The GOP’s Silly Fight Against “Wokeness”

Elections & Politics Policy Brief #75 | By: Rudolph Lurz | April 26, 2023

Header photo taken from: nbcnews.com

Policy Summary

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In 2020, Joe Biden carried Virginia comfortably, more than doubling Secretary Clinton’s margin of victory in the 2016 election. A year later, in a surprising upset, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Terry McAulliffe in the 2021 gubernatorial election, securing over 50% of the vote in a state that has leaned blue in recent years.

Governor Youngkin made parent involvement in public education a central issue of his campaign. He promised to ban critical race theory (CRT) in Virginia classrooms during the campaign, a promise he kept with one of his first executive orders as governor. Youngkin even established a hotline for parents and students to submit complaints about CRT being implemented in the classroom. That hotline was eventually shut down, as parents, teachers, and students used it to deliver critiques about Governor Youngkin’s policies.

Youngkin’s success in winning the Virginia gubernatorial race using CRT as a campaign centerpiece caught the attention of other GOP policy actors nationwide. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) codified anti-CRT measures in the Stop W.O.K.E Act (Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees), which also folded protections for employees against perceived “activism” of private corporations. When promoting the legislation in December 2021, DeSantis stated, ““We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards. Finally, we must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.”

The claim of “indoctrination” is central to GOP diatribes against CRT as well as DEI programs. DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is designed to ensure that traditionally marginalized populations receive support and resources to succeed. It is used by corporate HR departments for employee recruitment and retention. It is used by higher education institutions to foster a positive and inclusive environment on campus.

The GOP sees both CRT and DEI initiatives as pathways to indoctrination of so-called “woke” ideology that discriminates against conservatives. In Texas, Governor Abbott’s office sent out a warning to state agencies and public universities to not use DEI with hiring decisions. Governor Abbott’s chief-of-staff stated, “The innocuous sounding notion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has been manipulated to push policies that expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others…Rebranding this employment discrimination as ‘DEI’ doesn’t make the practice any less illegal.”

DEI initiatives in the U.S.military were  criticized in a recent panel, with U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) stating, “…Department of Defense and the services have embraced DEI training full cloth, without empirical evidence. And worse, they may very well be increasing racism and division in our military.”  This echoes previous statements from Ted Cruz (R-TX) who complained that the U.S. military was too “woke” to compete with Russia.

On campus, in school board meetings, in the cubicles of private businesses, and even in the military, CRT and DEI initiatives are squarely in the crosshairs of conservative policymakers.

Policy Analysis

In my doctoral program at the University of Pittsburgh, I examined different research paradigms, including CRT. This was not a controversial or politically-charged class subject in my classes. It is difficult for me to understand the animus against CRT, because CRT is not a curriculum. A theory in that research paradigm category (such as critical race theory, critical feminism, and critical Marxism) is not a belief system, but rather a lens that one can use to view the world.

Critical theorists view events and history through the lens of power dynamics. There is typically a group that is oppressed, and the power structures which perpetuate the system of oppression.

It is impossible to “ban” CRT because it isn’t a curriculum; it’s a way of thinking. Banning CRT means trying to control the thoughts of students and faculty members, evoking images of an Orwellian Thought Police. If a student writes about the post-WWII economic landscape of the United States and focuses on redlining and systematic oppression of African-Americans, a CRT ban would require interrogating that student to determine why she chose those topics for her essay, and/or potentially deducting points for focusing “too much” on “divisive topics”.  The aftermath of anti-CRT and ubiquitous “anti-Woke” policies has been almost dystopian, with book bans resulting in over 1,500 titles being removed from school district libraries across the country.

The attack angles of conservatives criticizing American education, from the days of A Nation at Risk to No Child Left Behind have normally been centered on the failures of public schools, and solutions have typically been either school vouchers or increased school accountability measures.

Instead of taking a voucher and leaving public schools, parents are demanding more control over the curriculum, and school board meetings on these topics have been chaotic and even violent. As I discussed in a previous policy brief, Republicans will keep a spotlight on an issue as long as polling data supports their positions. 59% of Republican or Republican-leaning respondents in a recent poll stated, “I worry that our schools are focusing too much on issues related to race and racism”. The Virginia gubernatorial success of Governor Youngin shows that the issue mobilizes Republican voters. Accuracy does not matter. If parents think that DEI and CRT are somehow being used as tools for indoctrination, and are willing to go to the polls and vote red, GOP candidates will continue down this path.

As a teacher, I am thrilled whenever my students get excited about reading. Anyone in education knows that these fears of indoctrination are a modern Red Scare, and the folks supporting book bans are generally not looked upon kindly by historians. CRT and DEI are not the boogeyman, and teachers are not brainwashing kids.  I can only hope that the adults in the room can somehow turn the talking points back to the issues that truly matter to education policy.

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Engagement Resources​

• Center for Public Integrity
• Lou Frey Institute of Policy and Government.
• President Biden’s Executive Order on DEI

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