Critical Race Theory.

For a good number of people, just those three words are enough to spark a tremendous amount of emotion. Questions and postulations about race, for so long relegated to the margins of academia or repressed altogether through the rewriting of history books and school curriculum, are now rising to the surface. In many places across the country and certainly in Guilford, the issues that Critical Race Theory seeks to address have lit a fire, as residents grapple with conclusions drawn from the country’s history of racism, as well as policies meant to address racism today.

But one question that seems to quickly derail any discussion on the subject is actually the simplest: What is Critical Race Theory (CRT)?

The Human Right Commission (HRC) is hoping to provide those answers in a discussion at a public forum next Tuesday, Aug. 10, inviting retired New Haven Superior Court Judge Angela Robinson, who currently teaches a course on CRT at Quinnipiac University, to delve into the academic history and specific tenets of the theory.

In Guilford, the issue is not an abstract or academic one, as the five Republican-endorsed Board of Education (BOE) candidates have made opposition to CRT the main focus of their campaign. Holding a contentious rally early in July that drew state-wide media attention, this group brought in speakers who said CRT was connected to Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler along with the decay of modern Western family structures and noted that Guilford schools have used texts and tenets that share a common foundation with CRT.

The HRC is attempting to approach the issue in a very different way. Robinson previously presented for more than an hour in a less-publicized meeting of the HRC on July 20, invited to just give a broad overview of CRT and the controversy surrounding it.

Robinson subsequently received a threatening, anonymous email following her presentation, according to HRC Chair Jo Keogh. Keogh shared the contents of that email publicly, in which the author said that Robinson wasn’t welcome and would meet “great resistance when you are in Guilford.”

“Guilford is a community of over 96% Whites; they should be taught to love their race as you expect Blacks to do. You should be working to build up your own race, rather than tearing down the culture of other races,” the anonymous author wrote.

Robinson, who is Black, declined to file a report with the Guilford Police Department (GPD) related to the email, though Keogh has said that in conversations with Chief Butch Hyatt she understood GPD are willing and able to trace the origin of the email.

But Robinson also said, according to Keogh, that she is unwilling to attend any sort of in-person event following the threats.

“I very much understand wanting to believe that no one in Guilford would send an email like that, [but with] some of the racist rhetoric I’ve seen and heard here in town—I’ll say that I would not be shocked if someone in Guilford had sent that email to her,” Keogh said.

Robinson did not return messages seeking comment from the Courier.

Despite Robinson declining to move forward with GPD on the threats, First Selectman Matt Hoey said the Board of Selectmen (BOS) might be able to pursue its own avenues toward identifying the person who had sent the email threat.

Members of the BOS of both parties emphatically endorsed the forum and expressed anger and disgust with the fact that Robinson would end up feeling threatened rather than welcomed, calling it “reprehensible” and “disappointing.” Hoey said he was working on ways to provide a more explicit statement, or provide concrete support for Robinson ahead of the forum.

Hoey also harshly called out the anti-CRT people, many of whom have banded under the name Truth in Education or TIE—as people who have “demonstrated a willingness to behave outside the norms of civilized society.”

Hoey added he had engaged in conversations with State Representative Sean Scanlon (D-98) about possibly providing Robinson with a symbolic escort to visit Guilford, but she had still not been comfortable.

According to Keogh, Robinson had also expressed concern about the “climate” in Guilford, specifically for its non-White residents.

Keogh said the forum will take the form of a webinar to discourage disruption, and there will be a question and answer session, and is hoping to receive “challenging” questions on CRT, assuring the BOS that Robinson’s goal is to provide information and not advocate one way or another on CRT.

In her July 20 presentation to the HRC, Robinson started with a number of statistics, including the tremendous wealth gap between White and Black families, race-based disparities in incarceration and homeownership, and persistent de facto segregation. She added that people who opposed a structural interpretation of racism were perfectly entitled to their beliefs.

“You may look at all of the data I give you and not agree with the conclusion. And that’s fine because there are very intelligent and thoughtful people who don’t agree. But I think we have to agree on facts,” she said. “Are you really saying that there’s something about Black people that is just not as good as White people? Are you saying there’s something about the culture of Black people? If that is what you’re saying, then own that.”