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Placentia Yorba Linda School Board discusses critical race theory

Source: Robert Gauthier / Getty

A school district workshop on critical race theory turned chaotic on Wednesday after a Black man was asked to leave for complaining about a woman who allegedly told him, “Get out of the country.”

The event, which was organized by Temecula Valley Unified School District in California, took place after the school district’s governing board voted to ban the teaching of CRT in schools. 

Video of the tumultuous moment, which went viral on Twitter, shows a Black man named Deon complaining to the board that a white woman had told him to, “Get out of the country.” The board’s president, Joseph Komrosky, immediately gave the man a verbal warning, telling him, “The second warning, you will be asked to leave.” The Black man continued to express his complaints to the board. “She told me to get out of the country! My family has been here since August 16th, 1619!” 

The board’s president then kicked the Black man out of the meeting, causing complete chaos. Boos rang out throughout the auditorium, as members of the audience were visibly upset at the man’s removal. Members in the crowd began to chant, “take that woman,” pointing out the woman who made the outlandish comments. 

A video that was posted on TikTok shows sheriff’s deputies removing Deon from the meeting.

According to reports, the woman who told Deon to leave the country was later removed from the meeting. “The woman was later asked to leave, Board member Steven Schwartz told. “The meeting devolved into chaos, and the board president declared a recess.” 

After the explosive meeting, Temecula Valley Unified School Board Trustee Jen Wiersma took to Twitter to do an absolutely terrible and flat-out racist job of explaining critical race theory. 

The NAACP Legal and Education Defense Fund defines critical race theory as “an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society — from education and housing to employment and healthcare.” Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. It is embedded in laws, policies, and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities.  

It is a framework developed by a group of legal scholars used to examine the impact of racism on various aspects of society. Arising after the major civil rights legislative victories of the 1960s, critical race theory and its theorists see the law as an equalizing tool that can provide remedies to address injustice.  

Central to the idea is that racism is not limited to individual decisions and actions. And because racism is a part of society, there are persisting disparities in quality-of-life areas such as housing, health care, education, wealth, and employment.  

Many regard professor Derrick Bell as a major influence in the theory’s creation and subsequent development. A law professor at both Harvard and NYU, Bell influenced an entire generation of lawyers and legal schools, many of whom helped shape the commonly understood principles and aspects of the theory.

Since January 2021, 44 states have introduced bills or taken other steps that would restrict teaching critical race theory or limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism, according to an Education Week analysis.

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