DDU supporter, parent and Brighton resident Adrian Hart first raised the alarm about Brighton and Hove City Council’s (BHCC) new ‘anti-racist schools’ plan in June 2020. Racial Literacy 101 (RL101) training for teachers, informed by a highly partisan and controversial Critical Race Theory (CRT) ‘lens’ imported from America, was scheduled to be rolled out across Brighton schools. Adrian alerted DDU to the stunningly underhand and anti-democratic way the policy had come to be adopted. Green Councillor Hannah Clare seemingly arranged that ‘public consultation’ on the policy should take place only with privately hired ‘diversity consultants’ and hastily formed local lobby groups who already shared her personal support for CRT. BHCC policy documents described local residents who disagreed with concepts like white privilege, unconscious bias and systemic racism as ‘potential barriers to implementation’, rather than concerned citizens opposed to the racialization of children.

DDU’s petition against the anti-racist schools strategy was signed by 5,000 people and although BHCC tried to block Brighton parents from viewing the Racial Literacy 101 training that was informing their children’s education it was finally exposed in the mainstream media. The training had advised teachers not to treat children as though they were ‘racially innocent’ and informed them that colourblind anti-racism was a ‘pillar of white supremacy’, views wildly at odds with those held by most British families.

As a result of DDU’s lobbying, BHCC’s actions were raised by Sir John Hayes in the Houses of Parliament and an inquiry was announced by Secretary of State for Education Nadhim Zahawi. The Department for Education felt it necessary to issue guidance to educators about their responsibility to keep political partisanship out of the classroom. While DDU broadly welcomed this reminder, the guidance had serious weaknesses, including the imprecise definition of racism and the failure to provide a clear process of accountability for those schools choosing activism over impartiality.

In March 2022 DDU published a case study of events in BHCC, exposing the council’s casual disregard of the democratic policy making process and calling on local authorities to uphold the colourblind views of the majority. We continue to support Brighton parents and teachers pushing back against Critical Race Theory in the classroom.