UCLA database a 'metaphor' for financing, support for critical race theory: Cornell Law professor
Prof. William Jacobson highlighted the difference between UCLA's database tracking attacks on critical race theory, and criticalrace.org, which monitors CRT in schools.
The difference between two databases, both designed to track critical race theory, reveals the institutional and financial support strength behind CRT in schools and corporate America, argued William Jacobson, a Cornell Law School professor and founder of CriticalRace.org
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law in August launched its "CRT Forward Tracking Project," a database that will allow users to "track attacks on critical race theory" at the "local, state and federal levels."
Launched over a year ago, CriticalRace.org houses a database that tracks critical race theory in higher education, private schools and medical schools.
The database is a "resource for parents and students concerned about how Critical Race Theory, and implementation of Critical Race Training, impacts education," according to the website.
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Yorba Linda, CA, Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - The Placentia Yorba Linda School Board discusses a proposed resolution to ban teaching critical race theory in schools. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Jacobson told Fox News Digital the difference between the two databases was a "metaphor" for critical race theory broadly in the United States.
"The popular wisdom, if you only read The New York Times and The Washington Post, is that anti-CRT groups are so well funded, there's all sorts of dark money flowing to them, things like that. The reality is actually the opposite," he said.
Amy Carney speaks on behalf of parents during a protest against critical race theory being taught at Scottsdale Unified School District before a digital school board meeting at Coronado High Schoo in Scottsdale on May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
Jacobson highlighted the institutional weight and funding behind UCLA’s database, as opposed to CriticalRace.org, which is affiliated with the popular website Legal Insurrection, and is run on a "shoestring" budget.
"That's really how the parents' movement and the anti-CRT movement operates. It's people doing things with almost no money yet achieving amazing results," he added.
According to a UCLA press release, the law school’s database "is funded by a $400,000 grant from Lumina Foundation’s Racial and Equity Fund and support from UCLA School of Law."
"So what we found is there is a grassroots desire for what we are doing," Jacobson added. "I somehow doubt that that's true with the UCLA website. Their website is geared toward the activists, whereas ours is geared toward the general population and people who want to learn."
Even the National Education Association, one of the largest teachers unions in the country, points its members to the UCLA database as part of a "Know Your Rights: Back to School Guide."
"Learn more about your rights as a patchwork of state and local censorship and anti-LGBTQ+ rules have created doubt among educators," the NEA guide reads.
The teachers union also tweeted support of the database when it was launched, writing: "A new project from UCLA has found efforts across the country to censor teachers and stamp out honest education under the banner of banning ‘critical race theory.’ The push to whitewash education must stop."
Tweet from the National Education Association about UCLA's database tracking critical race theory. (Fox News Digital)
Jacobson also highlighted how UCLA’s database has targeted local opposition to critical race theory, not just policies passed at the state and federal level.
"They are targeting the one area that is left of opposition to this, and that area is state legislatures and local school boards and state governors," he said. "Academics is completely on board with this. Foundations are completely on board with the CRT stuff… The one place there’s pushback is in state and local governments, because those are the only institutions that have not already been captured by liberals, or the left."
According to UCLA’s database, the project has identified nearly 500 "instances of anti-critical race theory activity" since August 2021.
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The instances cited by UCLA are categorized by "local school district," "city or county government" or "state and federal." The examples include curricula, resolutions and laws passed at the local, state or federal level.
UCLA did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.