Last Updated on February 3, 2021
WRAL, an NBC affiliate based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has labeled Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, a black man, and State Board of Education member Olivia Oxendine, a Native American woman, as members of the Ku Klux Klan for objecting to critical race theory being embedded in the state’s social studies and history curriculum standards.
The racially-motivated attack against the two Republican officials came in the form of a political cartoon authored by an 8th-grade social studies teacher named Dennis Draughon and published on WRAL’s website.
In the cartoon, an elephant, holding a copy of the state’s proposed social studies standards, is depicted in a Klan robe adorned with the text “GOP members State School Board,” while proclaiming “we prefer to start with a clean sheet.”
Latest from editorial cartoonist @DennisDraughon "History's lessons." https://t.co/8MaUknRaFb #ncga #ncpol #nced @ncpublicschools @edstateboard_nc @DPI_SSTeam @NCCSS pic.twitter.com/vIi7jgDQK8
— CBCeditorial (@CbCeditorial) February 2, 2021
Robinson slammed WRAL’s publication of the “vile” cartoon at a Tuesday afternoon press conference, telling reporters he is blown away by the “mind-numbing” hypocrisy of liberal media.
“On the second day of Black History Month, the first black Lt. Governor of North Carolina has been portrayed as such by one of the largest news outlets in this state,” Robinson said, also stepping up to defend Oxendine, who despite being portrayed as a Klansman by WRAL, has actually faced off against the group. “It’s something we cannot stand for.”
Alongside fellow members of the North Carolina State Board of Education, Robinson and Oxendine have been tasked with weighing the adoption of new history and social studies standards for K-12 public school students. The standards are heavily based on the highly controversial critical race theory pushed by many on the far-left wing of the political spectrum.
Under the proposed standards, children as young as elementary school age will be introduced to the ideas of gender identity and critical race theory, diving deeper into the subjects year to year.
Robinson, the first black Lieutenant Governor in North Carolina’s history, and Oxendine, the board’s only Native American member, have both voiced opposition to the proposed standards, with Oxendine saying it gives “the feeling of America the oppressor, not America the land of opportunity.”
“The system of government that we have in this nation is not systematically racist,” Robinson says. “In fact, it is not racist at all.”
Ahead of a February 4th board vote on the matter, Robinson has kicked off a statewide petition encouraging members to vote against the standards’ adoption and slamming them as “political in nature,” while warning against the radical indoctrination of American children in schools.
“The proposed standards are political in nature and paint America as being systematically racist,” a portion of Robinson’s petition reads. “These divisive standards consistently separate Americans into groups in an effort to undermine our unity. The proposed standards indoctrinate our students against our great country and our founders. The standards are not age-appropriate in the elementary grades.”
