HomeLettersGUSD Is Teaching Critical Race Theory, Candidate Says

GUSD Is Teaching Critical Race Theory, Candidate Says

First published in the June 4 print issue of the Glendale News Press.

As a Glendale City Council candidate, I am only responding to issues regarding Glendale Unified School District, because my involvement was mentioned in the Glendale News-Press article “GUSD in Crossfire on LGBTQ Content” from May 14.
In September 2021, I requested a public records request for emails from Craig Lewis and Sally Myles. The PRA was fulfilled seven months later, during the current election.
In the article, Zane Hill states that I “criticized the district for adopting curricula he derisively considers to be critical race theory.”
To be clear, the district has adopted curricula that is verifiably based in CRT, which is not my personal interpretation or opinion. This is an accurate, objective description about GUSD adopting CRT-based frameworks.
For example, the current ethnic studies course at Clark Magnet High School will soon be required. In the syllabus, the term “intersectionality” is explicitly referenced seven times. Intersectionality is fundamental to CRT, coined by CRT co-founder Kimberle Crenshaw. Intersectionality is unique to CRT.
Below is a quote about intersectionality taken from Crenshaw’s influential 1993 essay, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,” which is available online for free.
To sum it up, Crenshaw wants to promote identity politics over our shared universal humanity. Please note that Crenshaw rejects the ideas “I am a person who happens to be Black” and “I am first a person.” You are now reading CRT.
“… identity continues to be a site of resistance for members of different subordinated groups. We all can recognize the distinction between the claims ‘I am Black’ and the claim ‘I am a person who happens to be Black.’ ‘I am Black’ takes the socially imposed identity and empowers it as an anchor of subjectivity. ‘I am Black’ becomes not simply a statement of resistance, but also a positive discourse of self-identification … ‘I am a person who happens to be Black,’ on the other hand, achieves self-identification by straining for a certain universality (in effect, ‘I am first a person’) and for a … dismissal of the imposed category (‘Black’) …”

Jordan Henry
Glendale

Most Popular

[bsa_pro_ad_space id=3]

27