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White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted Thursday that the Biden administration is not pushing critical race theory in schools after it promoted a radical activist group’s handbook in its official reopening guidance, which she said was in "error."
The Department of Education (DOE) had linked to the Abolitionist Teaching Network’s "Guide for Racial Justice & Abolitionist Social and Emotional Learning" in its handbook intended as a "roadmap" for schools to reopen safely during the coronavirus pandemic.
The group’s guide claimed that social and emotional learning (SEL) "can be a covert form of policing used to punish, criminalize, and control Black, Brown, and Indigenous children and communities to adhere to White norms," and that "[m]ost SEL standards are rooted in Eurocentric norms, not to empower, love, affirm, or free Black, Brown, or Indigenous children."