UCLA Law School Launches Project To Track Anti-Critical Race Theory Efforts

UCLA Law School Launches Project To Track Anti-Critical Race Theory Efforts

The UCLA CRT Forward Tracking Project appears to be very well-funded, with the ability to use UCLA Law School staff and resources, and reflects the systemic power disparity favoring those promoting CRT.

The Legal Insurrection Foundation through its CriticalRace.org website has the most comprehensive database and interactive map of Critical Race Training efforts at over 500 colleges and universities, as well as at Elite Private Schools and Medical Schools. Our database has been referenced in almost 100 articles and media. We are undergoing a major reconfiguration and expansion of the website. You can Donate to help that effort.

So it’s hardly for us to complain when someone sets out to map “anti-CRT” efforts. Imitation is highest form of flattery. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander (are we allowed to assign gender to geese?), right? But that someone is a behemoth, the University of California at Los Angeles Law School, with a budget in the gazillions and a staff paid for by the state.

UCLA Law School proudly announced the launch of the CRT Forward Tracking Project in an email multiple readers sent to us:

Here’s the text:

We are excited to announce the launch of CRT Forward! This new project offers accessible and in-depth resources to address the current attacks on Critical Race Theory, while also highlighting the past, present, and future contributions of the theory.

Made possible through the work of our CRT Forward Project Director Taifha Alexander and other Critical Race Studies faculty, staff, and research assistants, our project has also received invaluable funding from UCLA School of Law, the Lumina Foundation’s Racial and Equity Fund, and the generous contributions of donors like you.

The CRT Forward Tracking Project is one of multiple resources created through the project that identifies, tracks, and analyzes anti-CRT activity on a federal, state and local level. Our team has screened nearly 17,000 media articles since August 2021 and have identified nearly 400 instances of anti-CRT activity across 48 states. It is our hope that policymakers, litigators, academics, advocates, and the general public can utilize the project to gain a deeper understanding of this current wave of attacks on truth telling in education.

Our data is visualized through an interactive and user-friendly map that provides users with a wide variety of filters to assist in extracting the specific information they need. Understanding how the proliferation of anti-CRT activity has impacted educators, students, government agency employees and employers, private businesses, trainers, and those committed to racial and gender justice is part of our mission. We have also developed a blog where visitors to the site can find analysis of our findings, and the project will continue to launch additional programming, events, resources, and examinations of data trends.

Your support has been crucial and instrumental to our success, and we are in deep appreciation of our vibrant and dynamic community that have made this growth possible. We invite you to utilize our interactive map and data filters to learn how anti-CRT within your local school board, city or county council, state governing body, and federal government is impacting you.

Visit the site to learn more about the background of the project, our team, insights on our methodology, and much more: https://law.ucla.edu/crtforward

There will be a more formal launch via a Webinar on June 22, 2022:

The tracking project is under the umbrella of the Critical Race Studies Center. The UCLA CRT Forward Tracking Project page explains:

In 2021, recognizing the extensive assault on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and antiracist interventions in education and government training programs, the UCLA School of Law Critical Race Studies Program (CRS) launched CRT Forward, an initiative to address the current attacks on Critical Race Theory while also highlighting the past, present, and future contributions of the theory. A critical component of CRT Forward is a Tracking Project which tracks, identifies, and analyzes measures aimed at restricting access to truthful information about race and systemic racism. These anti-CRT measures are captured across all levels of government and displayed on an interactive map.

The CRT Forward Tracking Project includes state and federal legislation but also goes much further, into areas where systematic research tools are sparse. It tracks actions by school boards and other local governments, as well as non-legislative actions at the state level, such as regulations, executive directives and attorney general opinions. As a result, the Tracking Project allows for a comprehensive examination of anti-CRT measures that limit teaching, curricula, trainings, access to texts and books and alter general diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

The UCLA CRT Forward Tracking Project FAQ page explains the vast web of well-funded groups tracking anti-CRT efforts (emphasis added):

What makes FTP different from other anti-CRT tracking projects?

Multiple academic institutions, advocacy organizations, and education thinktanks, like the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, and EdWeek, are engaged in the important work of identifying and tracking anti-CRT activity that distorts CRT and restricts antiracist and antisexist speech and teaching in the form of either state legislative bills or local actions. FTP is unique for three reasons. First, FTP not only identifies and tracks anti-CRT activity, but also analyzes the substance of the anti-CRT activity in our database to identify: (a) the type of conduct that is restricted or required; (b) the institution targeted for regulation; (c) the specific features of the conduct being targeted; and (d) enforcement mechanisms used to regulate the conduct. Second, FTP is the only database that combines and makes available anti-CRT activity at three levels – local, state, and federal – in a single location. Finally, FTP is an interactive database that allows users to filter for content based on factors that are important for their purposes.

You may recall that we were targeted by one of these efforts, Critical Race Group Targets Diverse List Of Anti-CRT “Frontline Spokespeople” (Including Me):

The UCLA CRT Forward Tracking Project FAQ page further explains the methodology, which involves scanning the internet in a systematic way:

How is the data accuracy ensured?

Each anti-CRT activity has been verified through a screening process that included more than 4,000 newspapers for local, state, and federal anti-CRT activity. To ensure all relevant data is identified, tracked, and interpreted, the team has implemented strategies in addition to screening media articles to identify anti-CRT activity that has not been included in screened documents because news outlets have not reported on the particular anti-CRT activity. One strategy involves searching for anti-CRT activity in the form of state legislation through a state legislative search on Lexis, a legal information database. Additionally, researchers track any updates to introduced and pending anti-CRT state legislation and update the database when those changes become available. Further, the process for interpretating the content of the anti-CRT activity is conducted through a systematic, multiple coders, process to ensure consistency and accuracy. And finally, the team conducts legal research to identify the progress status link and full text of the anti-CRT activity and shares that information on this website.

As of today, the Interactive Map lists just under 400 “anti-CRT” actions:

The UCLA CRT Forward Tracking Project is just a part of the efforts to track anti-CRT efforts. The Resources page lists studies and analyses that have been produced to track who and where anti-CRT efforts are taking place, including:

• This is Not a Drill: The War Against Antiracist Teaching in America by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
• UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access Conflict | Exploring Local Experiences of the Campaign to Ban “Critical Race Theory” in Public K–12 Education in the U.S., 2020–2021

The UCLA CRT Forward Tracking Project appears to be very well-funded, with the ability to use UCLA Law School staff and resources:

In the Summer of 2021, with support from the UCLA School of Law and Lumina Foundation, the UCLA School of Law Critical Race Studies (CRS) Program launched FTP. Since August 2021, the CRT Forward Tracking Project Team of faculty, staff, research librarians, and law school and undergraduate research assistants have gathered, tracked, and analyzed anti-CRT activity at the local, state, and federal levels of government….

While the budget for the CRT Forward Tracking Project is not known, the Lumina Foundation donated $400,000 in 2022 to the UCLA CRT program:

University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law ($400,000)—To support the Critical Race Studies Program at the UCLA School of Law, which focuses on the intersection of race and law.

The UCLA CRT Forward Tracking Project exposes the systemic power disparity favoring those promoting CRT. The UCLA Tracking Project is just the tiny tip of a huge pro-CRT infrastructure. The pro-CRT movement has huge institutional power and resources; what they don’t have is a product that most Americans want.

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