Controversy after CMS hosted Kendi. Here’s what the professor shared on anti-racism.

Despite two top North Carolina Republicans issuing an angry statement last month, charging that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools was “embracing a discriminatory ideology,” video released Friday of the event in question shows something different.

Critical Race Theory was specifically discussed for less than two minutes — out of a more than 40-minute-long session — during a keynote address from Ibram X. Kendi to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ leaders in June. The politicians, N.C. Sen. Phil Berger and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, had claimed: “This is the state’s second-largest school district embracing a discriminatory ideology by paying $25,000 to learn from (Critical Race Theory’s) most prominent adherent.”

Kendi addressed more than 800 district and school leaders focused on a platform of anti-racism and diversity. Kendi’s book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” was a key study point for administrators over the last year.

Berger and Robinson leaped on the issue after a local moms group, without hearing any part of Kendi’s presentation to CMS leaders, posted about it on social media.

But Kendi mentioned Critical Race Theory sparingly during the presentation, a review by the Observer shows.

On Friday, in response to a public records request from the Charlotte Observer last week, the district provided footage of Kendi’s presentation. The district, however, says it signed a restrictive contract with Kendi, which they claim prevents them from sharing the entire recording. CMS officials said they would distribute the video under North Carolina’s public records law but the district made footage available in a private link on YouTube that prevents the Observer from making it readily available to the public.

The Observer is posting footage from the recording that it can on CharlotteObserver.com.

Critical Race Theory

CMS Foundation director Sonja Gantt was chosen to interview Kendi during the virtual gathering. She asked him to share his definition of Critical Race Theory.

He said: “Critical race theory was developed by legal scholars and lawyers largely in the 1980s to examine the so-called race neutral structures, laws and policies in our society that were either growing or maintaining racial inequity and injustice.

“And what’s ironic, you know, is that critical race theory is largely taught in law schools but you have local people who are sort of demonizing critical race theory in order to get (history taught differently).”

Kendi added of the current contentious political debate over what’s being taught in K-12 schools: “It is unfortunate that we are even debating or arguing about whether we should teach our young people about racism in a society where racial inequities are rampant.”

Kendi explained how racism can lower expectations for Black students and touched on his belief that people may think of themselves as not being racist while still not challenging systems that perpetuate inequalities.

“We’re human beings, right, we’re not machines .... (and) the greatest thing about humans, and potentially the most difficult things about humans, is that we’re deeply complex and in many ways we’re deeply contradictory ... .”

CMS hosted professor Kendi

The CMS Summer Leadership Conference was held June 16-17. It included messages from the superintendent, instructional-focused professional development and non-instructional choice sessions on topics such as “Historical Perspectives of Institutional Racism” and “Wellness and Success through Equitable Environments.”

Kendi’s and Jason Reynolds’ book “Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You” is listed on the 2021 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Virtual High School summer reading list. Kendi also met with student leaders in Generation Nation.

Tough questions

Kendi responded to various questions from principals, including one unnamed leader who asked Kendi how to work with racists.

“You have people who are saying that we should not teach our white kids that they are inherently oppressors,” Kendi said, followed by: “I agree ... That’s not what we’re trying to teach.”

He went on to say: “They say we should not teach that the nation and all of its institutions are inherently and eternally racist. I’d say, I agree. That’s not what we’re trying to teach, either.”

He continued: “I would try to draw out what these people are afraid of. ... Are you stating that we should not teach students about the existence of structural racism? If you believe we shouldn’t teach students about the existence of structural racism then what should we teach them about why racial inequity exists?”

Kendi said he’s more focused on identifying which policies and practices are racist or anti-racist than labeling people as racists. “We use the terms ‘racism’ and ‘racist’ interchangeably, when we should not,” he said.

“How do you define racist? What is a racist idea? How do people respond,” said Kendi, who teaches college students and is a former K-12 educator. “They don’t even know. They can’t even define those terms they’re using to identify something in society.”

In their press release, Berger and Robinson took phrases out of Kendi’s book without knowing what was said during Kendi’s presentation at the summer leadership conference. Berger’s office did not return a request for comment from the Observer on Friday.

“To say I’m troubled by this insidious, discriminatory doctrine’s creep into North Carolina public schools is an understatement,” Berger said in the press release on June 23. “Children must not be taught that it is appropriate to engage in ‘present discrimination,’ and public schools must be held to account for advancing this dangerous line of thinking.”

In Kendi’s book, he does cite his opposition to capitalism and calls for “present discrimination” to address past discrimination.

Neither came up during the CMS talk, according to the Observer’s review Friday of the footage CMS provided.

Brooke Weiss, the chairperson for Moms for Liberty-Mecklenburg, said the group protested CMS paying the $25,000 for the “45-minute Zoom training” during the Summer Leadership Conference.

“It’s nuts, crazy to be paying someone like Kendi that much money for a 45-minute phone call,” Weiss said. “What is being taught to our children? They think they can do whatever they want with taxpayer dollars, and we don’t get a say in it.”

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