The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Email sent to speaker stirs concern
‘Troubling’ message sent anonymously after talk on race
GUILFORD — A Quinnipiac University professor received a “troubling” anonymous email after speaking about critical race theory this week at a Guilford Human Rights Commission meeting, officials said Thursday.
Angela Robinson, a lawyer, judge, diversity consultant and professor who teaches critical race theory at Quinnipiac University School of Law, discussed the topic on Tuesday and was expected to be invited back to give another presentation. Some have accused Guilford schools of teaching critical race theory, a controversial academic framework through which to view systems of racism and oppression in America. However, the superintendent and school officials have denied critical race theory is being taught in Guilford classrooms.
The issue has sparked a heated debate for months in Guilford and apparently led to the anonymous email, which was posted Wednesday on the Human Rights Commission’s Facebook page.
“Guilford is a community of over 96% whites, they should be taught to love their race as you expect blacks to do,” the email stated, according to the Facebook post. “You should be working to build up your own race, rather than tearing down the culture of
other races, this is an antiwhite agenda. I expect you will be met with great resistance when you are in Guilford.”
First Selectman Matt Hoey called the email “troubling,” stating it does not represent the town.
Human Rights Commission Chair Jo Keogh, who posted the email on the Facebook page, said the anonymous email was sent using a ProtonMail account, which is encrypted and difficult to trace. However, Keogh stated Guilford police are able to trace these types of accounts, but said he did not believe they were investigating.
Guilford police did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
In the Facebook post, Keogh wrote that the commission condemns hate speech, harassment and intimidation and will not be swayed from bringing equality initiatives to the community.
“I want to be clear that Angela did not, at any time, tear down the culture of ANY race, nor was her agenda anti-white. In fact, she stated — twice — that not everyone agrees with CRT, and that her sole agenda in teaching it is to allow people to make informed decisions about it for themselves,” Keogh wrote in her statement.
Prior to the anonymous email, the Human Rights Commission voted unanimously to bring Robinson back for another educational presentation for the town. The proposal was
planned to be sent to the Board of Selectmen for a vote during its August meeting.
Robinson’s presentation on critical race theory
Robinson began her career in law in 1989, the same year critical race theory was first discussed
during a workshop of law professors in Wisconsin.
Her presentation to the commission included details on what led her to study critical race theory. Robinson questioned why the legal field was still not diverse in 1989, why white net worth was higher than other races and why segregation
was still a problem after Brown vs. Board of Education.
“Critical race theory actually provides a great way to look at the problem,” Robinson said. “It gives you a way to answer the question why. It is an approach. It’s a perspective and it’s a theory. Doesn’t
mean you have to agree with it, but it is a way to answer why these disparities have persisted.”
Robinson stated during her presentation that critical race theory uses an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on social science, neuroscience, sociology, social work and health care. Critical race theory stems from critical legal studies, which believes that the law is not neutral but a tool of the wealthy to remain in power.
Critical race theory took some ideas from critical legal studies, Robinson said, but centers on racial inequity and racial hierarchy.
To Robinson, there are three unifying principles: race is a social construct, the color-blind approach does not work and that racism is pervasive, which she calls the most radical principle.
She said people mostly struggle with the idea that racism is pervasive, Robinson said.
“So for critical race theorists, racism involves more than individual bad actors. The critical race theory paradigm looks beyond explanations of racial inequities that focus on individual bad actors,” Robinson said.
Systemic racism is also included in critical race theory, meaning the societal norms and systems work in reinforcing ways to disadvantage people of color and racism is present in these systems.
“Critical race theory challenges that whole notion that equality is equity,” Robinson said. “Equality, in a lot of ways, is what we have achieved in the law, right? We have gotten rid of these racial prohibitions in the law, we have said, we’re going to have race neutral laws, that isn’t making equity for everyone.”