibram X Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, propagating a hypothesis that system racism permeates US society, and advocating student activism as central to its curriculums. Rather than teaching students "to be global citizens with an appreciation for the contributions of multiple cultures", as mandated by California law (AB-2016), PUSD's new Ethnic Studies and Ethnic Studies courses champion the same disputed race-based tropes obsessed with skin color and race.

While PUSD officials adamantly deny its implementation of CRT, their dismissal is dishonest with a malicious intent to insult genuine grassroots opposition. Parents and community members want our education system to teach history and cultures in a balanced and apolitical manner. However, their opposition to such topics being hijacked by a political doctrine is well-warranted and their public scrutiny deserves far more than bureaucratic smears.

"PUSD's proposed Ethnic Studies and Ethnic Literature curriculums are full of well-known CRT buzzwords and concepts like systemic oppression, intersectional identities, and 'anti-racism,' with the content focused on someone's 'lived experiences' rather than on data, evidence, or objective measures," said Frank Xu, President of CFER and PUSD resident, "This CRT-based content is intended to indoctrinate students with a politicized and divisive ideology demanding race-based equal outcomes. Race-based treatment is completely contrary to our Constitutional guarantees of equal treatment and equality before the law.  To defend our Constitution, and these guarantees that facilitated our national progress, we must oppose all theories and practices that promote a race-based worldview."

According to PUSD District Chief of Communications, Christine Paik, "We want to make it clear that Poway Unified School District is not teaching Critical Race Theory... It is disappointing to find some people are misinformed."  However, neither CFER nor the public can be so easily fooled, as CRT based content is indelibly infused into PUSD's curriculum for its "Racial Equity & Inclusion" plan and its new Ethnics Studies and Ethnic Literature courses. 

Background: CRT is a contested and explicitly political theory that examines all social relations, economic governance and policy outcomes through the prism of race and prescribes race-centered solutions to all social problems. CRT and its pleasant-sounding derivatives --- diversity, equity and inclusion, anti-racism, racial sensitivity, racial healing, critical pedagogy, critical awareness, and so on, are underlined by a common thread of placing race, racism, and racial struggles at the center of our national dialogue and public institutions. The doctrine paints a grim, inaccurate, and discordant picture of our history and present, challenging the very foundations of the liberal order, distorting our basic virtues of equality and merit, and purporting to dismantle free market.