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A North Carolina father caused a furor on social networks after a video of him speaking at a local school board meeting went viral, where he is heard urging other parents to “take the wheel back” on their children’s education and criticizing racial segregation policies stemming from Critical Race Theory (CRT).
His name is Brian Echevarria, and today he is the Republican candidate to represent the 73rd District in his state’s House of Representatives. His banner and main proposal as a candidate is to stop CRT indoctrination in schools, as well as to restore the right of parents to choose “the upbringing and education of their children.”
In his remarks, Echevarria praised the school board for passing a resolution last summer banning the teaching of CRT in the district.
“One of the things I wanted to thank you for tonight was the resolution, the nondiscrimination resolution, the CRT deal, because it’s happening, and as a parent, I speak to other parents, there’s a few things that we don’t want,” the candidate said.
“I’m biracial. I’m bilingual. I’m multicultural. The fact is in America, in North Carolina, I can do anything I want and I teach that to my children,” Echeverria continued. “And the person who tells my little pecan-colored kids that they are somehow oppressed based on the color of their skin would be absolutely wrong and absolutely at war with me.”
Parents vs. school board: a national crusade
Echevarria referred to parents as “the most powerful group in the country” and said they are now “taking back the wheel” on their children’s education in a national level as they are also doing with facemask mandates.
The candidate referred to CRT as a “big fat lie” and said that to believe in CRT is to be a liar. “If you believe in CRT I want to tell you that you are a liar. Because that means that you look at your black neighbor and say that they’re oppressed and you look at your white neighbor and say that they are evil regardless of the experience that you’ve had with them.”
Furthermore, Echevarria told the school board that racism in America does not exist to the degree that those pushing the CRT ideology would have you believe, but is “hard pressed to find” in real life and is only seen “at the government level” and in the media.
He continued his speech by pointing to policies that put transgender-identified biological men in sports competition with women and girls, saying he doesn’t want his daughter competing against a man.
“I have an eight-year-old daughter who is absolutely dynamic, who can do anything. Athletically, intellectually, spiritually and emotionally she is a dynamo. And I don’t want a man swimming against her in the pool,” the father said. “The fact is, I don’t want her playing against boys in soccer. I don’t even let my sons rough her up. Do you think I’m going to let your son rough her up?”
In July, the Cabarrus County Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution that seeks to ensure dignity and nondiscrimination in the district by banning the teaching of CRT in schools.
The resolution promotes not teaching that one race or gender is inherently superior to another, “that an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is not inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive”; and “that no individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distresst.”
