'Make America Great Again' labeled as white supremacy in Iowa CRT training for teachers

Benny Johnson of Newsmax uncovered so-called “anti-racism” training was done in the state of Iowa by the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency.

His main concern was whether or not the state of Iowa would enforce a ban against CRT and postmodernist “diversity” related teachings.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds published a statement in response to Johnson’s findings.

“This is indoctrination not education. And it’s exactly why I took action to ban teaching divisive concepts and critical race theory in Iowa schools. Kids need to be taught how to think and not what to think.”

Johnson’s primary concern raised is surrounding “Make America Great Again” being considered a borderline “white supremacist” belief, according to the presentation material. He goes on to highlight how Trump won “94 out of 99 Iowa counties” in the 2020 election, to demonstrate how polarizing it is to have CRT training happening within the state.

(Other examples included: “Denial of White Privilege,” “Euro-centric Curriculum,” “Anti-Immigration Policies/Practices,” and “not challenging racist jokes.”)

When it comes to the leaked files themselves: a review of the sign-in sheet materials shows that between March 10th and May 21st, 2021, various teachers in the Iowa school system participated in an “anti-racism” training course. A scenario in which participants were instructed to review and construct an “anti-racism” commitment statement to abide by.

Johnson notes that by June 8th, 2021, the state of Iowa officially banned anti-racism and critical race theory related instruction. Benny points out the contrast between that and the slideshow claiming that more anti-racism workshops were to happen at the start of the next school year.

CRT is applicable to describe this training since the “anti-racism” slideshow cites the likes of Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi, as well as “the creators of Critical Race Theory Jean Stefancic and Richard Delgado.”

According to the about us page, MBAEA acts as a grouping intermediary providing services to different schools. 21 public schools and 15 private institutions are within the MBAEA network.