House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) claims that critical race theory has become the “governing ideology” of President Joe Biden’s administration.
During a speech on the House floor, the California Republican said he supports removing Confederate statues in the U.S. Capitol.
He went on to claim that Democrats are “replacing the racism of the past with the racism of the critical race theory.”
He noted Kiran Ahuja, Biden’s nominee to run the Office of Personnel Management, argued prior to her nomination that, “We must do everything in our collective power to realize Dr. Kendi’s vision for America.”
The Senate confirmed Ahuja on June 22.
McCarthy highlighted a portion of Ibram X. Kendi’s book “How to Be an Antiracist,” which he claimed encompasses the author’s vision for America, “The solution to past discrimination is present discrimination.”
He also noted that the Navy included Kendi’s book on a reading list. He added, “Critical race theory is the governing ideology we’re now finding in the Biden administration. By advocating for it, Democrats continue to fuel hatred and division across the country.”
“America is not a racist country. America must reject critical race theory for the simple reason, state-sponsored racism is wrong and always will be,” McCarthy continued.
He added, “It was wrong when it was segregated lunch counters of Jim Crow. And it was wrong when it was segregated classrooms of critical race theory.”
Watch the video below:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) compares critical race theory to Jim Crow segregation practices. pic.twitter.com/OMCMiuDX0C
— The Recount (@therecount) June 29, 2021
Republicans have increasingly focused on critical race theory, which they argue is racist. Across the country, Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at preventing the teaching of the theory in schools.
As Stateline reports, “Legislators in at least 15 states have introduced measures this session that would prohibit the teaching of critical race theory or related concepts in all publicly funded schools, sometimes including penalties such as dismissal of teachers or defunding of school districts, despite no evidence that it is being taught in any public school.”
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, critical race theory is an “intellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour.”
“Critical race theorists hold that the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans,” it added.