by Henry Fowler, Stevensville
Now that schools have been in session for a couple of weeks, it is time to remind parents and students that Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has declared that key elements of “Critical Race Theory” and so-called “antiracism” education and training, when used to classify students or other Montanans by race, violate federal and state constitutional and statutory law.
In his legally-binding declaration (AG Opinion No. 1, May 27, 2021), AG Knudsen provides a list of widely reported “antiracist” and CRT-related activities that violate federal and state law. They fall under three prohibited categories: racial segregation, race stereotyping, and race scapegoating.
Racial segregation is the segregation or separation of students in any capacity on the basis of race. For example, schools “may not create ‘safe spaces’ that admit or exclude individuals on the basis of race.”
Race stereotyping “means ascribing character traits, values, moral and ethical codes, privileges, status, or beliefs to a race or to an individual because of his or her race.” For example, “individuals may not be forced to admit privilege [e.g., ‘white privilege’] or punished for failing to do so” and “members of certain races cannot be forced to ‘reflect,’ ‘deconstruct,’ or ‘confront’ their racial identities or be instructed to be ‘less white.’”
Race scapegoating “means assigning fault, blame, or bias to a race or to members of a race because of their race. This encompasses any claim that, consciously or unconsciously, and by virtue of his or her race, members of any race are inherently racist or are inherently inclined to oppress others, including separating students into ‘oppressors’” and ‘oppressed’ based on race. Examples consist of instructing students that all white people perpetuate systemic racism or that all white people are born racist. This also includes asserting that an individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or that individuals need to be ‘accountable’ due solely to their race, or that they are ‘culpable’ solely due to their race. Individuals may not be instructed or compelled to apologize for their race or forced to admit privilege based on their race. It is illegal, likewise, to advocate that a particular race is negative or evil. It is also illegal for curricula to instruct student that members of a particular race or racial identity pose specific dangers to other individuals.”
“Additionally, a school that permits, promotes, or endorses curricula or pedagogical methods that tell an individual that he or she should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, almost certainly creates a racially hostile environment.”
“A school may not advocate that students adopt specific beliefs based on their race, such as urging that white students be white without signing on to whiteness. Schools may not attempt to purge the idea of ‘whiteness’ from schools. Any curricula or activity that pressures members of a certain race to repudiate or ‘recover from’ their race is illegal as well. This includes instructing members of a particular race or races that they must ‘re-wire’ or change themselves.”
AG Knudsen specifically lists Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist and Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility as problematic for their advocacy of “antiracism” – a concept that “demands race-based discrimination.” Also problematic are the use of such concepts as “white privilege,” “white fragility,” “white complicity,” “white supremacy,” and “systemic racism” because they are race stereotyping and/or race scapegoating.
Any parent, student, employee, or other individual may make a complaint of unlawful race-based discrimination by contacting the Montana Department of Labor and Industry’s Human Rights Bureau and filing a complaint within 180 days of the discrimination. (erd.dli.mt.gov/human-rights)