Derrick Wilburn (pictured above) and his two-minute speech may be the reason School District 49 voted August 19 to keep the controversial topic far away from impressionable children.
Before the board vote, Wilburn addressed the school board by first noting he is a direct descendant of slaves – the descendant of the “North American slave trade” is how he described it --- from both sides of his family tree. Despite that terrible past, the businessman said his job takes him across the United States, literally from coast to coast, and he is treated with kindness and respect at restaurants, hotels, and business establishments.
“I am not oppressed,” he declared. “I’m not oppressed and I’m not a victim.” (See video below)
Thanks to irate parents and non-compliant teachers, defenders of Critical Race Theory have been on the defensive for months. Amidst that vocal pushback, apologists claim the academic theory is not being introduced in K-12 schools or, when that lie is uncovered, to claim young students are simply learning about America’s racist past. To ban CRT, those apologists claim, is to hide from America's past.
Yet the public has witnessed the Marxist-based philosophy and its tenets invade schools and corporate offices, where white people are not reminded of the Civil Rights era and Jim Crow laws. Instead, they are informed they are inherently racist and currently oversee a racist society to maintain power in business, education, and politics. But they can atone from their racism by becoming "woke" and understanding they are “oppressors” who unconsciously harm minorities who are the "oppressed."
Before the District 49 school board voted, it released a summary behind its opposition to CRT:
The driving force behind CRT and antiracism is the acceptance of a worldview that encompasses specific notions about history, philosophy, sociology, and public policy. By its own terms, CRT/antiracism excludes individuals who merely advocate for neutral principles of the Constitution, or who deny or question the extent to which white supremacy shapes our institutions.
Wilburn directly addressed the tenets of CRT, too, telling the school board he “can think of nothing more damaging to a society than to tell a baby born today, that she has grievances against another baby born today, simply because of what their ancestors may have done two centuries ago."
Putting the controversial theory in a classroom setting does not combat racism, the father continued, but instead it is “fanning the flames of what little embers are left.”
