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Commentary – Critical Race Theory in El Dorado County

STEPHEN FERRY, El Dorado Hills

PLACERVILLE, California (InEDC) Dec 1, 2022 — On Sept. 21 this year, while serving as the library commissioner for District 2, our commission voted on using the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights as a governing principle for our county libraries. We had the text in front of us and it was clear that the ALABoR was/is Critical Race Theory including Diversity, Inclusion, then Equity and was winding its way into the library. I voted no on the motion but it passed 4-1 in favor.

I then resigned my position as a commissioner and asked the Board of Supervisors, in writing, to convene a workshop on the use of CRT/DIE and whether it should be used in the agencies of our county government. No answer to the letter so I went before the BOS in open forum and asked again. Crickets.

So now I ask again that the BOS convene a workshop on CRT/DIE so that El Dorado County residents can know and understand CRT/DIE. It can then be approved or denied by the supervisors and we will then know which of them supports a policy in direct conflict of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Discrimination based on race is illegal in the United States. My hope is that none of the supervisors support this.

When VP Kamala Harris spoke about the lack of funding for victims of Hurricane Ian in Florida she said, “We address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality but we also need to fight for equity understanding not everyone starts out at the same place.”

We would like to know if the Caldor Fire victims are being denied funding based on equity (race) as the Hurricane Ian victims were.