Vice President Kamala Harris’s niece, Meena Harris, urged parents to teach Critical Race Theory to their children at home if it is banned in public schools.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Meena Harris argued that efforts to ban CRT from the public school system are really just an attempt to keep Americans from acknowledging “the history and realities of racism.”
“The recent right-wing crusade against ‘critical race theory’ — a term so frightening its opponents dare not even learn what it means — is the latest manifestation of that deeply rooted trend,” she wrote.
“In the face of such daunting challenges, what are parents to do?” Meena Harris continued. “Until and unless we see the systemic change to properly desegregate our children’s schools and un-whitewash the curriculum, we need to fill the gaps ourselves.”
Parents should “start taking time at home to discuss the injustices that shaped our nation’s past, the work still to be done in our present, and the values that should define our future,” she added.
One way to start incorporating CRT at home is by filling “kids’ bookshelves” with books about racial justice and minority communities, Meena Harris said.
“Parents need to share narratives with their children that are historically accurate and anti-racist,” she opined.
“They need to tell stories that say what politicians are afraid to, and what so many teachers now can’t: that this country was stolen from Indigenous people, founded by white supremacists, and built on the backs of enslaved people — and that racism shapes our society to this day,” she said, using the New York Times’s widely debunked 1619 Project as a reading parent could assign their children.
Kamala Harris relies heavily on her nieces’ political advice, according to CNN. Meena Harris and a few other family members exert “influence over everything from staff hires to political decisions,” the outlet reported.