A father in North Carolina has gone viral after he criticized critical race theory (CRT) during a speech on Monday at a local school board meeting, labeling the Marxism-rooted ideology as a “big fat lie.”
Brian Echevarria, a bi-racial Republican candidate for District 73 in the North Carolina House of Representatives, told board members that many parents don’t want the theory being taught in schools.
“It’s a discrimination revolution, the CRT deal,” Echevarria said at the Feb. 14 meeting in Cabarrus County. “The fact is, I’ve been a business owner right here in North Carolina and I deal with white people, black people, Hispanic people. My children deal with everybody and the racism is only happening at the government level and on the media,” he added.
The presence of CRT in K-12 education and the military has become more prominent in the United States, though officials in states nationwide have recently taken action against it, or even outlawed it. The ideology, which has seen increased backlash from parents since the COVID pandemic, holds that America is a “fundamentally racist” nation.
In his speech, Echevarria said parents “are taking back the wheel from Washington to Raleigh all the way to the local school board”—explaining that many people don’t want their children to be indoctrinated with curriculums like CRT and LGBT education.
“If you believe in CRT, I want to tell you, you’re a liar,” Echevarria said. “Because that means you look at your black neighbor and say that they’re oppressed, and you look at your white neighbor and say that they’re evil, regardless of the experience that you had with them. And we’re not going to do that.”
“And the person who tells my pecan-color kids that they’re somehow oppressed based on the color of their skin would be absolutely wrong and absolutely at war with me,” he noted.
“What the masks showed us, the parents, the most powerful group in the country, is that we are taking back the wheel.”
— Moms for Liberty (@Moms4Liberty) February 17, 2022
“We are taking back the wheel from Washington to Raleigh all the way to the local school board. Because CRT, the parents don’t want it.” #parentalrights pic.twitter.com/hwtrabnpbh
Echevarria, who has an 8-year-old daughter, also expressed concern over government policies seeking to put transgender-identified biological males in competition with women and girls.
“I have an 8-year-old daughter who is absolutely dynamic, who can do anything athletically, intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally. She is a dynamo. And I don’t want a man swimming against her in the pool,” Echevarria said.
“I don’t want her playing against boys in soccer,” he added. “I don’t even let my sons rough her up. Do you think I’m going to let your son rough her up?”
Echevarria’s speech comes one week after the Cabarrus County School Board voted to make masks optional for students after concerned parents rallied against the measure. The school board also approved a resolution last year to ensure nondiscrimination in the district amid the CRT controversy.
“What the masks showed us is that the parents, the most powerful group of people in our country, that they’re taking back the wheel,” Echevarria said in reference to the removal of the mandate at the public school, as he also commended the school board for passing the resolution in relation to CRT last summer.
“This is what we’re talking about. Policy going back to the parents. Because if you think people who love America are willing to fight for it, you haven’t met parents yet. Because I’m telling you, parents will go further down any street than anyone who loves their country alone,” he concluded.
