Republicans promote site that delivers names of anti-racist teachers to right-wingers

Several Republican lawmakers and candidates on Wednesday promoted a newly launched conservative site dedicated to publishing the names of educators who have said they will incorporate anti-racist ideas into their work.

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) first tweeted a link to a post on Gateway Pundit, a conservative blog with a history of misinformation and discrimination, that detailed the launch of the “Expose Critical Race Theory Project.”

The project describes itself as “the only online database that tracks Critical Race Theory bigots in real time.”

Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a candidate for the state’s 7th Congressional District, followed suit a short while later, sharing the link on Twitter and writing, “Excellent.”

Bobby Jeffries, one of several candidates running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, also shared the link. “There are many of these bigots in Pennsylvania. I refuse to allow our children be brainwashed with this Marxist ideology!” he tweeted. “Be sure to report any educator, elected official or activist who is spreading this hate. GET CRT OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS!”

Apparently aware that the information on the site could be used to fuel offline attacks on the people listed, the project notes, “This database is in no way, shape, or form meant to DOXX these individuals, simply hold them accountable for their bigoted beliefs.”

Conservatives and Republicans have for months been smearing “critical race theory,” which is the academic study of systemic racism in America most often taught at the post-graduate or collegiate level, but not at the K-12 level. Inaccurately, the right and affiliated media outlets like Fox News have described any anti-racist curricula, campaigns, and the like as “critical race theory.”

Gaetz has been at the forefront of such attacks in recent months, which the party has said it views as a vehicle to return to congressional majorities in the 2022 midterm elections.

The Expose Critical Race Theory Project site notes that the initial information in the database is based on responses to a pledge from the Zinn Education Project, which some educators have signed in response to Republican attempts to censor anti-racist education.

Zinn project signatories pledge to teach “the truth” about U.S. history, including that “it was founded on dispossession of Native Americans, slavery, structural racism and oppression; and structural racism is a defining characteristic of our society today.”

The anti-critical race theory project is the work of a political action committee aligned with former President Donald Trump, called the Great American Patriot Project. The committee retweeted Gaetz’s, Jeffries’, and Sabatini’s posts promoting its work.

In a press release for the project Wednesday morning, Alex Phillips, the PAC’s founder, stated, “The parents of America deserve to know if their children’s minds are being poisoned by the racist ideologies that are part of Critical Race Theory.”

Phillips is no stranger to controversy. He has promoted several right-wing conspiracy theories on his official Twitter account, recently retweeting a post from the American Priority Fest, which he also runs, describing Afghan refugees as a “horde of 100,000 military age men” who will turn American cities into “little Kabul.”

On Aug. 14, he mused about whether the recent earthquake in Haiti could be man-made; on Aug. 6, he described President Joe Biden as “President Pedo.”

Phillips also retweeted a post that claimed, “the FBI organized the January 6th riot,” which is a lie previously advanced by both Gaetz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.