Recently, a Virginia parent stepped up to the microphone at her local school board meeting and threatened to come back with “loaded guns ready” if they voted to mandate masks in schools. In Texas after George Floyd’s murder, James Whitfield, a popular new Black principal, sent to the school community an uplifting and well-received email that acknowledged the existence of systemic racism. More than a year later, after the trumped-up scaremongering about Critical Race Theory took hold, Whitfield was fired.
As noted by This American Life, which chronicles this and other stories in an episode called Talking While Black, “. . . the script has flipped. Public conversations have moved from let’s all try and understand and talk about systemic racism to let’s never mention systemic racism. . . . We went from anti-racist books crowding the bestsellers list to banning kids’ books about Rosa Parks.”
It’s happening everywhere, particularly at public school meetings. As Mike, an Afghanistan veteran, husband, father of three, and Down Home North Carolina member from rural Johnston County, puts it, “Why did everyone in my county just go crazy at the school board?”
First it was uproar over Critical Race Theory. Then masks and vaccines. More recently it’s been accusations about “pornography” in schools, targeting LGBTQ students. Mike notes, “Something that didn’t exist and was never a problem seemed to have been made into a problem.” His brothers, in two different parts of the country, see the same thing in their school districts.
There’s no question that the pandemic has created a crisis for parents, kids, teachers, staff, and education policymakers in schools throughout our increasingly polarized country. But exploiting that pandemic stress and fomenting division for political gain is also a well-funded, organized, right-wing strategy. Christopher Rufo, the conservative activist and darling of Fox News most responsible for whipping up CRT hysteria, spells it out: “We have successfully frozen their brand—‘critical race theory’—into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category.”
In other words, as Michelle Goldberg writes in The New York Times, “people like Rufo have succeeded in turning critical race theory into a catchall term for discussions of race that conservatives don’t like.” Rufo revealed his true intent to Goldberg a few months later: “I’ve unlocked a new terrain in the culture war, and demonstrated a successful strategy . . . We are right now preparing a strategy of laying siege to the institutions.”
“In practice,” Goldberg then explains, “this means promoting the traditional Republican school choice agenda: private school vouchers, charter schools and home-schooling.” She quotes Rufo: “The public schools are waging war against American children and American families. Families, in turn, should have a fundamental right to exit.”
Or perhaps it’s an organized conservative push waging war on public education?
To Mike, the Down Home member, it certainly feels like something fishy is going on. Why else are people in his community suddenly going crazy, and why is Madison Cawthorn, the right-wing provocateur and a childless congressman from a district 300 miles away from Mike’s kids’ school, showing up at their local school board?
The right wing, capitalizing on their manufactured hysteria under the guise of promoting “parental rights,” is sowing division—and distracting attention away from real issues schools face–in communities across America. One such homespun-sounding group, “Moms for Liberty,” has strong ties to and gets funding from GOP elites and conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation. As Media Matters notes about the group’s purported focus, “’Parental rights’ means strategically harassing public schools.”
Ultra-conservatives, continuing their years’ long assault on public education through systematic underfunding, are also pouring money into school board races across the country. Allen West, the Texan Republican who makes Governor Greg Abbott look like a liberal, notes: “The most important elected position in the United States of America is school board . . .The election to have the least amount of voter participation in the United States of America is the school board.” This latter point makes it easy to manipulate pandemic stress and stage a takeover.
Down Home’s Gwen Frisbie-Fulton describes the ground-level havoc: “We are pretty alarmed with what we are seeing here in North Carolina: Proud Boys showing up regularly in different counties to intimidate parents attending school board meetings, extremist groups approaching high schoolers outside their schools, QAnon candidates filing to run for office, a Stop the Steal participant being given a seat in our statehouse after the elected official passed away. . . The far-right wants to replicate Virginia’s ‘parental rights’ playbook in North Carolina, and we’re keeping an eye on it.”
Down Home is doing a lot more than that. In collaboration with North Carolinians for Safety, Truth, and Reason, they’re holding forums to talk about what’s happening and why, empowering parents to show up consistently and effectively so “school boards know we need them to stay the course and not be bullied by whoever can say the most outlandish things at board meetings.”
One such online forum, “Help! I’m Speaking at School Board!,” invited a member of a rural county’s Board of Education to talk about what her job is like nowadays. Describing the aggression and misinformation at public meetings, she also revealed that the vast majority of written comments board members receive support mask mandates and more inclusive library books and lessons. But you’d never know it because media coverage amplifies the often belligerent people who currently dominate the space—that’s why it’s so important to show up. Those on the Zoom call immediately felt less alone and inspired to speak up in person. Down Home and NCSTARS gives them the tools: how to find out when your school board meets, what makes an effective public comment, practice in doing so, and lots of encouraging handouts and follow-up.
As Down Home’s Frisbie-Fulton notes, “It all fits together, and we are here to help folks understand that and organize against it.”
Such efforts don’t just counter the craziness we’re seeing. They also offer a window into how grassroots organizations successfully engage community members about what’s affecting their daily lives, and what they can do about it. It’s what Down Home North Carolina and similar groups do day in and day out to build solidarity, courage, and effectiveness. It’s the heart and soul of making America a better place for all.
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I know about Down Home North Carolina through my involvement with Airlift, which raises money to support grassroots organizations in key areas throughout the country to engage and empower people normally left out of the political process, turning non-voters into voters. Check it out!
In addition to the many links included in the post, check out these for a deeper dive:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/20/the-man-behind-critical-race-theory
https://www.nbcnews.com/southlake-podcast
https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/southlake-podcast-race-debate/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/21/fox-news-lie-school-board-domestic-terrorists/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/01/critical-race-theory-voting-rights-gop/621383/
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“And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.”
– Amanda Gorman, 2021 Inaugural Poem, The Hill We Climb
Think back to a year ago. No, not the insurrection, but the day before. On January 5th, both Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won their Georgia run-offs, turning the U.S. Senate the palest – but still lovely! – shade of blue. Honestly, to most of us, the likelihood of not just one but both of these men prevailing seemed preposterous. But we opened our checkbooks, rolled up our sleeves, and got to work anyway. Their victories felt miraculous.
But of course it wasn’t a miracle at all. It was the determination, hard work, and generosity of everyone – doubtful and hopeful alike – who stepped up. Led by primarily Black grassroots organizers whose persistent movement building had just put the state in Biden’s column, legions of activists and volunteers knocked on doors, registered new voters, phone banked, wrote letters and postcards, texted, and donated hundreds of millions of dollars.
As a result, Democratic turnout, especially in counties with a large share of Black voters, smashed records. As Nse Ufot, head of the New Georgia Project said at the time, “The margins are so small that every action, including your vote, matters and will make a difference. Black voters got that message. Black voters recognized that we need to complete the task.”
Now we turn to the task of securing a better and more progressive future in 2022, “striving,” as Amanda Gorman reminds us, “to form our union with purpose.“
The hill we must climb in 2022 is indeed steep. Yet we’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. In the spirit of January 5, 2021, and of the poet, we greet the New Year with purpose and resolve.
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I wrote this for the January issue of “The Drop,” a newsletter I produce for Airlift, an all-volunteer group near and dear to my heart. Airlift raises money for progressive grassroots organizations in key areas throughout the country. The groups we fund excel at turning non-voters into voters, especially in communities of color, women, and young people–exactly the groups who made all the difference in the 2020 election, and will do so again in 2022.
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Grassroots organizing is where it’s at, and I’ve gotten involved with Airlift, which raises funds to support some amazing organizations doing crucial work to turn non-voters into voters in key areas throughout the country. Check out this latest in my “On the Ground” series.
2020 is here, a hugely consequential year for our country and the world. As we welcome the New Year with hope and renewed determination for the work ahead, we also welcome a new organization into the fold that Airlift funds: Down Home North Carolina.
Down Home exemplifies the winning strategy of building political power from the ground up by engaging and expanding the electorate with those who have been most marginalized. Founded in June 2017 by organizers Todd Zimmer and Brigid Flaherty, Down Home’s focus is on building long-term, progressive infrastructure to empower working families in rural and small-town communities across North Carolina. The co-directors both have deep roots in the state, and have witnessed how well-funded, right-wing interests have exploited racial differences and the rural/urban divide, pitting white, black, immigrant, and LGBTQ working families against one another to maintain power. Since 80 out of 100 North Carolina counties are rural, the balance of power won’t shift without investing in the vast people power ready to be unlocked in these long-neglected regions. After learning how to organize for issue advocacy and electoral success, Zimmer and Flaherty returned home to North Carolina to do “the heart work” necessary for making local, state, and national government serve the people’s interests, not the rich and powerful.
One of Down Home’s major undertakings was a Deep Listening Canvass, with trained canvassers holding more than 1,000 conversations across the political, racial, and economic spectrum in rural areas. Through nonjudgmental listening and sharing personal stories, those who commonly distrust one another discovered shared values and interests, coming together to forcefully advocate for Medicaid expansion, fair wages, education, the end of cash bail, and solutions to the opioid crisis.
These issues matter to communities that have been devastated by the grinding poverty brought about by a hollowed-out economy and the defunding of education and social programs under Republican rule. Listening makes a huge difference: “No one’s ever asked me before,” was a common refrain among Deep Canvass participants. Such respectful engagement shifts not only hearts and minds, but participation: People who have never before paid attention to politics are now attending Town Halls and Leadership Trainings, challenging their elected representatives and injustice in the courts, educating their neighbors, working hard for electoral change, even running for—and winning!—office. DHNC-supported candidates won six out of eight local races—and would have won another had a tie-breaking coin toss gone the other way! On a state-wide basis, DHNC has joined Democratic Governor Roy Cooper in support of Medicaid expansion, and continue to fight the Republican-controlled legislators who consistently block healthcare for half a million North Carolinians. Member efforts have been featured in a New York Times op-doc.
Down Home also provides on-the-ground services to those in need. Through distributing clean syringes and Naloxone, the antidote to an opioid overdose, more than 130 lives have been saved. Coordinator Mary Kate Crisp says, “I lived with active addiction for three years, and when I stopped using, I started going out into the community to volunteer. It was a big piece of my recovery, and I was thrilled when I was hired by Down Home this summer.” In addition to distributing life-saving interventions, Crisp and her team work tirelessly to educate, break down stigma, direct people to services, and organize direct advocacy actions.
Another major DHNC campaign is fighting the cash bail system through court-watching, advocacy, and raising money to pay bail for those whose lives will be devastated simply because they cannot pay to stay out of jail while their cases are adjudicated. Such programs are not obviously “political,” but working to improve peoples’ lives is a powerful antidote to disengagement, and brings important electoral shifts that benefit those who have been left behind.
In it for the long haul, Down Home North Carolina has demonstrated astonishing growth and success in a very short time. Their membership has doubled, there are chapters in five counties with plans for another five, and they have knocked on thousands of doors and gotten more than 1,000 low-propensity voters to cast ballots. With engagement comes hope, and a transformation within rural communities ground down by poverty and division from survival mode to enthusiastic participation and leadership. Goals for 2020 include flipping the State House from Red to Blue; protecting Governor Roy Cooper; defeating Senator Thom Tillis, and expanding the vote in rural communities to put North Carolina back into the blue column of the Electoral College.
With your help, all of this is within reach, in this crucial year and over the long-term. As Airlift founder Danny Altman says about Down Home North Carolina, “They have the smarts, the organizing skills, the allies, the data, the plan. All they need is the money.”
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Your generosity makes a difference. Please support Down Home North Carolina and all the other great grassroots organizations Airlift funds by donating at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/airlift. Thank you!
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