Thread by @Paul_Bowers

THREAD: On June 3, South Carolina's head of K-12 schools issued a blanket condemnation of "critical race theory." She didn't define the term. I sent in a records request to see what she was talking about behind the scenes.

Today I publish my findings.
brutalsouth.substack.com/p/blueprint-fo…

This was the statement. She only described CRT as "an ideology" that "has no place in South Carolina schools and classrooms."

https://twitter.com/Molly_Spearman/status/1400515013966811136

CRT is a body of legal scholarship that developed after the civil rights era to analyze the role of race and racism in the U.S. legal system.

This year in conservative media, the term took on an separate meaning as a catch-all for ideas that make white people uncomfortable.

The people emailing Spearman's office about CRT in the spring offered these phenomena as evidence of CRT's infiltration of public schools, echoing the vague panic pushed by right-wing thinktanks and media outlets. brutalsouth.substack.com/p/blueprint-fo…

Rather than educate or clarify, Spearman gave a statement that echoed the ideological complaints of @RepJoeWilson, @AGAlanWilson, and other leaders of the state's right-wing establishment.

The comments flooding Spearman's inbox ranged from effusive praise to unhinged screeds.

@RepJoeWilson @AGAlanWilson The ombudsman, whose job is to field & resolve public complaints, sought clarification within an hour of Spearman posting her statement to Facebook.

Was diversity training for teachers allowed? And what would be the penalty for schools that "taught" critical race theory?

Spearman's office didn't respond to these emails in writing within the scope of my records request. Parents and GOP aparatchiks launched inquisitions into supposed instances of CRT. They demanded teachers be fired for wearing rainbow sneakers and denying the existence of God.

Teachers never received clarification on what the superintendent meant. I asked point blank, "What is critical race theory?" and got this muddled response from Spearman's spokesman. It remains a catch-all for white grievance, and a potent one.

In the right-wing media bubble, CRT panic has reached some absurd conclusions. Mark Levin wrote a chapter about it in his new book "American Marxism." Mike Pompeo managed to blame CRT for losing the war in Afghanistan.

We might be seeing the tail end of this particular right-wing freakout, or it might have a resurgence. What is clear is that Spearman willingly participated in the same ideological project as her peers in the Republican Party. brutalsouth.substack.com/p/blueprint-fo…

If you would like to read the emails yourself, I've arranged them chronologically in searchable PDFs.

From Spearman's campaign inbox: scribd.com/document/52160…

From Spearman & Brown's government accounts: scribd.com/document/52160…

Thank you to all who pitched in to cover the $79.50 FOIA fee, to @mmfa for their analysis of CRT messaging, and to @SCforEd & @mr_nuzum for keeping the pressure on. brutalsouth.substack.com/p/blueprint-fo…

@mmfa @SCforEd @mr_nuzum If you'd like to support my work, you can:

1. Order a t-shirt now through 8/31! turningleafproject.com/campaign-2/bru…

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