In a passionate speech before members of Parliament on Tuesday, the United Kingdom’s Minister for Equalities said schools who teach “white privilege” and critical race theory are breaking the law.
“We do not want to see teachers teaching their white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt,” Kemi Badenoch said. “And let me be clear, any school which teaches these elements of critical race theory as fact or which promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police, without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views is breaking the law.”
Badenock denounced teaching the ideology of Black Lives Matter and critical race theory as uncontested facts. “We don’t do this with communism, we don’t do this with socialism, and we don’t do it with capitalism,” she said.
https://twitter.com/calvinrobinson/status/1318624835937931265?s=20
Badenoch’s words come as pressure in the UK mounts for universities to “decolonize” their curriculum.
“The campaign to give a fuller version of British history that reflects injustices and lauds the contributions of black British people has also won widespread support from the Black Lives Matter protesters,” the Guardian reports.
Badenoch, a member of the conservative party, made it very clear that promoting CRT and BLM curriculum is not only illegal, but harmful to the nature of academic forum.
“I want to be absolutely clear this government stands unequivocally against critical race theory,” she said. “Some schools have decided to openly support the anti-capitalist Black Lives Matter group, often fully aware that they have a statutory duty to be politically impartial.”
While Badenoch clarified that wanting to fight back against racism is important, the actions carried out in the name of the BLM movement are not productive, and can be counter-intuitive.
“Black lives do matter. Of course they do. But we know that Black Lives Matter movement capital BLM is political,” she explained, noting that during BLM protests, white protestors yelled racial slurs at a black police officer.
Badenoch also pleaded with members of the opposing political party to consider her words and condemn the “pernicious” actions introduced by the “political movement.”
“That is why we do not endorse that movement in on this side of the house,” she said. “It is a political movement, and what would be nice would be for members on the opposite side to condemn many of the actions that we see this political movement instead of pretending that it is a completely wholesome anti-racist organization. There is a lot of pernicious stuff that is being pushed and we stand against that.”
