ProPublica wrote about a campaign to destroy the reputation of a black educator and their pursuit of her to another district. The white agitators accused her of being an advocate of “critical race theory,” but she didn’t know what it was. That didn’t deter the vigilantes.
In April of 2021, Cecelia Lewis had just returned to Maryland from a house-hunting trip in Georgia when she received the first red flag about her new job.
The trip itself had gone well. Lewis and her husband had settled on a rental home in Woodstock, a small city with a charming downtown and a regular presence on best places to live lists. It was a short drive to her soon-to-be office at the Cherokee County School District and less than a half hour to her husband’s new corporate assignment. While the north Georgia county was new to the couple, the Atlanta area was not. They’d visited several times in recent years to see their son, who attended Georgia Tech.
Lewis, a middle school principal, initially applied for a position that would bring her closer to the classroom as a coach for teachers. But district leaders were so impressed by her interview that they encouraged her to apply instead for a new opening they’d created: their first administrator focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives…
At first, the scope of the role gave Lewis pause. In her current district, these responsibilities were split among several people, and she’d never held a position dedicated to anything as specific as that before. But she had served on the District Equity Leadership Team in her Maryland county and felt prepared for this new challenge. She believed the job would allow her, as she put it, to analyze the district’s “systemic and instructional practices” in order to better support “the whole child.”
“We’re so excited to add Cecelia to the CCSD family,” Superintendent Brian Hightower said in the district’s March 2021 announcement about all of its new hires. (The announcement noted that the creation of the DEI administrator role “stems from input from parents, employees and students of color who are serving on Dr. Hightower’s ad hoc committees formed this school year to focus on the topic.”) Hightower acknowledged “both her impressive credentials and enthusiasm for the role” and pointed out that, “In four days, she had a DEI action plan for us.”
But then a group of white parents decided that Lewis planned to bring “critical race theory” to their district. And they decided to hound her out of her job and out of Georgia.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“I got caught in the crossfire of lies, misinformation, and accusations which have zero basis.”
These unhinged parent groups are not much different from the lynch mobs of the past. They are fueled by lies and misinformation. They watch right wing TV, gossip on social media and listen to paid instigators. This is all part of the propaganda campaign to convince parents that children cannot be entrusted to public schools where they will be indoctrinated with socialism and CRT. Ms. Lewis just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least she didn’t get accused of grooming children to be transsexuals as this is the latest lie the right is using to undermine public schools.
It took courage to tell her story. The anti-CRT crowd is unhinged.
What is frightening to me is that there have always been those unhinged folks with unhinged beliefs they use to justify their hate.
But the election of Trump in 2016 full-on empowered and legitimized them.
In 2016 our country elected a completely unhinged president who was fomenting the most unhinged beliefs that were based in hate and violence.
That election empowered these people and legitimized them. They will never change because the election of Trump proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that there were a huge number of Americans agreed that Trump’s beliefs – their own unhinged beliefs – were completely normal. Every person who cared so little about an unhinged person taking office because “he was no worse than the Democrat” normalized their unhinged beliefs. Nothing will change their mind, and certainly “scary socialism” won’t do it.
That was bullshit these white people need to get their heads out of their ass this woman is qualified for the job cut the shit. I am a 72 year old retired white educator saying this
Bunch of bigoted, xenophobic, cretains.
I want some of these bigoted, old white men to explain Critical Race Theory to me and the rest of the world.
The only reason I ask is because until a couple of years ago the term didn’t exist. People just throw the phrase around but don’t really now what it means.
To me is just another racist excuse for a bunch of grumpy old white men to try and keep the control that they have had for too long.