OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
It may have been the one state people did not expect but a whistleblower claims that the Texas State Department is requiring Critical Race Theory Training for its employees.
The whistleblower informed Republican gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines that The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services required training that incorporated key parts of Critical Race Theory for its employees.
The anonymous whistleblower showed materials that proved employees were asked to take a course titled “Knowing Who You Are.”
And after taking the course they were asked how much they agreed with statements on institutional racism and white privilege and asked their commitment was to being a good social justice advocate, The Daily Wire reported.
“A whistleblower inside the Texas government came to us to help end Critical Race Theory indoctrination that is being forced on state employees and is being paid for by you, the Texas taxpayer,” Huffines said in a video. “They were told this was required as part of their employment [….] The people pushing this crap need to be fired, and on day one of my administration.”
While the training materials do not explicitly say “Critical Race Theory,” they do incorporate some of its tenets. Summarily, the course pushes the idea that race and ethnicity are essential to every aspect of life. It taught that the most improper level of racial and ethnic identification (REI), “relative unawareness,” doesn’t prescribe meaning or importance to racial or ethnic differences and doesn’t identify in a particular racial or ethnic group, while the most proper level of REI, “commitment,” is keenly aware of racial and ethnic differences, identifies as a member of a particular racial or ethnic group or groups, and understands that each group has its own positive and negative aspects.
The employee training also focused on shaping the perspectives and attitudes of children. It taught that the “building blocks” for creating a healthy REI in youths are promoting racial and ethnic pride, developing multicultural competence, and preparing them for facing racism and discrimination.
The course also claims the existence of institutional or systemic racism. In making its point, the course claimed that race and gender determine everything, including wages, home loans, welfare reliance, and even length of stay in foster care.
The ongoing resources and opportunities advertised to employees included “Woke Wednesday!” and “Implicit Bias in Child Protection Webinar.”
There was also a TedX talk from 2014 in the training from Dr. Camara Jones who believes that racism is a public health crisis.
“For any of us, it’s difficult for us to recognize any system of inequity that is privileging us. For example, it’s difficult for men to recognize male privilege and sexism. It’s difficult for white people in this country to recognize white privilege and racism,” she said. “Like institutionalized racism, it can be through acts of doing as well as acts of not doing. But even more important, [sic] it can be unintentional, as well as intentional. You don’t have to intend it to have a racist impact to do something racist, to have a racist impact.”
Huffines said to The Daily Wire in a phone interview that Governor Greg Abbott needed to be more aware of what his administration was doing.
It’s offensive to see @GregAbbott_TX use our tax dollars to advocate for transgender ideology. This must end. #txlege pic.twitter.com/gQiAEJZ8YR
— Don Huffines (@DonHuffines) August 31, 2021
“Given that DFPS is a state agency under the direct purview of the governor, Abbott should have been aware that CRT training was being forced on state employees,” he said. “And if he wasn’t aware, that in and of itself is a serious problem. What other radical left-wing initiatives are our tax dollars funding, without the governor having the will or desire to stop them?”
“Greg Abbott is forcing hard-working Texans to subsidize mandatory Critical Race Theory for state employees,” he said. “Critical Race Theory is Marxist, racist poison being used to indoctrinate and divide Americans. It has no place in the State of Texas.”
