Unpacking Critical Race Theory: A Conversation with Dr. George S. Maurer
Dr. George Maurer, joins Dr. Haney to discuss the controversial topic of critical race theory (CRT) and its implications in the education system. Maurer, a retired Air Force master sergeant and award-winning broadcast journalist, shares his insights from his recently published book, "Critical Race Theory in Your School: How to Fight Back." He emphasizes the importance of parents being vigilant about what their children are being taught in schools, as CRT has been subtly integrated into various subjects under different names. Throughout the conversation, Maurer, highlights the challenges he faced in researching CRT and the pushback he received for his views, urging parents to advocate for their children's education and maintain their rights as primary educators. The discussion ultimately underscores the need for awareness and action among parents to protect their children's upbringing in an increasingly complex educational landscape.
Dr. George Maurer, an experienced broadcast journalist and retired Air Force master sergeant, joins Dr. Haney for a compelling discussion centered on critical race theory (CRT) and its implications in today's educational landscape. Maurer, who has spent over 35 years in journalism, recounts his personal journey into the controversial topic that has polarized communities across the United States. He shares how his explorations into CRT were sparked by the misunderstandings surrounding it, particularly after he published a book addressing the subject. Maurer emphasizes the need for parents to remain vigilant about what their children are learning in schools, as CRT often lurks beneath the surface of seemingly benign educational content. He encourages open dialogue among parents and educators and advocates for a grassroots approach to challenging the infiltration of CRT in classrooms.
As they delve deeper, Maurer, articulates the fundamental principles of CRT, describing it as a Marxist ideology that pits races against one another rather than fostering understanding and unity. He passionately argues that the narrative surrounding CRT often misrepresents its goals, framing it as a tool that exacerbates racial tensions rather than alleviating them. Maurer,'s insights are bolstered by his experiences with former military colleagues and the challenges he faced when discussing CRT with peers, showcasing the societal pushback he encountered. The episode is rich with anecdotes, including Maurer's encounters with educators who deny teaching CRT while simultaneously promoting curricula that aligns with its principles.
The conversation culminates in a powerful message about parental responsibility in safeguarding children's education. Maurer,'s call to action resonates throughout the dialogue, urging parents to take an active role in their children's schooling by scrutinizing course materials and engaging with school boards. The episode serves as a clarion call for awareness and involvement, emphasizing the notion that children belong to their families, not the state or educational institutions. Muir leaves listeners with a profound reminder to trust their instincts as parents and advocates for their children's futures, reinforcing the idea that knowledge and vigilance are essential tools in this ongoing battle over educational content.
Takeaways:
- Dr. George Maurer, emphasizes the importance of parents being vigilant about their children's education.
- Critical race theory is often presented in a way that can mislead parents and students.
- Maurer, argues that education should focus on hope and progress rather than guilt and shame.
- The ongoing debate about critical race theory highlights deep societal divisions regarding race and education.
- Parents are encouraged to challenge school curricula that they believe undermine their values.
- Maurer, advocates for parents to actively engage with school boards and community organizations.
Transcript
My guest today is Dr.
Dr. Haney:George S.
Dr. Haney:Muir.
Dr. Haney:He is an award winning broadcast journalist with more than 35 years of experience.
Dr. Haney:He's a retired Air Force master sergeant who deployed to Iraq during global war on terrorism.
Dr. Haney:He also served overseas in Japan, Korea, the Portuguese and Alaska.
Dr. Haney:For his final assignment, he served in a Pentagon press briefing room alongside all major news organizations.
Dr. Haney:He's interviewed top defense officials such as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, as well as rock stars like Sammy Hagar and Pat Benatar.
Dr. Haney:During his career, he covered a wide range of major events such as the first military tribunals of enemy combatants in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the super bowl.
Dr. Haney:We welcome Dr.
Dr. Haney:Muir to the podcast.
Dr. Haney:Well, George, welcome to the podcast.
Dr. Haney:How you doing today?
Dr. George Muir:Very well, Dr.
Dr. George Muir:Haney, I really appreciate you having me on today.
Dr. Haney:I'm so looking forward to this conversation.
Dr. Haney:One of my favorite topics and one of the topics that got me in the most trouble as early podcaster is trying to talk about critical race theory.
Dr. Haney:So I'm looking forward to us having this conversation again.
Dr. George Muir:That'll do it.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah, yeah, I've had, I've had a few people, a few friends unfriend me and go go the other way.
Dr. George Muir:As a matter of fact, I ran into a fellow former military person.
Dr. George Muir:We were in the same career field, broadcast journalism.
Dr. George Muir:And I never met her, heard about her many times, heard of her many times and she's was very successful and she's actually written a book and, and she lives here in the area and camp and I live near Temecula, California and so does she.
Dr. George Muir:And there's a Marine Corps base there called Camp Pendleton and they happen to have a fantastic RV park that we go to sit on the beach and I mean right on the beach.
Dr. George Muir:It's really nice.
Dr. George Muir:So I just happened to run into her on base, you know, and I was like, oh yeah, congratulations on your book.
Dr. George Muir:And by the way, I've written one too.
Dr. George Muir:She goes, oh really?
Dr. George Muir:I go, yeah, it was about critical RA race theory.
Dr. George Muir:And she kind of opened her eyes a little bit and I mean, the conversation ended in about 10 seconds.
Dr. George Muir:She literally turned on her heel and ran away from me.
Dr. Haney:Well, that's funny.
Dr. George Muir:So, yeah, critical race theory.
Dr. George Muir:We'll, we'll get you in trouble if you're not careful.
Dr. Haney:Yeah, well, I, I got privately docked about it with a surprise group behind on behind the scenes just, you know, ripping me apart for my thought.
Dr. Haney:And I was trying to help explain it because I don't think people Understand it, we have the view of it from what the media says, what people are saying in the world, but not truly understand.
Dr. Haney:I wanted just to kind of do a podcast on.
Dr. Haney:Let me tell you what it is.
Dr. Haney:You can decide how you feel about it, but you should at least know what it is you're talking about.
Dr. George Muir:Right, exactly.
Dr. George Muir:I agree.
Dr. George Muir:And that's why I wrote this book, was because I was, well, I was, you know, needed a good topic for my dissertation and I wanted something that was going to keep my attention.
Dr. George Muir: ring in the Air force back in: Dr. George Muir:Oh, you're a Republican and a conservative.
Dr. George Muir:Conservative more so than Republican, because a lot of Republicans have.
Dr. George Muir:There's the word rhino is out there.
Dr. George Muir:Republican in name only for a very good reason.
Dr. Haney:Right.
Dr. George Muir:But anyway, you know, I mean, I thought these people were my friends.
Dr. George Muir:And also you, oh, you must be a racist.
Dr. George Muir:You're a racist.
Dr. George Muir:You're a racist.
Dr. George Muir:You're a racist.
Dr. George Muir:No, I'm not a racist.
Dr. George Muir:What did I say here that has anything to do with race?
Dr. George Muir:Nothing.
Dr. George Muir:That doesn't make me a racist.
Dr. George Muir:Because I want a conservative economy, you know, and so, you know, I believe in capitalism.
Dr. George Muir:That doesn't make me a racist.
Dr. George Muir:And so I had this conversation for probably 10 years with people and a lot of them basically gave up.
Dr. George Muir:They began unfriending me and, which was fine.
Dr. George Muir:I'd rather, I'd rather be unfriended in truth than friend friended in falsities.
Dr. Haney:You know, ego.
Dr. Haney:Right.
Dr. George Muir:And so, so, but anyway, I, I, that's what got my interest on this subject.
Dr. George Muir:But then when I started talking to people about it, a lot of parents in particular were concerned about it.
Dr. George Muir:They maybe had done a little research, were more confused after looking it up on the Internet.
Dr. George Muir:And I said, okay, well, I know that's my topic and I know what I have to do with it.
Dr. George Muir:I have to explain it and provide some strategies to help folks can stand up to it if they so choose.
Dr. George Muir:And so here I am.
Dr. Haney:Cool.
Dr. Haney:We're going to get to that in a second.
Dr. Haney:But we got to get to my favorite question first, which is, what's the best piece of advice you've ever received that stuck with you throughout your career?
Dr. George Muir:Oh, boy.
Dr. George Muir:Well, I suppose it was try to learn from others mistakes so that you aren't forced to commit those mistakes yourself.
Dr. George Muir:Unfortunately, I wasn't really bright enough to follow that advice in many situations.
Dr. George Muir:But, you know, but, but as far as Christianity is concerned, Myself, as a Christian, I would say my best advice was simple, you know, try to love God and the best you can, and try to love others the best you can.
Dr. George Muir:And, you know, I'm certainly no biblical scholar, but, you know, when Jesus says those are the two most important things to keep in mind, then seems like a pretty good way to go, if you ask me.
Dr. Haney:Yeah, really hard to argue with that, right?
Dr. George Muir:It's very hard to argue with that.
Dr. George Muir:Yep, definitely.
Dr. Haney:I'm also curious, as you think about your life, who are some people that served as a mentor for you, maybe an inspiration for you?
Dr. Haney:What about them made them special?
Dr. Haney:If you want to give them a shout out, here's a chance to do that.
Dr. George Muir:Well, unfortunately, there's a few of them that they've passed on now, so I'm not sure how much, you know, how much good it would do to, to name them, but there was one guy in particular in the military, and, man, I hated this guy.
Dr. George Muir:I hated him with a passion.
Dr. George Muir:And I don't think he really liked me all that much in the beginning either, which is okay, so.
Dr. George Muir:But he was hard on me, but in a good way, you know.
Dr. George Muir:And so I was someone who needed some structure.
Dr. George Muir:I was someone who needed a little discipline.
Dr. George Muir:And he provided it to me, even though I took it kicking and screaming.
Dr. George Muir:But in the long run, you know, I had one assignment with him and, boy, I couldn't stand him.
Dr. George Muir:But, you know, he helped me.
Dr. George Muir:And I was very successful in military broadcasting.
Dr. George Muir:There's different awards, and the army level award is called a Keith L.
Dr. George Muir:Ware.
Dr. George Muir:And then there's.
Dr. George Muir:Which is, you know, best in army, and then there's best in the Defense Department.
Dr. George Muir:And I won a Thomas Jefferson Award working for him for that first time.
Dr. George Muir:So that was a very successful moment.
Dr. George Muir:And then a couple of tours later, he came in and became my boss again.
Dr. George Muir:And I just remember thinking, oh, man, oh, not him, Please, not this guy.
Dr. George Muir:But he came in and, you know, we, you know, and again, he was tough on me, but I learned a lot from him and I became a better person for it and all those things.
Dr. George Muir:And his, his name was Pete Cassiano, so.
Dr. George Muir:And it was funny because I, I ran into.
Dr. George Muir:I was just getting ready to retire.
Dr. George Muir:I was walking, I was working in the Pentagon for my very last assignment and on what they call media row.
Dr. George Muir:So you got cnn, you know, NBC, abc, blah, blah, blah.
Dr. George Muir:And then you had what was called the Pentagon Channel, which is what I worked for, which is the military or is part of the military, military journalism career field.
Dr. George Muir:And I was just walking down the hall and boom, it was like two days before I was getting ready to retire.
Dr. George Muir:And boom, there I am.
Dr. George Muir:Or there he was.
Dr. George Muir:And it was like, hey, you know, and how's it going?
Dr. George Muir:You know, we talked a little bit and he said that he used to use me when he taught leadership courses.
Dr. George Muir:He would use me as an example all the time.
Dr. George Muir:And what he said was, both times he came in to the unit to be a supervisor and a leader, he was given the advice that I was a problem child.
Dr. George Muir:Now I am a problem child.
Dr. George Muir:But, but, you know, but you know what I mean?
Dr. George Muir:I was, I was, I won't go on, I won't defend myself.
Dr. George Muir:But so he said when once he came in and took over, I seemed to turn right around.
Dr. George Muir:And both times I also won an Air Force level award for a television spot for the second tour that I was with him.
Dr. George Muir:And he would say to his class, the previous boss thought he was a problem child.
Dr. George Muir:Both times he worked for me, he was an award winning broadcaster.
Dr. George Muir:So who really had the problem?
Dr. George Muir:And so as a leadership person, yourself, I mean, you know, I'm not saying I was an angel.
Dr. George Muir:I'm not saying I didn't push the limits a little bit.
Dr. George Muir:But you know what, you know, he explained to me, he goes, you know, you, you're someone who just needs structure.
Dr. George Muir:And through my experiences with him, I always had it externally.
Dr. George Muir:I always needed structure externally.
Dr. George Muir:But working with Pete Cassiano, I learned to provide my own internal structure.
Dr. George Muir:And without all of those things that I learned from him, I never would have had the discipline to spend three years basically writing this book.
Dr. George Muir:And which is what I did.
Dr. George Muir:So.
Dr. Haney:Wow, what a neat story.
Dr. Haney:I appreciate you sharing that.
Dr. George Muir:Oh, that's okay.
Dr. George Muir:I don't mind sharing some of my rougher edges.
Dr. Haney:No, that's so phenomenal.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah.
Dr. Haney:So you talked a little bit about your reason for writing the book, but tell us a little bit about what motivated you to write Critical Race Theory in your school, how to fight back.
Dr. Haney:Because that's a really.
Dr. Haney:We talked about before, before you came on online.
Dr. Haney:It's a really touchy, touchy, touchy subject.
Dr. George Muir:Very touchy subject.
Dr. George Muir:And again, you know, as someone who doesn't mind pushing, pushing the envelope a little bit, you know, I, I knew that this would be a difficult subject to approach.
Dr. George Muir:I knew the reaction that I was going to get from a lot of people.
Dr. George Muir:There were jobs that I have applied for that I was told directly I was not hired because of this particular subject.
Dr. George Muir:And, you know, and I'M someone who believes if you try to open a door and it doesn't open, it's not your door.
Dr. George Muir:So.
Dr. George Muir:And looking back, you know, I'm just like, you know, thank, thank you Lord for not giving me that job.
Dr. George Muir:I really thought I wanted it, but as time passed, I learned that no, I, I didn't really want that job.
Dr. George Muir:And I'm glad I didn't get it.
Dr. George Muir:You know, Lord works in mysterious ways, all that.
Dr. George Muir:So.
Dr. George Muir:But I, you know, I, I wrote it because I knew it was a subject that needed to be approached.
Dr. George Muir:And whenever I looked on Amazon for books, I did a Google search on it the most.
Dr. George Muir:Everyone seems to agree that CRT is a wonderful thing and it fights racism.
Dr. George Muir:And the more research I did on it says no, it's not actually fighting racism at all, it's inflaming racism.
Dr. George Muir:And not only that, it is the enemy of freedom, capitalism, the nuclear family and the United States.
Dr. George Muir:And that's because the people who push it are at their core, Marxists.
Dr. George Muir:Racist Marxist, you know, at that, you know, you know, some of the most racist things I've ever heard have come from so called anti racists.
Dr. George Muir:In much the same way, a lot of fascism comes from groups who call themselves anti fascists.
Dr. George Muir: s across this country back in: Dr. George Muir:And again, this was about the time that I was considering what subject I was going to write on.
Dr. Haney:So, so before we go deeper, because I always have guests who we talk about this topic to give a definition of critical race theory because we hear the term, but it has, and I always tell people, especially in the church, when we talk about critical race theory, be careful to not adopt the language of critical race theory because some of it will sound really good, but what will happen is the terms will change on you and what you think you're defending, you're not defending.
Dr. Haney:So give us a definition that we're working with, to start out with.
Dr. George Muir:Okay.
Dr. George Muir:Well, in its most basic form, its most basic definition is using negative racial input, claiming you're seeking positive racial outcomes.
Dr. George Muir:And again, nothing could be further from the truth.
Dr. George Muir:A more in depth definition would be it is a Marxist ideology using oppressor versus oppressed examples where you pit one race of children against a different race of children.
Dr. George Muir:And it is using something called the psychology of shame, which is using negative, negative, negative, negative.
Dr. George Muir:And what you do is you break a person's psyche down, you tell them you are racist, your family is racist, your country is racist, everything you believe is wrong.
Dr. George Muir:And what it does is it breaks someone down and then allows you to input your new information, your socialism, Marxism, all of these things you can replace it with.
Dr. George Muir:And it's, it's a classic brainwashing technique that was used in countries like Soviet Russia, Red China, Nazi Germany.
Dr. George Muir:I mean, it's all the same thing.
Dr. George Muir:And, you know, and Marxist always go after the children first, you know, and while CRT supporters claim.
Dr. George Muir:Many, many claim that they don't, there's no CRT in K through 12 schools.
Dr. George Muir:And at the same time, they're defending critical race theory in K through 12.
Dr. George Muir:If it doesn't exist, why are you defending it so.
Dr. George Muir:But it is a classic brainwashing technique where you, you, you pit one group against another, you create conflict between those groups, and then in as the savior to make everything better where you know.
Dr. George Muir:And again, nothing further, nothing could be further from the truth.
Dr. Haney:And when you hear it presented, it sounds on the, on the surface like a, like an admiral, like an admirable, like an admirable thing.
Dr. Haney:If you, if you take it from the perspective of somebody saying, our goal is to write previous wrongs.
Dr. George Muir:Yes.
Dr. Haney:By saying there are certain laws that were put in place that made one group superior to another group, and if we could just fix those laws, we could bring about equity in our culture.
Dr. George Muir:Right.
Dr. Haney:But you're right.
Dr. Haney:It starts with a presumption that, first of all, the system is racist and you have to fix a racist system.
Dr. Haney:So I agree.
Dr. Haney:But when you hear it talk to you, it's like, well, how could you be against equity?
Dr. Haney:How could you be against righting previous wrongs?
Dr. Haney:Are you saying there were no previous wrongs?
Dr. Haney:And you start arguing a case you can never win.
Dr. George Muir:Right, you can, but you have to know how to argue against.
Dr. Haney:Right.
Dr. Haney:Yeah.
Dr. George Muir:And you know, and that's part of it is.
Dr. George Muir:And again, you know, you see all these laws that are coming up, and I think there's 17 states that now have anti critical race theory laws, and many of them don't actually name critical race theory because the names change, like you said.
Dr. George Muir:And so what they do is they say it's illegal to teach one race is superior to another.
Dr. George Muir:It's illegal to teach that one race is oppressive against another.
Dr. George Muir:It's illegal to teach that one group of children are responsible for historical atrocities.
Dr. George Muir:And so, and so that's where you have to go.
Dr. George Muir:But a good example of changing the name came from my beloved Air Force.
Dr. George Muir:The Department of Defense has come out and they found out that their social justice.
Dr. George Muir:And again, social justice is another social justice dei, crt.
Dr. George Muir:It's all kind of interchangeable.
Dr. George Muir:They came out and they found out their social justice programs have diverted hundreds of millions of dollars away from what they call military readiness.
Dr. George Muir:And for those of us who have been in the military, we know that military readiness means your ability to carry out the mission.
Dr. George Muir:And, you know, at its most basic form, the mission of the military is to support and defend the Constitution in the United States, of course, but even more basically, our job is to break things and kill people who are trying to harm us.
Dr. George Muir:The Air Force is less lethal today because of their social justice programs.
Dr. George Muir:So they came in, they came out, and they said, you know what?
Dr. George Muir:And they call it dei, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Dr. George Muir:We're gonna.
Dr. George Muir:We're gonna get rid of these programs.
Dr. George Muir:They even testified before Congress.
Dr. George Muir:We're going to get rid of these programs.
Dr. George Muir:However, there are people who are deeply embedded into the Defense Department, and they made the promise that they would get rid of dei, but all they did was changed the name to Systemic Equality.
Dr. George Muir:They shuffled around the resources so that they were difficult to follow the money, the people, etc.
Dr. George Muir:And in the end, they changed nothing.
Dr. George Muir:And.
Dr. George Muir:And that's part of the problem.
Dr. George Muir:That's, you know, because President Trump right now, one of his.
Dr. George Muir:He put out 20 things.
Dr. George Muir:One of the things he says he's going to do is he's going to stop federal funding of schools that promote critical race theory.
Dr. George Muir:Well, I guarantee you that if he wins, and I believe he will, and he does follow through, and I believe he will, all they're going to do is change the name and shuffle the resources around.
Dr. George Muir:These people aren't going anywhere, and they tend to be in these key positions unelected, where they stay for decades.
Dr. George Muir:You know, the.
Dr. George Muir:You know, the top executive director is a political position, and he makes choices and all this.
Dr. George Muir:But you know what?
Dr. George Muir:It's the next couple of levels down where that guy or that lady has been there for 25 and 30 years.
Dr. George Muir:And they're highly dedicated to this.
Dr. George Muir:Highly dedicated.
Dr. George Muir:And, you know, they've got it.
Dr. George Muir:And they see themselves as sitting there for another 10 to 15 years.
Dr. George Muir:They're not going anywhere, and they're just gonna.
Dr. George Muir:And I've heard many civilians use this in the Defense Department, use this phrase.
Dr. George Muir:If I don't agree with somebody, I just wait them out.
Dr. George Muir:So your average commander may be there for a year or two.
Dr. George Muir:I'll just wait him out.
Dr. George Muir:In a year or two, he'll be gone, and then I can go back to what I was doing before.
Dr. George Muir:And so a lot of government agencies, including schools, I guarantee you there are people with that mindset embedded in those institutions.
Dr. Haney:Yeah, I got a chance.
Dr. Haney:Part of my dissertation was we went to DC and spent time at the Department of Education learning about how you'd, how, how Washington D.C.
Dr. Haney:makes policy.
Dr. Haney:And we met, you know, the head of people.
Dr. Haney:We also met the people behind the scenes who've been there for 20, 30 years, who've been through exactly five, six administrations.
Dr. Haney:And we really learned that they, like you said, they are the ones who implement whatever policy comes down from the top, the way they want to implement it, or they're supposedly forced to implement it.
Dr. Haney:So I agree with you.
Dr. Haney:It makes it more difficult to deal with some of the things that you're trying to solve.
Dr. Haney:As you talk about this with education, how do you help parents, first of all identified in Americans education system and how do you present information to parents to support the claims that you know, are there so that they understand what they're trying to deal with and maybe handle or try to address in their parenting?
Dr. George Muir:Sure.
Dr. George Muir:Well, first of all, as a parent, you have to pay attention to what your child is doing in school.
Dr. George Muir:You got to make sure you look at their homework.
Dr. George Muir:And you're not going to see the words critical race theory, not anymore.
Dr. George Muir:You know, a few years ago, parents didn't know what the words critical race theory meant, so that was openly published.
Dr. George Muir:Since then, what they, what they have started doing is removing the critical words critical race theory, but the content remains behind.
Dr. George Muir:Just like in that Air Force example, they just changed the name, but the content remained in those programs.
Dr. George Muir:And so if you suspect that your child is being exposed to crt, if you see something in their homework that looks weird, the very first thing parents should do is go online to the course descriptions.
Dr. George Muir:Because the vast majority of schools these days is, have pretty thorough course descriptions.
Dr. George Muir:And if you know.
Dr. George Muir:And again, you're not going to see the words critical race theory, but if you see the words oppression, marginalization, systemic racism, white supremacy, especially in classes like dance and math, you know, I mean, and they're out there, right?
Dr. George Muir:I mean, they're out there.
Dr. George Muir:It's called equity math, it's critical race theory math.
Dr. George Muir:And so there's not a class that they don't want to infiltrate, by the way.
Dr. George Muir:But if you see those words, you need to get in touch with your teacher, school administrators, school board, whoever they may be, and begin to voice your opposition.
Dr. George Muir:The other thing you can do is start getting involved with other parents, find, share the Information with other parents and get into a like minded grassroots organization of some type.
Dr. George Muir:And perhaps only then do you approach the school and say, hey, look, we've seen this.
Dr. George Muir:We don't like it.
Dr. George Muir:We don't want our children, you know, being taught it.
Dr. George Muir:There's I use the facts task force in North Carolina as an example.
Dr. George Muir:And in one of the something created by Lieutenant governor Mark Robinson, African American conservative who of course, and they said the most horrible things about him in the local newspaper, which you can read about in the chapter.
Dr. George Muir:I dedicated an entire chapter to this.
Dr. George Muir:And you know, and the teacher is like, you know, well, it's mandatory.
Dr. George Muir:There's nothing we can do about it.
Dr. George Muir:So they went to the principal.
Dr. George Muir:Well, it's mandatory.
Dr. George Muir:There's nothing we can do about it.
Dr. George Muir:Your child has to go through this.
Dr. George Muir:You went to the school board.
Dr. George Muir:Well, it's mandatory about it.
Dr. George Muir:Well, show me where it's mandatory.
Dr. George Muir:I want to see it written down.
Dr. George Muir:And of course.
Dr. George Muir:Oh, it's right online.
Dr. George Muir:You can find it online.
Dr. George Muir:And so of course.
Dr. George Muir:And the school policies online.
Dr. George Muir:Online.
Dr. George Muir:And curricula online are massive.
Dr. George Muir:So it took this guy forever to go through this stuff and guess what?
Dr. George Muir:He did not find.
Dr. Haney:Yeah.
Dr. George Muir:Not one thing about being CRT being mandatory for his child.
Dr. George Muir:Not one thing.
Dr. George Muir:And so the one thing you have to parents have to remember is don't be surprised if your school administrators will lie to you.
Dr. George Muir:The very first chapter of my book is titled yes, they're lying to you, because they are.
Dr. George Muir:And Riverside, California Unified Schools, right near where I live.
Dr. George Muir:I opened the book with the story of how parents were saying, hey, you're teaching our kids.
Dr. George Muir:Are you teaching critical race theory to our children?
Dr. George Muir:No, no ma'am, we're not.
Dr. George Muir:I don't know if you just heard what we just said, but we are not teaching your parents critical.
Dr. George Muir:You know, and really snotty about it too.
Dr. George Muir: ou know, and this happened in: Dr. George Muir:Except there's one problem.
Dr. George Muir: In: Dr. George Muir:At a school board meeting for the same.
Dr. George Muir:For Unified, Riverside Unified, they voted and approved a brand new ethnic studies program.
Dr. George Muir:And ethnic studies in CRT are not the same thing.
Dr. George Muir:But a lot of CRT supporters use those things interchangeably.
Dr. George Muir:And it's not.
Dr. George Muir:It's not.
Dr. George Muir:I'll explain that in a minute.
Dr. George Muir:But.
Dr. George Muir:And then they did a PowerPoint presentation where they explained the new ethnic studies program.
Dr. George Muir:They listed 27 learning objectives in this PowerPoint presentation.
Dr. George Muir:Four of them had the words critical race theory in the title.
Dr. George Muir:Eleven more had direct references to CRT principles and tenants.
Dr. George Muir:So more than half of their new ethnic studies program included critical race Theory.
Dr. George Muir: people who are denying it in: Dr. George Muir:Their names were on this PowerPoint presentation as the author.
Dr. George Muir:Okay?
Dr. George Muir:So either they're stupid and forgot everything they did a year ago, or they're incompetent, or they're lying.
Dr. George Muir:And I, I know what I believe.
Dr. George Muir:So.
Dr. George Muir:But as far as CRT and ethnic studies, Ethnic studies is the healthy, positive learning of one's culture, which leads to self awareness, self confidence, all the things that we need to be successful in life.
Dr. George Muir:And research from Stanford University, even though it was biased, but the important thing was it showed that these ethnic studies classes were a great, have great value, particularly for at risk students of color who may not be able to find hope anywhere else in their lives because maybe they live in horrible neighborhoods, their parents are in survival mode, barely able to keep the roof over their heads, but here's this thing telling them how wonderful their culture has been to the world, to the United States, that is ethnic studies.
Dr. George Muir:Critical race theory, on the other hand, as we said, involves a psychology of shame which only talks about our worst moments without giving any due benefit to all of the progress that we've made over the last 75, 60 odd years or so.
Dr. George Muir:CRT tells that young child of color at risk.
Dr. George Muir:America is designed to keep you down.
Dr. George Muir:You have no shot, just give up.
Dr. George Muir:And it's.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah, when I think about it, it makes my blood boil, man.
Dr. George Muir:Because there's nothing more disgusting than taking hope away from a child who needs hope more than any other.
Dr. George Muir:So.
Dr. Haney:Exactly.
Dr. Haney:I've also seen where it is been used not just in ethics, but in social emotional learning, which is like they push it down to the earlier age and is.
Dr. Haney:My understanding of social emotional learning was designed for the idea that kids need to be ready to be learned.
Dr. Haney:And there are certain factors in their life that may make them not ready to learn at the level they could be.
Dr. Haney:It could be their home life, it could be nutrition.
Dr. Haney:And they took what I thought was a good way of.
Dr. Haney:How do you get every child to the same place to say, well, you might be here because of this?
Dr. Haney:And critical race theory now is infiltrated into even the social emotional learning aspect in some cases as well.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah, and we talked a little bit about this with the equity math.
Dr. George Muir:The ultimate goal of critical race theorists is to inject CRT into every single class that you teach.
Dr. George Muir:Not only that, they want to indoctrinate parents as well.
Dr. George Muir:And where parents and the school disagree.
Dr. George Muir:The school feels like they are 100% entitled to interject their morals in place of parental morals.
Dr. George Muir:So if you're trying to raise your child a certain way to love America, for example, CRT supporters feel that they are more important and it is just fine to teach your child that actually America is the most racist place in the world.
Dr. Haney:So if you're a parent listening to our, to our discussion today, you're probably asking yourself, first of all, what can I do to educate myself on this and what steps can I take to be an advocate for my child's education?
Dr. George Muir:Well, like I said before, look at your child's homework lessons, go online, look at course descriptions.
Dr. George Muir:But if you run into a school that pushes back again, get with like minded parents, but also plan on speaking at school board meetings.
Dr. George Muir:You know, and one of the things you can do now, you gotta understand, these folks are professional victims, okay?
Dr. George Muir:They will make you seem like the bad guy in three seconds and you don't need to give them much, that much.
Dr. George Muir:And they'll make it seem that way.
Dr. George Muir:The American Federation of Teachers after parents were obviously getting upset, upset at these school board meetings because the teachers and school board members were obviously lying to them.
Dr. George Muir:They were getting upset, of course, because, you know, when something threatens your child, man, your mama papa bear senses, they kick in, man.
Dr. George Muir:I mean it's, that's natural, it's human nature to defend your children.
Dr. George Muir:But people were rightly getting upset.
Dr. George Muir:And so the American Federation of Teachers wrote a letter to the president asking for assistance in defending these benevolent educators who were doing nothing wrong against these horrible white supremacist, angry, hateful mob of parents trying to promote racism in America.
Dr. George Muir:You know, and that's basically how the letter was written.
Dr. George Muir:And it asked that the president to use his powers to enable investigative powers designed for the investigation of domestic terrorism to look into these parents.
Dr. George Muir:So if, if you go to a school board meeting and lose your temper, you can be investigated by the FBI as a domestic terrorist.
Dr. George Muir:So I mean, it just takes that much.
Dr. George Muir:So one of the things that I, that I suggest is if you, you know, most school boards limit comments to two or three minutes.
Dr. George Muir:If you know, you have two minutes, write a two minute speech.
Dr. George Muir:You know, practice it, do it in front of other people if possible, several times.
Dr. George Muir:And when you go there, bring it on a piece of paper, put it on your cell phone, and when you read it, don't look up, just read it off the paper.
Dr. George Muir:There's no need to have, you know, eye contact with these people, just read it off, you know, and what that will do is one, it makes sure you say everything you want to say.
Dr. George Muir:Two, it will make sure that you're within your time limits.
Dr. George Muir:But three, it will help you keep your emotions in check.
Dr. George Muir:So very important.
Dr. George Muir:And some of the other things you can do, I mean, if you really want to get involved, you can always be start a nonprofit organization of some type to stand up against this kind of thing.
Dr. George Muir:You could run for school board.
Dr. George Muir:There's plenty of people who, you know, just parents who I never thought I would run for anything.
Dr. George Muir:And there they are.
Dr. George Muir:They're running for school board because they're seeing their schools have just, they've gone awry, you know, I mean, they're, they're not educating children anymore, you know, not in the, in the proper ways.
Dr. George Muir:They're indoctrinating children, you know, and you have pornography in elementary school libraries, and when you complain about it, you know, oh, you're trying to ban books.
Dr. George Muir:You're one of those book banning people.
Dr. George Muir:No, I don't want graphic, sexually graphic drawings available to my third grader.
Dr. George Muir:Is that such a bad thing?
Dr. George Muir:Am I being so ridiculous?
Dr. George Muir:According to some of these school board members and these school administrators, yeah, you're going too far.
Dr. George Muir:And again, they feel they have a right to guide your child's moral upbringing principles, guidelines, more than you.
Dr. Haney:So I'm imagining, as I've done a podcast that's gotten a little bit of heat on this.
Dr. Haney:I'm assuming your book has had some pushback.
Dr. Haney:What were some of the challenges in researching and writing this book for you personally?
Dr. George Muir:Well, part of the, the challenges to researching was trying to find honest depictions and explanations of critical race theory.
Dr. George Muir:You know, I used a lot of academic research, of course, because that's what you do.
Dr. George Muir:And I think I found one academic research article that opposed critical race theory, but I found hundreds that thought CRT was the most awesome thing ever.
Dr. George Muir:You know, there were, there was one, one scholar in particular.
Dr. George Muir:Microaggressions is one of the words that he used.
Dr. George Muir:And he said, you know, strong claims with inadequate evidence was one of the ways that, that he put it.
Dr. George Muir:And unfortunately, the scholar has, has passed on.
Dr. George Muir:He's no longer with us.
Dr. George Muir:But excuse me, he, you know, he.
Dr. George Muir:A micro.
Dr. George Muir:For those who don't know, a microaggression is when they say that, you know, no longer is it the open KKK style racism that's most prevalent in America.
Dr. George Muir:It's the mild type.
Dr. George Muir:You know, when I walk into a room and there's one white person and one African American.
Dr. George Muir:As a white person, I'll probably say hello to the act, to the white person first.
Dr. George Muir:That's a microaggression.
Dr. George Muir:Or maybe I don't say hello to anybody.
Dr. George Muir:That could be a microaggression too.
Dr. George Muir:And that's the thing, you never know.
Dr. George Muir:I mean, it could be anything.
Dr. George Muir:And then there's counter stories.
Dr. George Muir:And a counter story is the version of events from a different perspective, which is always valuable.
Dr. George Muir:It's always valuable to look at different perspectives.
Dr. George Muir:But the problem with counter stories is that all some or none of the story can be the truth.
Dr. George Muir:So you can completely make it up.
Dr. George Muir:It could have no basis in fact at all.
Dr. George Muir:Never happened.
Dr. George Muir:But as a CRT counter story, they demand that it be honored and considered.
Dr. George Muir:So, so anyway, so this particular researcher was one of the only people who stood against crt.
Dr. George Muir:And one of the stories that he used was the.
Dr. George Muir:The Clippers owner.
Dr. George Muir:And his name slips me at the moment.
Dr. George Muir:Not that it really matters.
Dr. Haney:Oh, I know you're talking about.
Dr. Haney:Can't think of his name either.
Dr. George Muir:Donald Sterling.
Dr. Haney:Yeah, that was it.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah.
Dr. George Muir:So he, he had a.
Dr. George Muir:A girlfriend of mixed race and one of those races was African American.
Dr. George Muir:And what she was doing, she was bringing her.
Dr. George Muir:Her African American friends to Cooper Games.
Dr. George Muir:And then he told her to stop doing it.
Dr. George Muir:You know, I mean, just so.
Dr. George Muir:I mean, some of these people are so weird.
Dr. George Muir:And so, and so anyway, when he got.
Dr. George Muir:He got caught and, and it was a big outrage, of course.
Dr. George Muir:And so he did an interview.
Dr. George Muir:And in this interview, this.
Dr. George Muir:A very intelligent man said he owned his players and he referred to them as the blacks.
Dr. George Muir:I mean, and, and so of course he was.
Dr. George Muir:He was immediately removed as owner.
Dr. George Muir:You know, maybe not immediately, but he was kicked out of the league, rightfully.
Dr. George Muir:But one of the things that the.
Dr. George Muir:He.
Dr. George Muir:One of the things that not this anti.
Dr. George Muir:Professor said, he was referring to a different professor who said.
Dr. George Muir:Who claimed that microaggressions were responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate losses every year.
Dr. George Muir:Now, that other professor never quoted any research to prove that.
Dr. George Muir:And you know that if there was research out there to prove it, oh, he would have quoted it.
Dr. George Muir:It would have been referenced, you know, but, but that's.
Dr. George Muir:Those are the kind of claims that they make.
Dr. George Muir:There's no research to say this, but I'm going to make the claim anyway.
Dr. George Muir:You know, and then there's teacher training out there that says things like white drivers or drivers in particular are less likely to stop and let African American people walk across the Crosswalk, you know, show me the research that says that they can't, they think they can't, but that, that's not going to stop them from coming out there and saying it.
Dr. George Muir:So.
Dr. George Muir:But anyway, finding truthful anti CRT factual information was a bit of a challenge.
Dr. George Muir:And most of my, most of my resources turned out to be things like the California Ethnic studies model curriculum, where they lay it all out in like a thousand pages.
Dr. George Muir:And, you know, the official state position is that there's no CRT in this ethnic studies model curriculum.
Dr. George Muir:I went through the first 600 pages.
Dr. George Muir:It is chock full of CRT and it's mandatory, by the way, starting next year for all California high school graduates.
Dr. George Muir:So, yeah, that was my biggest challenge.
Dr. George Muir:Finding stuff that said CRT was bad.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah.
Dr. Haney:So if you're a parent and you want to learn more about it, you just talked about your struggle with finding information.
Dr. Haney:Where do parents go to really get truthful information about what CRT is?
Dr. Haney:So when they go and approach school boards or other parents, they have the proper understanding and proper resources to be able to refute what they're being told.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah, well, you could start with my book, but I would not bring my book into the principal and show it to him, you know, but you can use my advice on where to look for information and use that information.
Dr. George Muir:For example, you know, go to the online course descriptions and ask questions like, what does white supremacy have to do with my child's algebra class?
Dr. George Muir:You know, I mean, I mean, and, and ask those questions.
Dr. George Muir:I mean, don't be afraid to do it.
Dr. George Muir:And you know, you got to remember the teachers, you know, they may have forgotten that they work for you, but as parents, you should not remember that they are educating your children at your convenience, not theirs.
Dr. George Muir:And so don't be, you know, and what they're going to do is they're going to try to, what they call gaslight.
Dr. George Muir:You probably be be aware of that.
Dr. George Muir:They're going to tell you, well, I'm a teacher and I've got this degree and that degree.
Dr. George Muir:You're just a parent.
Dr. George Muir:What do you know?
Dr. George Muir:I'm a professional.
Dr. George Muir:You're just someone who got another person pregnant, you know, you know, you're an uneducated adult.
Dr. George Muir:I, on the other hand, I'm enlightened, you know, I mean, and don't be expect it.
Dr. George Muir:It's coming, it's gonna happen.
Dr. George Muir:And so, so be aware of that.
Dr. George Muir:But you can read my book.
Dr. George Muir:There's resources out there.
Dr. George Muir:But the other thing that I do is I have A web, a.
Dr. George Muir:I'm sorry, a Facebook page.
Dr. George Muir:And I'm not, not a believer in cute titles.
Dr. George Muir:My book is titled Critical Race Theory in your School how to Fight Back.
Dr. George Muir:So I created a Facebook page called Critical Race Theory how to fight back by Dr.
Dr. George Muir:George Ma.
Dr. George Muir:And what I do on an almost daily basis is I post the latest news about crt, about social justice, about dei.
Dr. George Muir:And so one of the things that you can do is come in, you know, of course, like, and follow and all that.
Dr. George Muir:But, you know, you don't have to go out to my Facebook page every day, but maybe go out once a week, twice a week and breeze through the articles.
Dr. George Muir:And what I do is I'll put my little thought at the top and then the two most important paragraphs or so, so you don't have to go through the whole.
Dr. George Muir:You can, of course, I post the article as well, so you can go through the whole thing if you choose to.
Dr. George Muir:But I do give a little bit of.
Dr. George Muir:A little brief explanation at the top that will help you kind of stay up on the latest without taking four hours a day to do it, you know, because there's a lot of information out there.
Dr. George Muir:You know, like I said, President Trump is getting ready to restrict funding to schools that openly teach crt.
Dr. George Muir:And that's a good thing.
Dr. George Muir:And, you know, the teachers unions and the Democrats, and they highly promote it.
Dr. George Muir:And again, they think it's the greatest thing in the world.
Dr. George Muir:And, you know, and you need to be aware, because if you're not aware, what they want is for you to not pay attention.
Dr. George Muir:Because while you're not paying attention, they're slipping all this stuff in a little more at a time, a little more at a time.
Dr. George Muir:Now it's not just in the ethics class.
Dr. George Muir:Now it's in social studies.
Dr. George Muir:Now it's in math.
Dr. George Muir:Now it's in dance.
Dr. George Muir:Now it's in shop, now it's in gym, you know, and that's how they work.
Dr. Haney:Yeah.
Dr. Haney:That's great.
Dr. Haney:So, as we wrap this up, this has been a phenomenal talk.
Dr. Haney:I'm curious, what are your future plans and aspirations for writing books, or what's the next step for you?
Dr. George Muir:Well, I'm trying out to be an inside linebacker for the New York Giants next year.
Dr. Haney:They could use the help, although I'm.
Dr. George Muir:Pretty sure that's not going to be successful.
Dr. George Muir:But, you know, I would like to continue writing books.
Dr. George Muir:I've.
Dr. George Muir:I've gotten more involved in my community.
Dr. George Muir:I've.
Dr. George Muir:You know, I don't have any children.
Dr. George Muir:My children are all Grown and they, and they don't live anywhere near me.
Dr. George Muir:So I don't have children in school.
Dr. George Muir:But I've become more involved in my local school board.
Dr. George Muir:There was in Temecula Valley Unified near where I live, the president did, they banned CRT in Temecula schools and they did a recall election against him and successfully removed him.
Dr. George Muir:And this is in a very conservative town.
Dr. George Muir:So they, you know, they're very good at this stuff, so that's nothing you need to be aware of.
Dr. George Muir:But I went and I spoke for him at the school board meeting.
Dr. George Muir:I tend, I intend to attend more.
Dr. George Muir:I just on Monday attended a local Republicans meeting for the area and there's a number of people running for a number of different offices, just getting to know folks that way.
Dr. George Muir:But I also became the chapter lead for something called fair and FAIR stands for Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism.
Dr. George Muir:And they are a non, I wouldn't say political, but they're non biased civil rights organization.
Dr. George Muir:They don't really support liberals or conservatives in particular, they support anyone whose civil rights have been violated.
Dr. George Muir:Something that the ACLU used to be maybe perhaps 50 years ago, no longer, of course now anything liberal or anything left leaning, they're all over.
Dr. George Muir:If you're a conservative trying to protect your civil rights, don't go to the ACLU because you're not going to find any help there.
Dr. George Muir:But you will find help from fair.
Dr. George Muir:And so, so I'm becoming more involved in organizations like that.
Dr. George Muir:And yes, I would like to continue writing.
Dr. George Muir:I, I would like to do, you know, speeches, you know, if anyone out there, if you have a group that wants to learn more about this thing, if you're not from the area, that's fine, we can do a zoom thing and I would be happy to show up and have this discussion with you and you can ask me questions and you know, so what I'm trying to do is help people more than anything, particularly parents.
Dr. George Muir:So if you're a parent with questions, you know, you could just, you can stop by my Facebook page and DM me, give me a direct message, private message, I'll answer you, you know, and when people send me a direct message, I always answer always.
Dr. George Muir:So, so I guess at its most basic, my answer is I want to continue helping people with this issue.
Dr. Haney:That's awesome.
Dr. Haney:I love to ask my guests this question.
Dr. Haney:What do you want your legacy to be?
Dr. George Muir:Well, I guess I would like my legacy to be more than anything that I was a good parent, a good and a good person.
Dr. George Muir:And yeah, I think that Would be it.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah.
Dr. Haney:That's awesome.
Dr. Haney:As you wrap this up, what would you like to my audience, take away from our conversation today?
Dr. George Muir:Well, I've had this conversation many times.
Dr. George Muir:I've done a number of podcasts, so I've been entering, actually.
Dr. George Muir:You were very good, by the way.
Dr. George Muir:You were a very good interviewer.
Dr. Haney:Thank you.
Dr. Haney:I appreciate that.
Dr. George Muir:You're obviously knowledgeable on the subject.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah.
Dr. George Muir:You're very welcome.
Dr. George Muir:So.
Dr. George Muir:But what I would like for folks to take away would be that your children are your children, and don't let anybody tell you differently.
Dr. George Muir:And it is not wrong when you see something that is.
Dr. George Muir:If you think it's wrong, there's a reason for that.
Dr. George Muir:That little voice in the back of your head, and whatever you want to call it, you know, holy spirit, what.
Dr. George Muir:Whatever your.
Dr. George Muir:Your term is, is fine.
Dr. George Muir:But it's there for a reason.
Dr. George Muir:And if someone's in that little voice is telling you something, it's there for a reason.
Dr. George Muir:So don't let anyone tell you differently.
Dr. George Muir:You know what's best for your kids.
Dr. George Muir:Never lose sight of that.
Dr. Haney:Yeah, that's really important for us.
Dr. Haney:We keep getting the pushback, that they're not our kids, they're the community kids.
Dr. Haney:No, they're our kids.
Dr. Haney:They're our responsibility.
Dr. Haney:They have a gift.
Dr. Haney:God gave us to raise, and we can't just advocate that and give to somebody else.
Dr. George Muir:Marxists always feel very, very entitled to other people's children.
Dr. Haney:Yeah.
Dr. Haney:Which is really, really scary.
Dr. George Muir:Yeah, it is.
Dr. George Muir:And it's been going on for more than 100 years.
Dr. George Muir: o Soviet Russia Revolution of: Dr. George Muir:I mean, you name it anywhere.
Dr. George Muir:This is exactly what they've done in every other place.
Dr. George Muir:And they will continue doing it until someone stands up and says, no, no more.
Dr. Haney:Yeah.
Dr. Haney:Where can people find your book Critical Race Theory in your school?
Dr. Haney:How to fight back and connect with you again on social media?
Dr. George Muir:Well, you can find my book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and if you.
Dr. George Muir:You can look up my name or the title of the book, and you should be able to find it fairly easily, but you can also reach me on my Facebook page.
Dr. George Muir:Critical Race Theory in your school, how to fight back by Dr.
Dr. George Muir:George Maurer.
Dr. George Muir:And you can talk to me directly there.
Dr. George Muir:Or if you just want to keep up on the latest on CRT and DEI and stay informed, which I recommend you do.
Dr. George Muir:It's a very important topic.
Dr. George Muir:If you, you know, you can do your own research if you want to, of course, but if you want to kind of make it a little bit simple.
Dr. George Muir:I put things together all in one place.
Dr. George Muir:But stop by, check it out maybe once a week, maybe twice a week just to see what the latest is because you would be shocked at the things that have been infiltrated by CRT and DEI.
Dr. Haney:Yeah, no doubt about it.
Dr. Haney:Thank you so much Dr.
Dr. Haney:Marr for coming on and sharing your passion, your knowledge, your research with us.
Dr. Haney:Because I do think we need to be aware of what's happening in our communities, in our schools because our kids are so precious and they are so precious.
Dr. George Muir:Definitely a gift, God's greatest gift.
Dr. George Muir:There is nothing in the world like a brand new baby in the family.
Dr. George Muir:I mean that feeling, you know, kids, grandkids, not no feeling in the world and they are our most precious gift.
Dr. George Muir:So thank you so much for having me, Dr.
Dr. George Muir:Haney.
Dr. George Muir:I really appreciate it and I enjoyed our conversation.
Dr. Haney:You welcome back anytime Doc.
Dr. George Muir:Thank you sir.
