In an Aug. 1, 2021 article headlined “Does CRT fit into Vermont’s education justice movement?” the Burlington Free Press seeks to discredit anyone who dares question what it here dubs an “education justice movement.” Mischaracterizing opponents as “disavowing attempts to discuss race” is precisely the opposite of the truth, just as CRT is the opposite of the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr., to whom we who question CRT repeatedly refer.

Vermonters have been silenced for years now, as BLM flags embracing the ideology of CRT have been displayed at schools, but any opposition is dubbed racist. This is because CRT, as this article by the Burlington Free Press does also, presumes — as unchallengeable fact — that Vermont and America are white supremacist “systems.” As this BFP article “frames” the subject, CRT “examines systemic racism as a part of American life and institutions and how it historically can give white people an advantage.”

John Klar

This is the a priori assumption that has not at all been proven by CRT proponents — especially in Vermont. Instead, zealous ideological advocacy has resulted in numerous government policies and laws that manipulate facts to advance this race-based dogma, and violate existing laws against discrimination and school segregation. But this openly race-based theory viciously resists any critical testing or analysis — the opposite of the scientific process, as it is an emotional and not a rational ideology. CRT is better understood as a silly, discredited, racist hypothesis that cannot withstand even cursory critical analysis, and for which there is scant if any scientific evidentiary support.

CRT is thus really just a hypothesis that suited political expediency, and has become an experiment on the minds of children in Vermont. Dr. Aaron Kindsvatter has explained how damaging this can be. In its cult-like militarism, CRT divides all people into two groups: those who agree and are “woke” or enlightened, and those who have doubts and are attacked as racist (this is the “work” of “anti-racism” — not helping black people). There is no evidence that using CRT in education yields improved results in race relations, in racial outcomes, or in improved test scores. Indeed, the BFP article acknowledges that CRT rejects “meritocracy” — grades and merit are impediments to a “perfect society” that has never been achieved.

How revealing and terrifying that Vermont’s progressive supermajority, and the majority of its teachers and ultra-liberal school administrations, have launched so very far down this road of indoctrination without pausing to critically assess these very serious questions about their new-found dogma and its blatant illegality, and deeply offensive attacks on Vermonters and their poor agrarian forebears. So many citizens are passionately eager to join along in this conversation, even though shamed that they “disavow attempts to discuss race.”

The entirety of the BFP article is an effort to advocate for CRT in Vermont schools as some new evolution in civil rights enlightenment. What is not addressed for Vermont parents and their children are a few very simple questions that will not be so easily swept aside:

1) Does the BFP support the First Amendment and free speech, or does it advocate for silencing anyone who opposes CRT as a racist? Does it allow for the possibility of dialogue about what “systemic racism” means, and the supposed statistics that prove its existence?

2) Does the BFP reject the teachings of MLK, Jr. that all should be judged by character instead of skin color? If it has decided to amend King’s teachings (much like the pigs in Orwell’s Animal Farm), it must repaint King’s words on the side of the American barn.

3) Does the BFP support segregating Vermont schoolchildren based on their race, as is currently being done?

4) Does the BFP endorse the racially-charged, hate-filled poetry of Rajnii Eddins, currently being taught in some Vermont schools?

5) Does the BFP support the firing of an Essex High School student as a lifeguard for questioning CRT?

6) Does the BFP view CRT as overtly hostile toward Jews? Why or why not?

7) How does one become BIPOC? Can’t anyone declare themself an Abenaki in Vermont? How do CRT proponents plan to implement their “theory” when even bloodlines — let alone fault-lines — can not possibly be established?

Perhaps as Vermonters come to learn these various truths about what is actually being done in their state, they will also examine the record of the so-called “reporting” that was not done on the issue by BFP and others. Almost like it was politically biased. This is not journalism.

Vermont is not a white supremacist state, and its children should not be taught that their skin color means they must feel guilt for crimes of the past in order to be decent human beings. CRT imposes discrimination against white people as an antidote for past discrimination. It is also decidedly anti-Semitic. Perhaps these very real concerns might be the subject of a future — honest and civil — discussion. Those rightly concerned about CRT are hardly “disavowing attempts to discuss race.” BFP, VTDigger, the Brattleboro Reformer, Seven Days, and other CRT proponents seek to confuse and dissemble. Remember, “white silence is violence.” Now that we are finally raising our voices to have a free opinion, we are silenced and targeted — this is CRT, a hateful attack on culture, American history, and anyone of any color who dares disagree with its lies.

This is the conversation Vermonters are having this summer and which is well overdue. We won’t be silenced with lies and intimidation anymore — we oppose racism in all its forms, especially when being ideologically inflicted by partisan extremism on children in our schools. Fortunately, parents have the free choice to get informed and then question why Vermont’s schools rushed to indoctrinate children with psychological experimentation based on an unproven college “theory” that specifically calls for the elimination of the United States Constitution and discrimination against white people by government.

Why should Vermonters trust their school administrations — or the Burlington Free Press — to tell them the truth in the future, when this has all been done without transparency, and when such efforts are being launched to cover up the simple truth? Do they all think the parents won’t find out from their children, as many already are?

The work of Martin Luther King continues: love, not the angry, hate-filled symbol of CRT that BFP used to present this subject to its readership.

John Klar is an attorney and farmer residing in Brookfield, and the former pastor of the First Congregational Church of Westfield. © Copyright True North Reports 2021. All rights reserved.