Today, I wrote letters to our North Carolina state senators, asking them to vote in favor of H.B. 324, which, as I understand it, will prevent the teaching of Critical Race Theory in NC public schools. 

This is what I wrote:

Hello Senate Pro Tempore Berger, 

I’m writing to please ask you to vote in favor of H.B. 324, which, as I understand it, will prevent the teaching of Critical Race Theory in NC public schools. 

We can’t undo past discrimination by instituting policies that teach more (and new types of) discrimination.

By emphasizing Critical Race Theory in public schools and teaching it to our children, teachers, administrators, the school system, and yes, government as well will be indoctrinating young minds to focus on race, on skin color, rather than what is most important – seeing one another as equal human beings. We’re talking about children whose brains are not yet fully developed and who are especially vulnerable and susceptible to what is taught to them.  Social values should be left to the parents. Schools and teachers must never be allowed to take the place of a child’s family, parents, and perhaps even his or her religion.  

My great fear is that this new racist doctrine of Critical Race will result in a resurrection of racism where it hasn’t existed for many years. 

Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.  

And Nelson Mandela said: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate (or be taught to hate), and if they can learn (or be taught) to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Thomas Sowell wrote: “The past is a great unchangeable fact. Nothing is going to undo its sufferings and injustices, whatever their magnitude….  Neither the sins nor the sufferings of those now dead are within our power to change. Being honest and honorable with the people living in our own time is more than enough of a moral challenge, without having to indulge in illusions about rewriting moral history with numbers and categories.”

And finally, in the Supreme Court case Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. 1 (2007), Chief Justice Roberts wrote in the majority opinion: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

Instead of teaching such hateful policies as Critical Race, why can’t our schools emphasize The Golden Rule, which is much more in line with what great men (not race-baiters) have said about righting the wrongs of our country….  be peaceful, loving, and judge one another on the content of one’s character and not the color of his or her skin.

I know at heart you fall on the right side of this issue, but I wanted to go ahead and send you my heartfelt views and concerns on this issue. 

Summing up, I hope the NC Senate will do the right thing for its young citizens and pass this bill. Schools are for education, not indoctrination, 

Most Sincerely, 

Diane Rufino

Greenville, NC  (Pitt County)

August 23, 2021