Detroit Superintendent Opposes CRT Ban in Michigan: “Our Curriculum Is Deeply Using CRT”
Vitti: We’re very intentional about creating a curriculum, infusing materials, and embedding critical race theory within our curriculum.
In a school board meeting on November 9, Dr. Nikolai Vitti, the superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD), urged the board to oppose a ban on Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools in Michigan.
Vitti urged the board to oppose a bill passed by the state House banning certain aspects of CRT, saying DPSCD is “very intentional” about embedding CRT: “Our curriculum is deeply using critical race theory, especially in social studies, but you’ll find it in English Language Arts and the other disciplines.”
At the 1:53 mark in the almost three hour meeting, after the end of the public comment period, Dr. Vitti takes the mic to discuss agenda items, including Michigan House Bill 5097, which would ban certain aspects of CRT from public instruction. Vitti said:
Our curriculum is deeply using critical race theory, especially in social studies, but you’ll find it in English Language Arts and the other disciplines. We’re very intentional about creating a curriculum, infusing materials, and embedding critical race theory within our curriculum.
Vitti’s full statement:
Critical Race Theory, unfortunately, has passed the House, in order to be banned from schools, and if schools do use it, by memory, it would bring a financial penalty to the district. Our curriculum is deeply using critical race theory, especially in social studies, but you’ll find it in English Language Arts and the other disciplines. We’re very intentional about creating a curriculum, infusing materials, and embedding critical race theory within our curriculum. As was stated by many speakers today, it’s because our students need to understand the truth of history, to understand the history of this country, to better understand who they are, and about the injustices in this country. We have led a process of 81 letters written to the legislature opposed to the legislation, that was mainly done by our teachers. When critical race theory passed the House, the Democrats walked out, because they were not able to give public comment, or comment opposing the legislation. Right now the legislation is headed to the Senate. Based on what other states have done in legislatures controlled by Republicans, this looks like it may pass. I think our best strategy politically is to lean on the governor to veto it, as she has done with other legislation that has passed in Michigan over the past couple of years. I don’t believe the Senate …. we might be able to convince the Senate not to pass it, but this looks like a pure Republican feature of legislation for this year.
This isn’t the first time Villi has spoken about white America and white privilege. In an interview with the American Black Journal with Detroit Public Television in June 2020, Villi said, “You can’t do this work, I can’t be me, if you’re not dealing with issues of race.” He then said, “But I think for our country, there’s an awareness, there’s a conversation that normally doesn’t happen in a white community. I have seen this knee jerk reaction to the conversation about race specifically to the issue of whiteness and white privilege. It’s clear that White America views this conversation is a zero sum game.”
H.B. 5097 has moved to the Senate, which has a 22-16 Republican majority. If the Senate passes it, it seems impossible to imagine it being singed into law by Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
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Jeff Reynolds is the author of the book, “Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy,” available at www.WhoOwnsTheDems.com. Jeff hosts a podcast at anchor.fm/BehindTheCurtain. You can follow him on Twitter @ChargerJeff, on Parler at @RealJeffReynolds, and on Gab at @RealJeffReynolds.
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Comments
No way would I send my kids to public school today to be taught the big CRT lie. It is unconscionable that our state and local governments (not to mention federal government) is pushing this propaganda on people.
Detroit mostly welfare, the city is a complete loser. Who in their right mind would want to follow in Detroit’s footsteps. Look at Detroit’s k-12 stats, it is a city dominated by dullards.
Michigan is losing residents. Allowing CRT will do to the whole state the same which happened to cities in the sixties. Watch the exodus turn into a tidal wave.
Horrible!
Whitmer is a dem tool. She’ll probably veto. Frightening!
A tool, indeed! And, from the looks of it, still covered in Cosmoline from the factory.
“We have led a process of 81 letters written to the legislature opposed to the legislation, that was mainly done by our teachers.”
What’s amazing is that he said this with a straight face.
This man has no awareness at all.
At the rate things are going, we’re going to be South Africa within five years. I am not pleased.
You do realize that, after 50 years of thumbing the scale in favor of blacks we have to drop to their level because their “feelz” are hurt due to the inability of them to rise to our level. It isn’t racist when it is an easily viewed truth that has a resume and excellent references.
Charles Murray, Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America (his 2021 book), collects all the irrefutable evidence. Leftists don’t like it,
“The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart, fIoating free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability. The allegations of racism in policing, college admissions, segregation in housing, and hiring and promotions in the workplace ignore the ways in which the problems that prompt the allegations of systemic racism are driven by these two realities.”
It is worth looking up the graphs which overlay black and white IQ distribution.
The problem goes far beyond intelligence, there are also serious deficiencies with other factors which determine success or failure.
….and don’t hand me the tired trope of white priviledge. I have struggled, toiled and sweated to get to this point without one damn bit of charity! FJB
If I have white privilege, I earned EVERY bit of it. So did my parents, and their parents.
No, you didn’t. The definition of privilege is that it is unearned. For instance, you admit that some of what you have was earned by your parents or grandparents; you did not earn those things, so the fact that you have them is a privilege.
The thing is that the proper response to privilege is not shame or guilt, it’s gratitude. Privilege is a good thing for those who have it, and does not harm those who do not, so there’s no reason to feel ashamed or guilty. Whatever privileges we each have are a gift from God, for which we owe Him thanks.
And yes, that does include white privilege, which does exist, though not nearly at the levels the Marxists claim. There are times when being a Person of Pallor helps, and at those times those of us who were born with such an appearance ought to give thanks. There are also times when being born with a lot of melanin helps, and at those times those people should give thanks. That is all.
There is no such thing as white privilege.
There certainly is such a thing as white privilege. When someone sees me on the street, even at night and in a dark alley, they feel no fear that I might mug them. When I walk into a store the staff don’t worry that I’m likely to steal something.
If I were the exact same person but with black skin, people who don’t know me would worry about such things, because so many people with that same appearance do behave in such ways. A minority of such people, but a significant minority; enough to make concern about it completely rational and legitimate.
So the fact that I don’t arouse such concerns is a privilege I enjoy simply because of my race. I thank God for it, because it is only by His grace that I look the way I do. I certainly don’t feel guilty or ashamed of it.
Some people who look like me take advantage of that privilege, by mugging people or stealing from stores, and because they arouse so little suspicion they are more likely to get away with it than a black person is. That’s an unfortunate example of white privilege, but it is just as real.
I don’t need to cite examples of black privilege, because they are all around us. There is also such a thing as tall privilege and short privilege. Tall people can reach things on high shelves, while short people can squeeze under barriers. Likewise right-handed people enjoy the privilege of everything being designed for their convenience.
Good health and a robust constitution is a perfect example of privilege; those who enjoy these things from birth did nothing to earn them. Again, the appropriate response is not shame or guilt but gratitude.
Milhouse comment – “If I were the exact same person but with black skin, people who don’t know me would worry about such things, because so many people with that same appearance do behave in such ways. A minority of such people, but a significant minority; enough to make concern about it completely rational and legitimate.”
Its unfortunate – but you comment highlights the real problem. It also shows that BLM and CRT actually make the problem worse – vastly worse.
There is no question that Blacks get treated less well in our society. Yet what the activists fail to acknowledge is that it is due to the behavior the a large segment of the black culture, from higher crime rates to lower level of school achievement along with attitude (anti whitey).
If BLM focused on promoting improvements in black culture and acheivement instead of focusing on blaming whitey, they would acheive much better results for the black community.
“When someone sees me on the street, even at night and in a dark alley, they feel no fear that I might mug them. When I walk into a store the staff don’t worry that I’m likely to steal something.
If I were the exact same person but with black skin, people who don’t know me would worry about such things, because so many people with that same appearance do behave in such ways.”
Then it’s not MY privilege that I’m white — it’s THEIRS.
The fact that I’m white makes THEIR life easier.
So I don’t deserve anybody’s gratitude for it. Maybe they do, but not to me, because I can’t help being white. The owe it to the people who formed my culture.
ROFLMAO! No, it is not a real thing. And your silly hypothetical makes the same error that Peggy McIntosh made when she coined the term. The economics of the area where the alley is located drives the fear of a potential mugging, not the race of the people walking in it.
JD, you are full of shit. If it were the economics of the area that drove the fear of a potential mugging then people would have the same fear when seeing anyone. But they don’t. As no less a person than Jesse Jackson admitted, when he would hear footsteps behind him he would worry about robbery, but if he saw the person was white he’d feel relieved. That is white privilege.
Henry Bowman, it’s not their privilege. It’s my privilege that I will never know what it’s like to have people fear me on sight. That must be a terrible thing for decent black people to bear. And it’s not their fault at all; it’s the fault of all those indecent people who just happen to look like them. So I thank God that I don’t have to deal with that. I didn’t earn it.
If only the term white privilege were used mostly in the innocuous and sensible way you describe.
Unfortunately, it’s most common use is as an anti-white neo-racist dog-whistle.
Bigotry is an unqualified evil that has afflicted mankind with death and misery throughout its entire existence. It is never acceptable.
I think it’s more like majority privilege.
We do have to remember that desegregation only happened 60 years ago..
Fighting racism with racism is fertile.
POC do have privilege. White males are currently discriminated against in the work place in almost any and all endeavors.
Black privilege obviously exists. But so does white privilege. There are all kinds of privilege. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Privilege is not a dirty word, and we should not give in to the left by treating it like one.
As Mr. Shapiro notes, people who falsely assert white privelege is a real thing are confusing economic advantage with race based advantage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR4gUQIEsns&t=119s
“… if they cannot be changed at the ground level…”
They can not be changed on the ground level.
My son’s 5th grade teacher taught for 30 years in the same room. Most people don’t like change and teachers can be especially resistant to change.
How do teachers spell change?
Cha. Cha. Cha. Change?
“white privilege, which does exist”
BS, I do not consider supporting useless deadbeats privledged. This grand con has gone on far to long.
WTF have deadbeats got to do with the privileges white people enjoy? Such as the one I described earlier. Are you able to walk into a store without having the staff f0llow you around on the assumption that you’re likely to steal something? That’s because you’re white, and most people who look like you don’t generally shoplift. If you were black you would not be able to do that, and it wouldn’t be your fault. That’s a privilege you enjoy because you’re white. So feel grateful to God for it, because you did nothing to earn it.
millhouse you are the one full of shit. I read your dullard preaching and pompous BULLSHIT, all the time. Do everyone a favor A STFU!.
So you claim that when people encounter a stranger on the street at night they’re just as afraid if he’s white as if he’s black?! That retail staff don’t treat unknown black customers as potential thieves and unknown white ones as unlikely to be theives?! That’s bullshit and you know it.
So, you’ve never seen an antifa (lily white) black bloc mob in your neighborhood? You are embracing the leftist narrative here, Milhouse. Personally, as a white woman, I would be just as afraid to run into some white gang of roving street freaks as I would any minority gang. ANY groups of men of any color (except maybe Amish or Orthodox Jews) scare the crap out of me, and no, black or Hispanics are not any more scary than a tatted gang of neo-Nazis or antifa. I’m more likely, even in the deep South, to run into antifa gangs than (actual) neo-Nazis, but neither would be fun. Times have changed fast, Milhouse. Catch up.
This whole “white privilege” business is a red herring. This argument is not about skin color; it’s about behavior and cultural values. Nobody gives a rat’s ass about skin color. It’s all about behavior. The reason people naturally recoil is because you’d have to be deaf dumb and blind in today’s America not to notice the glorification of misogyny, violence and lawlessness by one culture in America, not all cultures, one culture. That’s not the Daughters of the American Revolution running the flash mobs in San Francisco.
It isn’t about skin color and the ones who say it is are full of shit.
I did not come from a privledged background, never inherited anything. I valued education and worked hard my whole life, am honest and earned my way. The same cannot be said for black scum whose crime rate is sky high. Only a fool would ignore that. Some groups of people deserve reps which they collective made for themselves.
I am certain that if they clean up their act, they will be treated accordingly. Not holding my breath waiting for them to do so.
The issue not addressed by the supporters and those opposed to CRT, show us how it has made things better or worse? Does CRT reduce racism and inequality or does it do the opposite? To embed ideas in a curriculum before knowing the long term usefulness or danger of those ideas is irresponsible. CRT seems to be an educational fad supported by dark money.
Wait a minute…I thought CRT didn’t exist? That it is just the figment of a white supremacist’s imagination? And that it isn’t being taught in public schools?
Did Vitti just say the quiet part out loud?
This so called educator like too many is a radical enabled by the Democrats He is another example of why public schools are radical training grounds that should be avoided if they cannot be changed at the ground level
But I was assured CRT didn’t really exist! /sarc
50 years of Dim control has wrecked the inner city and created several generations of blacks completely dependent upon government largess. Now that same government is teaching them that the evil white conservative did this to them.
What could possible go wrong?
I am afraid that hot lead is what can go wrong.
It’s not like these students are learning to read, write and compute math, so why not focus on the fiction of “white privilege”? We’re 24th in the world in education quality, on our way down with each passing day.
Russian first name + Italian last name = 2nd generation communist (many commies in Italy called their sons Igor, Ivan, Boris, Nikolai…).
Also sent their kids to the very proletarian sport of gymnastics, as for our olympic medalists Juri Chechi, Boris Preti…)
Conversation is not a zero sum game. At least where no time limit exists for the duration of the conversation. Facts are very different from a conversation about the facts between people who view the same facts. Multiple people viewing the same facts can certainly form differing opinions about the importance of a specific fact, the relationship of that fact to other facts and what conclusions they draw.
Schools have a limited amount of instruction time. Are they using it to ensure the students placed into their system are coming out the other side educated and prepared for 21 st century life as a productive citizen? That’s the only question that matters. If the school system has a high drop out rate and even the kids who graduate are not passing standard testing of HS level mastery then allocating limited instruction time to fringe theories seems imprudent. Unless the goal isn’t to educate but rather indoctrinate the students.
I don’t think CRT takes significant time away from anything in the curriculum. It’s not taught as a separate subject, it simply permeates the way all subjects are taught. It’s taken as a given, as something beyond dispute, and children are brainwashed into believing it.
That is my point. When falsehoods replace facts in the curriculum they exclude facts from being transmitted to the students. The amount of instruction time is finite, especially when hours missed due to dropouts, truancy and other factors are considered. Instead of receiving an education the students are indoctrinated.
No, Chief, it doesn’t replace facts. It takes no longer to teach the regular subjects from a Marxist perspective than it does to teach them from a normal one.
Think of the reason Catholic schools exist: Because the RC church believes all subjects should be taught from a Christian perspective. The whole education is permeated with Catholicism, but it doesn’t take any longer than the same subjects take when taught from an atheist perspective. The difference is in the attitude the students pick up, the things they learn subliminally, simply by having a teacher who believes in and talks about God It works the same way with CRT; when any subject is taught by a convinced Marxist, who talks about every subject from the perspective of someone who sees racists under every mattress, that’s what the kids pick up.
So under that hypothesis the standard test scores for a state graduation exam and SAT/ACT scores should be roughly equal between:
1. Schools which instruct from a religious viewpoint
2. Schools which teach from a CRT/Equity viewpoint
If the knowledge and mastery of the material being tested for is being transmitted by each school regardless of viewpoint then shouldn’t the scores closely track, even after adjusting for social dynamics of the students? I don’t believe that they do but I am willing to be convinced.
Not only is that the case, but it’s very well known (to the point that I’m astonished you don’t know it) that the religious schools have better results. That would seem to contradict your thesis.
Critical Race Theory is baked in to our schools by teachers and colleges of education and state departments of education. Teachers who consumed Zinn’s version of America and the lie of America’s wealth being built on the backs of slaves will teach CRT whether it is in the official curriculum or not.
The history of American education includes the malcontents Bismarck kicked out of Germany in previous centuries. Mixed Marxism and the Long March through the institutions, and here we are. Centrists and conservatives hire on merit, leftist hire on ideology. Conservatives in education are isolated, scorned, and driven out. We’ve had a teacher shortage for decades due to high turnover among newly hired. Sensible people can’t handle the nonsensical crap like “restorative justice”. This leftism is dyed-in-the-wool, part of the warp and weft of public schools.
My solutions….
1. Decriminalize school truancy.
2. Allow students of any age to take GED or equivalent and be done with school.
3. Move school board elections to the fall, allow them to be partisan.
4. Minimize public employee unions as much as possible.
Wouldn’t hurt to convert large urban high schools to homeless shelters. On minimum security detention centers.
Yes to all of those things.
You got my vote.
The Left
1. There is no such thing as Critical Race Theory.
2. If there is such a thing, it is good for your kids.
3. If there is such a thing, and it is not good for your kids, they definitely aren’t teaching it in your schools.
4. If there is such a thing, and it is not good for your kids, and they are using it in your schools, you should just shut up and let the teachers do their jobs.
CRT? We don’t use it and it has been a smashing success.
(Yes, the Left can say both things in the same sentence with a straight face)
Half of all Detroit Public School GRADUATES are functionally illiterate (this says nothing about the significant percentage of students who drop-out long before graduation). So, not only are they failing to teach this kids the very basic skills needed to capably function in a civil society, they’re training the kids to hate the country as well.
What could possibly go wrong?
“Deeply embedding” CRT in every subject — that’s the whole point. That’s the whole problem. That’s evidence, not a defense.
I just don’t understand how any parent continues to send their children to these brainwashing camps. And please don’t tell me how inconvenient it is to find an alternative for their education. Would you say the same if their lives were being threatened? In fact, their future lives ARE being threatened! Starve the damn beast by showing these commie bastards you don’t need their sick, pathetic schools system. The loss of power and money is the only language they speak.
The Sixth Circuit held, earlier in 2021, for the first time at the in a US circuit court, that children have a right to an elementary education, specifically being taught to read (and presumably to write and to do basic arithmetic). And the court held that Detroit was failing in doing that. Res ipsa loquitur.
This guy looks like Uncle Fester’s brother.
I wonder if Pugsley and Wednesday got any CRT at school?
The problem Detroit and every other blue city has is that without CRT how do they explain their dismal results in education? They need it, or they have to face the truth.