The National Education Association has created an entire Black Lives Matter (BLM) curriculum for teachers to push in public schools across America. This year, in the opening salvo of their Year of Purpose 2022 campaign, they held the “Black Lives Matter in School Week of Action.” A watchdog documented school districts across the nation that participated.
NEA EDJustice has a full page dedicated to Black Lives Matter at School. The largest union in America, the NEA wields enormous power at all levels of government. The NEA now proposes to use that power to force BLM into the curriculum of elementary, middle, and high schools around the country.
They are selling is as a counter to lies about racism in America, with a full campaign that started in the summer of 2021—just as parent protests at school board meetings were exploding nationwide:
Lawmakers in at least 27 states are attempting to pass legislation that would require teachers to lie to students about the role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression throughout U.S. history. In response, educators across the United States are signing a pledge to teach truth.To raise public awareness about the danger of these bills, we invite educators to make that pledge public in gatherings nationwide August 27-29, 2021. Sponsored by Zinn Education Project(coordinated by Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools), Black Lives Matter at School, and African American Policy Forum.
A watchdog group, Parents Defending Education, documented the activities many districts presented as part of the BLM At School “Week of Action,” held nationwide January 31 – February 4, 2022. In a press release, they said:
From Boston, Mass., to Seattle, Wash., school districts, schools, teachers’ unions and educators around the country are teaching the controversial activist curriculum, lesson plans, activities and, even, official coloring book of “Black Lives Matter at School” starting Monday, January 31, according to a national review of schools by Parents Defending Education.In 2013, activists launched the #BlackLivesMatter movement in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. In the fall of 2016, teachers in Seattle Public Schools organized one the first “Black Lives Matter at School” events, amid controversy over political activism in the schools, particularly linked to a highly political organization.The “Black Lives Matter at School” material often carries the official branding of the Black Lives Matter organization, which has been riddled with controversy over alleged misappropriation of funds and the purchase of multimillion-dollar homes by its founder.To help parents, grandparents and others understand the reach of Black Lives Matter at School, Parents Defending Education has created a running list of school districts, schools and organizations promoting the program.
Parents Defending Education compiled a list of dozens of schools from Massachusetts to Washington, and many states in between, that listed the materials on their websites. The interactive map they compiled on their website reveals that only a handful of states did not have at least one school district participating.
The NEA EDJustice Mission is to turn teachers into activists, and vice versa:
NEA EdJustice engages and mobilizes activists in the fight for racial, social and economic justice in public education. Readers will find timely coverage of social justice issues in education and ways they can advocate for our students, our schools, and our communities.NEA EdJustice Mission:
- Highlight member voices on social justice and offer resources and tools for activism
- Build and grow community of activists committed to advancing social justice policies in public education
- Connect and engage education activists in support of opportunity for all students
In a video promotion, an NEA member declares, “Social justice is the basis of public eduction.” Another says, “This means we must not only work for the rights of teachers, but as teachers we must be active and loud advocates for the needs of our students and our communities.”
The Black Lives Matter at School section of the website explains the goal of racial equity in education by saying,
Across race and place, educators, parents and allies are coming together to ensure that every Black student and educator can live, grow and thrive with support, love and joy. The goal of Black Lives Matter at School is to spark an ongoing movement of critical reflection and honest conversation and impactful actions in school communities for people of all ages to engage with issues of racial justice. Find stories, resources and ideas highlighting Black Lives Matter at School from across the country.
The members of the steering committee of BLM at School have written a book called Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Education Justice, which Ibrahim X. Kendi calls, “an essential resource for all those seeking to build an antiracist school system.” The publisher gives this synopsis:
Black Lives Matter at School succinctly generalizes lessons from successful challenges to institutional racism that have been won through the Black Lives Matter at School movement. This book will inspire many more educators and activists to join the Black Lives Matter at School movement at a moment when this antiracist work in our schools could not be more urgent and critical to education justice.Contributors include Opal Tometi, who wrote a moving foreword, Bettina Love who shares a powerful chapter on abolitionist teaching, Brian Jones who centers Black Lives Matter at School in the historical context of the ongoing struggle for racial justice in education and prominent teacher union leaders from Chicago to Los Angeles and beyond who discuss the importance of anti-racist struggle in education unions. The book includes essays, interviews, poems, resolutions, and more from educators, students and parents around the country who have been building Black Lives Matter at School on the ground.
Another online presentation included NEA Vice President Becky Pringle, and Dignity in Schools National Field Director Zakiya Sankara Jabar, on Facebook Live:
Black Lives Matter at School is a national movement that calls on all of us to have honest conversations about racist policies and practices that affect our students and schools.As educators, students, parents, and community leaders across the country lead a charge for justice as part of Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, NEA Vice President Becky Pringle and Dignity in Schools National Field Director Zakiya Sankara Jabar participated in a FaceBook Live discussion to explore the movement, as well as what educators are doing across the nation. They shared ideas on how classrooms and communities can have an impact on dismantling institutional racism in schools.
The Year of Purpose page lists all manner of intersectional struggles for inclusion, such as honoring disabled freedom fighters like Harriet Tubman and building inclusive, accessible movements, a day for Black Trans Lives Matter, and many more. In one graphic they affirm that BLM values include “globalism & collective value.”
If parents across America thought the election results of 2021 marked a defeat of critical race theory, BLM, anti-racism, intersectionality, and other radical progressive curricula in schools, they need to take another look. The radicals that run many of America’s school districts have not retreated, they have reformed and rededicated themselves to pushing back even harder. The proliferation of this material has only just begun.
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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