BATON ROUGE, La. — Governor Jeff Landry signed an executive order on Tuesday preventing the use of critical race theory in Louisiana’s K-12 public education system.
Landry's office claims that critical race theory is divisive and teaches students to view life through the eyes of "victimhood."
“This executive order is a much-needed sigh of relief for parents and students across our state, especially as kids are heading back to school. Teaching children that they are currently or destined to be oppressed or to be an oppressor based on their race and origin is wrong and has no place in our Louisiana classrooms. I am confident that under Dr. Brumley’s leadership our education system will continue to head in the right direction, prioritizing American values and common-sense teachings,” said Governor Jeff Landry.
Read the full executive order below:
State House Representative Michael Johnson told WWL Louisiana reporter Whitney Miller that Tuesday's EO is putting Louisiana education on the right path.
“I’m very pleased that the governor took that action," said Johnson. “I think it just makes it clear that the indoctrination through the critical race theory is something that we're opposed to in Louisiana.”
Miller also sat down with Dr. Ashraf Esmail of Dillard University – he runs the Center for Racial Justice.
“Usually these are in academic journals these are not typically presented in the school system,” he said.
But Dr. Esmail does say the concepts of the theory are simply the country’s history.
“All that we discuss under critical race theory, we don’t have to use the word critical race, but we discuss it in our history books, you can’t avoid the discussion," Dr. Esmail explained. "We want to move forward we would like to believe that we are all equal and we are going to move forward. We are not anywhere near there. Let’s not fool ourselves that we are.”
The Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley also issued a statement on the issue:
“Louisiana students are best served with a clear focus on reading, math, meaningful high school experiences, elevating the teaching profession, and expanding educational freedom for families,” stated Dr. Brumley.
WHAT IS CRITICAL RACE THEORY?
Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. Scholars developed it during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what they viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.
It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation's institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society.
The architects of the theory argue that the United States was founded on the theft of land and labor and that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race. Proponents also believe race is culturally invented, not biological.
Kimberlé Crenshaw, executive director of the African American Policy Forum, a social justice think tank based in New York City, was one of the early proponents. Initially, she says, it was “simply about telling a more complete story of who we are.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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