After O.C. school district bans critical race theory, it faces Cal State Fullerton backlash
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For some reason, in some of the places where you don’t feel welcome, or where your opinion is ignored, is as important as where you can have it heard.
In Southern California, that’s often taken to mean a place where whites dominate.
And in some of its highest-school districts, especially in the Los Angeles Unified School District, it certainly is an overriding consideration.
It certainly is not the case in San Manuel Valley Unified School District, where a group of parents and students who are part of the new group, called the Center for Critical Race Theory and Education, say they feel at home.
It is also not the case in the neighboring El Monte Union High School District, where the school district banned the critical race theory from its faculty, students and staff.
That is after a pair of articles in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune spotlighted a controversy over the doctrine at two different high schools and the responses of both schools, prompting a counter-offensive from a group of parents who say they feel threatened by the doctrine.
“The most basic question you are always asked is, ‘How do we know who is going to be black and who is going to be white?’ ” said Johnathan Thomas, the founding director of the Center for Critical Race Theory and Education. “But when you say, ‘Well, that’s an irrelevant concern,’ then you lose credibility.”
So, the center’s founders say they have a mission: to make it clear to teachers what is happening and what it means.
L.A. Unified’s response
In the weeks after the Tribune stories aired, the district sent letters to teachers at both the high schools, including the school district’s version of the center’s main argument that racial stereotypes are harmful and must be confronted.
“The district believes schools that fail to confront the issues of racism and oppression are more apt to foster disrespect for race and color in the minds of those who teach
