For most people, it is a widely accepted fact that the United States was founded on July 4, 1776. It is a fact we have long learned in our history classes, and it is why we come together as a country every year to recognize and celebrate the founding and independence of our nation.
But in the era of progressive insanity that has led to declining patriotism, it has now become common practice for certain sectors of our society to use so-called “land and labor acknowledgments” to diminish and downplay America’s right to our own nation. Worse, it’s another way radical school district employees are teaching children to hate America.
Land and labor acknowledgment statements have been crafted to villainize America and manufacture guilt for the intended audience. Sadly, they are now being routinely used in K-12 schools. A recent report published by Parents Defending Education uncovered that at least 155 school districts across 21 states, which include more than 5,000 schools, have incorporated these statements into their curricula. That means more than 2.7 million students (about the population of Mississippi) are being exposed to this anti-American propaganda.
The general theme of each of these statements is that the school exists on stolen land, the U.S. is evil for existing, and Americans should apologize for the perceived transgressions of people who existed centuries ago. Radical ideologues are using these statements to disparage America and influence students to adopt their same negative views of the country.
In Seattle Public Schools, a public records request exposed how staff training used by the district included a “Stolen Land Acknowledgement” and a “Stolen Black and Brown Labor Acknowledgement” and sought to “dismantle dominant cultural norms.” Also in Washington state, in the Tukwila School District, officials publicly pledged to “recognize and work against systems that have historically [enforced] and currently enforce and create inequities among the people we serve.”
School districts across California promoted similar sentiments. In the Arcata School District, the land and labor acknowledgments claim the “economic and cultural development of California and the United States was built on the backs of enslaved Africans and their descendants.” In the Hayward Unified School District, as recently as August of this year, the school board began its meeting by reading a land acknowledgment, which recognized the “original peoples of the lands on which our campuses are built” and “our responsibility to help them heal from this history and secure a sustainable future.”
It should come as no surprise that in San Francisco, board of education officials took it one step further on the radical spectrum by unanimously voting to pass a resolution that “calls on the San Francisco Unified School District to seek reparations to the American Indian and Alaskan Native communities.” It should be noted that the school board voted for this in January 2021, when schools in the city were still closed due to COVID-19 policies. To sum up their priorities, these administrators couldn’t find time to figure out how to open schools for students but had plenty of time to push their extreme political views using their taxpayer-funded positions.
These statements are not only feeding into the national pessimism we are seeing among our youth, but they are also contributing to the rise of antisemitism we are seeing across academic institutions. Young Americans are being brainwashed to believe that speaking out against America or Israel is justified because they have been lied to and misled to believe these countries are evil. Often, this propaganda is embedded right in the curriculum through “ethnic studies.”
An ethnic studies toolkit from the Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies pushed to K-12 educators across 18 school districts and one state board of education included anti-Zionism, anti-capitalism content and used leftwing terminology such as “free Palestine” and “end the occupation.” In the Fort Bragg Unified School District, the ethnic studies featured “content that challenges systems that uphold economic and political privileges and power and promotes youth activism.”
If left unchecked, these ideologies that are spreading via classrooms will continue to spread and create an entire generation that will justify violence, even as horrific as the terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as long as the attack is against a country or people deemed “the oppressor.”
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These radical lessons are no longer confined to isolated views in classrooms. They are being used to manipulate and shape the opinions of students. This national hatred is being taught in classrooms and being used to influence the next generation to believe that the United States is not worth defending.
It is up to parents in their communities to stand up and refuse to accept this as the new normal. Families should be challenging these toxic statements and calling on their school districts to stop the virtue signaling and focus on doing their job of teaching.
Michele Exner is a senior adviser at Parents Defending Education. She previously served as an active duty Marine officer for seven years and now resides in Virginia with her husband and two children.