FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 26, 2021
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bill Walsh (651) 373-1819
(Golden Valley, MN) Tara Gustilo says: “I shouldn’t be demoted or retaliated against because I don’t agree with the racially divisive and demeaning CRT ideology.” Is she wrong? Our clients believe we are all human and we are all important – all are created equal. They believe no one should be told they are “irredeemable.” Our clients believe that not being judged by race or ethnicity is a right, not a privilege. They believe all have the right and responsibility to understand and critically assess history and culture and that no one should ever have advantages or detriments based on race.
But, shockingly, the Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) message in 2021 to students and employees in Minnesota public schools, state agencies, public hospitals and many private schools and business corporations is the opposite. Students and employees are being told that White people are “oppressors” who benefit from systemic racism, that Blacks are “oppressed” by Whites who are intrinsically racist whatever they do, and that other groups are “White-adjacent” junior oppressors unless they join the attack on Whites. The practical consequences of this CRT, BLM or 1619 Project ideology (all with Marxist origins) include the familiar hallmarks of racial discrimination from the Civil Rights Era: race-based discrimination and favoritism, bullying of critics, name-calling and retaliation. Whites are a target of course, but CRT is rejected by many of all races who see it as bad for everyone and as denying minorities’ ability to take charge of their lives.
The clients of UMLC are among the critics and victims. Tara Gustilo, a Filipino-American doctor at Hennepin Healthcare System (formerly known as HCMC), Joe and Aaron Norgren, Native-American father and mixed-race son employees at DHS, and Bob and Cynthia Cajune, Native-American and White parents of multi-racial children at Lakeville Public Schools, and many other parents there, are challenging this abhorrent, racially-divisive ideology, grounded in Marxism and anti-Americanism, which is literally pushing aside the medical care, teaching and public service missions at these organizations to convert them to this warped version of “social justice.”
Defenders of Critical Race Theory, and naïve Americans who don’t look beyond the cover page, say “anti-racism” training is designed to simply stop racism and create “social justice.” But the leaders of this CRT “movement,” such as Ibram X. Kendi, are clear that they discriminate intentionally: “The only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” (How To Be An Anti-Racist, page 22.)
Doug Seaton, President of UMLC, said: “Our clients are bravely confronting CRT-inspired bullying, indoctrination and retaliation, which is not ‘training’ or persuasion. They have been insulted, lied about, threatened, demoted and fired, simply for refusing to submit to this ideology. But the U.S. Constitution, the federal Civil Rights laws, and their Minnesota counter-parts don’t permit this race-based discrimination, retaliation, compelled speech, and invasion of privacy.”
UMLC believes that the courts must be asked to rule on these questions because our laws are not self-enforcing and many politicians, employers and institutional “leaders” are either afraid or too “woke” themselves to follow the law, confront the new commissars of CRT and stop their abuses.
Today, UMLC announces parallel EEOC charges and state and federal lawsuits on behalf of Tara Gustilo, a HHS Doctor; Joe and Aaron Norgren, a Native-American father and multi-racial son, former and current employees at DHS; and Liberty In Our Neighborhood 194 an organization of Lakeville Public School parents, and several individual Lakeville parents, including Bob and Cynthia Cajune, a Native-American Veteran and white couple with multi-racial children.
The initial agency complaints and a draft lawsuit complaint are available here.
Our clients seek an end to the “official” propagandizing of CRT and the bullying and retaliation which accompany it, and appropriate remedies for the harm caused to them and others. UMLC will pursue these charges and lawsuits until we can achieve justice for them and a vindication of the American principle reaffirmed by Martin Luther King, Jr., of judging people by the “content of their character,” not the color of their skin, or their willingness to submit to CRT ideology.
Bob Cajune, the Lakeville Native-American Veteran and parent, says that: “Black Lives Matter, of course, but so do all other human lives. Posting ‘BLM’ signs and disallowing ‘All Lives Matter’ signs is political speech or viewpoint discrimination. Discriminating against or demeaning any race is not neutral and is wrong.”
Aaron Norgren believes that: “these Critical Race Theory ideas of race separation, division, incitement of hate for Whites, Christians and traditionalists, and demeaning of Blacks and other minorities as unable to act or succeed in ‘America,’ should not be promoted at a state agency or anywhere else.” This is wrong and it’s illegal.
About Upper Midwest Law Center
Upper Midwest Law Center is a non-profit, public interest law firm with the mission to initiate pro-freedom litigation to protect against constitutional violations, government overreach, special interest agendas and public union corruption and abuses. UMLC is a 501(c)(3) organization.
To learn more about Upper Midwest Law Center, click here.
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