American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten claimed Wednesday night that many Republican lawmakers are “bullying” teachers on “honest history” regarding race, during a livestreamed event headlined by the controversial “How to Be an Antiracist” author Ibram X Kendi.
“There are legislators, mostly from the Republican party, who are currently bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching kids honest history,” Weingarten told the audience.
“Look, maybe they are just trying to raise the temperature on race relations because of the next election,” she continuedWeingarten, who leads the roughly 1.7 million-member teacher’s union, has delivered remarks at multiple events this week during the AFT’s TEACH Virtual Conference 2021 where she has claimed that Republicans are at odds with American teachers.
In her remarks during the opening session of the conference, she touched on how, “culture warriors are labeling any discussion of race, racism or discrimination as [critical race theory] to try to make it toxic. They are bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching students accurate history.”
The rhetoric around teachers getting bullied has been a common theme during the first two days of the conference. The defensive language comes as individual states and legislators decide whether or not they support or oppose the theory being taught in schools. Earlier today, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina came out against CRT.
