GOP teeing up critical race theory for midterms in Minnesota, across the nation
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GOP campaign operatives are already positioning critical race theory as a wedge issue in the 2022 midterm election, much like Republicans effectively used defunding the police as a blunt instrument against swing district Democrats last fall.
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The concept has become particularly controversial around schools, where conservative activists have begun disrupting local board meetings across the country, including a Rochester Public Schools meeting last week. Critical race theory is not being taught in Minnesota's K-12 classrooms, but groups have raised alarm about the once-a-decade process of revising state social studies standards. Proposals under review would include more lessons from the Native American perspective, as well as studies in LGBTQ civil rights and the history of segregating policies such as redlining, which pushed people of color out of certain neighborhoods through lending policies or denying them mortgage insurance. Republicans claim the most extreme DFL activists want those lessons to be added at the expense of teachings on the Civil War, World War II and the Holocaust.
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Mark Westphal, a history teacher and vice president of the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies, said the conversation has been around adding to, not subtracting from, current standards. More broadly, conservatives say critical race theory is being used to accuse all white people of being racist, whether they think they are or not... That messaging is becoming an effective motivating tool for the Republican base, and campaign operatives are testing to see if it will resonate widely, particularly in vulnerable suburban swing districts. A June poll commissioned by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican Governors Association found 63% of voters in 26 battleground states disagreed with the statement that white people were inherently racist because they benefited from "systematic racism and white privilege."
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DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin said Republicans have employed the strategy of tapping into emotional, fear-based issues for decades. "Why do you think they talk about crime, why do you think they want to talk about defunding the police, why do they want to talk about critical race theory? It's all part of the same tactic to instill fear that it's going to impact people's lives in a negative way," said Martin. "The Republican attacks on equity in schools are racist dog whistles."
Many Democrats believe racism is systemic, but they're struggling to respond to questions about critical race theory in a way that doesn't anger white constituents. Michigan Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens was shouted down at a town hall event in June when she said critical race theory was a local issue, not a congressional one. Unlike 2020, when Democrats largely ignored GOP attacks tying candidates to calls to defund police departments, Martin said Democrats need to call out Republican messaging on critical race theory.
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https://www.startribune.com/gop-teeing-up-critical-race-theory-for-midterms-in-minnesota-across-the-nation/600078975/
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