EQUITY BREEDS DUPLICITY
Equity Breeds Duplicity
Republican leader Mitch McConnell and his senatorial stooge James Lankford promoted a federal bill that would send billions oversees to protect the borders of other countries, while allowing an invasion into the U.S. of nearly two million illegal aliens every year. A City Journal piece details how the Biden administration has every intention of allowing illegal aliens to flood the country regardless of negotiated “bipartisan” border bills. “Why is Biden releasing millions of illegal aliens into the U.S?” Because he thinks that his notion of ‘equity’ — which he extends to non-U.S. citizens — requires it.”
Equity has been the leading justification for radical progressive policies — from open borders to men playing in women’s sports — that undermine the American way of life. In forcing a subjective application of “fairness” to achieve equal outcomes, equity serves to redistribute permanent economic, political, and cultural power to the Left. Republicans — like McConnell, Lankford, and others — who negotiate with equity-espousing radicals should be sent packing for their duplicity.
Take recent dramatic events in North Carolina, for example.
The NC Republican Superintendent of Education Catherine Truitt heckled a speaker at a local county GOP meeting last week. The speaker, Johnston County school board member Michelle Antoine, took the stage to support Truitt’s opponent in the Republican primary. “Not true!” Truitt shouted several times as Antoine listed concerns about Truitt’s record on equity. When Antoine calmly continued, Truitt stormed out of the room.
In her attempt to shout down the speaker, Truitt exempted herself from her own September 28th, 2021 memo directing parents “to act with civility and respect for our teachers, local boards, superintendents, and school staff.” Parents must be polite and obedient when school officials mask and isolate children, but legitimate criticism of a sitting superintendent from within one’s party warrants vocal belligerence.
Antoine triggered the hostility after alerting the audience to Truitt’s prioritized programming in equity:
“One of the first things [Truitt] did when she went [into office] four years ago was create an office of equity that did not exist.”
“Not true! That’s not true! Don’t lie!” shouted Truitt from the audience.
Past emails authored by Truitt prove Antoine correct. In October 2021, Antoine emailed Truitt about the creation of an Office of Equity Affairs at the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Truitt replied, “My new office is called the Office of Educational Equity because we are focused on equity for ALL students,” indeed taking credit for creating a department in charge of equity for North Carolina students.
According to Truitt’s own words, the “true definition” of equity is not the socialist principle of ensuring equal outcomes, but “giving all students what they need at the time they need it.” To support her position, Truitt included a graphic from UNESCO; however, the graphic — from a progressive globalist organization — contradicts Truitt’s arbitrary characterization of equity by picturing children standing on various sized boxes to equalize their heights to reach a chalkboard. Equal heights = equal outcomes.
As if that weren’t embarrassing enough, Truitt interrupted again when Antoine discussed Truitt’s disdain for high-performing magnet schools.
“Catherine Truitt is on record on a video talking about how she wants to get rid of magnet schools, high-performing magnet schools,” reported Antoine at the GOP meeting.
“That’s not true!” interrupted Truitt.
“I have the video, Catherine,” responded Antoine.
“Show them the video, Michelle!” yelled the agitated education superintendent.
Antoine posted the video on X. In the November 2020 interview the Republican superintendent stated:
But back to the issue of segregation. I’m more concerned with in-school segregation that comes from inequity with advanced classes. And our magnet schools are some of the worst perpetrators of in school segregation.
Blaming merit-based advanced courses for segregation and publicly charging that magnet schools perpetuate inequities hardly sounds like the thinking of a solid Republican school choice candidate. Truitt might as well have recited the Democrat Party stance on school choice: “[NC Democrats] recognize charter schools are a contributing factor to re-segregating our student populations.” Perhaps that is why Truitt left in a huff.
Kenny Xu, a NC republican candidate for Congress and author of the book An Inconvenient Minority attended the GOP event. In an X thread he detailed Truitt’s points, including her desperate attempts to play off Antoine’s concerns as lies. He concluded:
Flatly, Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt “flunks” her attempt to defend her record on CRT, DEI, Equity, and has presided over a decidedly middling educational period during her time, while remaining cozy to the DEI/CRT lobbyists at the center of this national educational disaster. She deserves to go.
Xu is correct. This is hardly the first controversy Truitt generated exposing her true colors of promoting and protecting DEI agendas.
In 2021 a conservative professor, Dr. David Phillips from the Governor’s School, the NCDPI gifted and talented summer program, was fired suddenly without explanation after criticizing CRT and giving optional lectures on free speech. Phillips launched a lawsuit with nationally recognized Alliance Defending Freedom against leaders in the DPI for wrongful termination. Although not named in the suit, Truitt wrote a defensive public letter to the NC General Assembly supporting the leftist bureaucracy and leadership she had put in charge of Governor’s School. She accused the teacher of using “racial slurs” and “belittl[ing] students” without evidence. Phillips rebutted Truitt’s baseless accusations.
In the name of equity, Truitt herself introduced CRT programing into the state educational system. A September 2022 state school board working meeting centered around an equity framework created by the National Equity Project (NEP). NEP is an activism-based group, whose philosophy focuses upon liberatory systems, white privilege, systemic racism, and implicit biases. The non-profit openly cheers the Black Panther movements of the 60s and 70s and blogs support for communist movements. Emails recovered from a public records request prove Truitt recommended the NEP’s equity framework for State Board of Education policy working sessions.
The education race in North Carolina exemplifies that of Republican politics nationwide. Calls for unity fall flat while incumbent “conservatives” promote equity agendas and incompetent bureaucracies, not to mention open borders. In the case of North Carolina, the “Republican” in charge of education:
- Chastises parents in public letters for uncivil behaviors while considering herself exempt from civil discourse
- Accuses magnet schools of perpetrating segregation and inequities, mimicking Democratic Party platforms
- Takes credit for creating a state Office of Educational Equity, using a UNESCO graphic defining equity as equal outcomes all while denying doing so
- Defames conservative teachers who expose woke curriculum at great personal cost
- Introduces policy frameworks from activist and communist-based organizations
To unify with “Republican” records like this one is untenable. Tolerating progressive ideals of equity within Republican ranks for the sake of “getting along” is a duplicitous strategy designed to deliver this county to the Left.
Image: U.S. Congress
