Teachers union president claims Republicans are 'bullying teachers on honest ...

The head of America's second largest teachers' union has accused Republican politicians of 'bullying' teachers and preventing them from teaching 'honest history', as she insisted that Critical Race Theory was not being taught in schools.

Randi Weingarten, who represents 1.7 million teachers as head of the American Federation of Teachers, said on Wednesday that Republicans were using intimidation tactics.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a lightning rod for conservatives.

They argue that the doctrine of reassessing U.S. history through the lens of slavery and race relations makes white children feel guilty for the color of their skin, and creates racial division. Supporters say it is a necessary reassessment of historic reality.

Weingarten on Wednesday spoke during her union's TEACH Virtual Conference 2021, running from July 6-10.

'There are legislators, mostly from the Republican party, who are currently bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching kids honest history,' Weingarten told the audience.

'Look, maybe they are just trying to raise the temperature on race relations because of the next election.'

She said that Republicans were trying to stifle debate.

'Culture warriors are labeling any discussion of race, racism or discrimination as [critical race theory] to try to make it toxic,' she said.

'They are bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching students accurate history.'

Currently, 26 states have introduced legislation or have taken other actions to restrict the teaching of Critical Race Theory according to Education Week.

Meetings of school boards have become extremely heated, as parents angrily denounce teachers - who often insist they don't even teach CRT. Loudoun County in Virginia has seen some of the most dramatic scenes, with two people even being arrested during the "wild meeting on June 22. 

On Tuesday, Weingarten said her organization is already 'preparing for litigation as we speak' against states which ban CRT.

Her spokesman, Andrew Crook, said the union has yet to identify specific targets.

Yet she insisted that CRT did not feature in school curriculum, and was only taught at college and university level.

'Critical Race Theory is not taught in elementary schools or middle schools or high schools,' she said, in remarks obtained by Fox News.

Yet Weingarten's guest speaker, Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be an Antiracist, urged teachers to talk to pupils about racism and inequality, and promoted CRT.

'If you're a child that's ten years old and you see that certain racial groups have more, and certain racial groups have less, you're going to be asking, 'Why is that the case?'' he told the audience.

'And to me, it is the prudent thing to do for teachers to say that the cause of the disparity that you see are the result of racism, are the result of bad rules, are the result of history, and we're trying to change this.'

As teachers' unions nationwide hold their annual gatherings, CRT has been a hot topic of conversation.

The National Education Association (NEA) during its June 30-July 3 conference passed a resolution that in part would 'fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric.'

The same union also passed a $56,500 measure to 'research the organizations attacking educators doing anti-racist work.'   

At the union's national meeting last week, president Becky Pringle urged teachers to prepare students for a society that 'has wrestled with the sins of its past' and learned from them.

'If this grand experiment in democracy is to succeed, if the inhabitants of our nation are to prosper, we must continuously do the work to challenge ourselves and others to dismantle the racist interconnected systems, and the economic injustices that have perpetuated systemic inequities,' she said. 

Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law forbidding schools from teaching

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