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The right-wing freakout over critical race theoryor, at least what some Republican politicians and pundits think it ishas been playing out simultaneously in statehouses and TV studios, with lawmakers crafting bills to ban schools from teaching about systemic racism and conservative media figures fanning the flames. Fox News, for one, has mentioned critical race theorythe academic movement that positions race and racism as embedded in American institutionsnearly 1,300 times in the past three-and-a-half months, Media Matters reports, with mentions more than doubling month over month since February. Last week marked a new high for Fox News obsession, as the network mentioned critical race theory 244 times, up from 170 the week before.

As conservative media outlets help stoke a national panic, opposition to anti-racism teaching is now having a tangible impact in school systems across the country. At least 165 local and national groups seeking to stifle lessons on race and gender have surfaced, NBC reports, with conservative organizations backed by disgruntled parents, right-wing think tanks, law firms, and Republican political figures. The groups swarm school board meetings, inundate districts with time-consuming public records requests and file lawsuits and federal complaints alleging discrimination against white students, according to NBC. One such group, the Nevada Family Alliance, has reportedly proposed putting body cameras on teachers to make sure they arent teaching the demonized theory. At least two angry parents have appeared on Fox News to make their case against what they claim is an imminent threatdespite, as NBC notes, that nearly all school districts say they are not teaching critical race theory.

There have been 50 recall efforts aimed at ousting 126 school board members this year; NBC reports that while most of these fights stemmed from COVID-19 restrictions, the five most recent campaigns involved unrest over the idea of critical race theory, which has reportedly been a source of local unrest in at least 50 school districts from Washington to Florida. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is among the prominent GOP actors readily embracing such oppositionostensibly with the hopes that the local movement could motivate conservative voters in next years midtermsas he vowed this month to make sure theres not a single school board member who supports critical race theory.

While critical race theory is being deployed as a blanket term to describe racial equity work that U.S. schools are doingefforts prompted in part by the national reckoning over raceits become clear that most people lack a general understanding of what the buzzword even means, as Temple University's Marc Lamont Hill illuminated on BNC:

Some lawmakers crafting bills against it dont even seem to know what theyre trying to ban. Take Alabama Rep. Chris Pringle, a Republican who wants to make it illegal to teach critical race theory in the state. Asked by Alabama Media columnist Kyle Whitmire how hed define the theory, Pringle said it basically teaches that certain children are inherently bad people because of the color of their skin, period but was unable to produce any specific examples of theorists promoting that concept or instances where it was put into practice. I can assure youIll have to read a lot more, he told the reporter. The Alabama lawmaker was, however, sure that America is still the greatest country thats ever, ever been in the history of the world and the radical left is trying to divide this country based on race and class, which is exactly what they do in communist countries.

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The Right-Wing Meltdown Over Critical Race Theory Is Spiraling Out of Control - Vanity Fair