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written and the expert interviews she has given on the dan
gers of a curriculum infused with CRT ideology.
After growing up in China and earning her undergradu
ate degree in International Trade and Economics from S.W
Jiaotong University in 2009, her academic excellence gave her
the opportunity to come to the University of Miami when she
earned her Masters in International Studies in 2011 and her
doctorate in International Studies in 2017. She also worked
as a teaching/research assistant at University of Miami from
2011-17.
She previously worked with the Asian American Coalition
for Education and has has a plethora of research papers and
other writings published. She lived in the Miami area until
three years ago when her daughter was 1 and she decided
she wanted to move out of the city. She moved to Tifton and
worked from Tifton through the pandemic. Her husband
served in the military, including a tour in Iraq, and has since
worked in retail management. As Wu’s work has demanded
more travel, he has given more of his time to caring for their
little girl.
As their daughter reached pre-kindergarten age and Wu saw
that she needed easy access to the Atlanta airport for her trav
els, she researched school systems in rural areas that would
give her daughter outdoor places to play and a good educa
tion in a school system that doesn’t foster indoctrination. She
even reviewed the minutes from Board of Education meetings
before choosing Monroe County.
Wu said she has analyzed the curriculums of many Cali
fornia school systems and is alarmed at how partnerships
between teachers’ unions and politicians have infused “woke”
agendas, such as CRT, into the every day lessons in K-12.
She is pleased that Georgia has passed legislation to keep
CRT out of the curriculums in the state’s public schools, but
she said there are groups working to include it, particularly
in Atlanta/Fulton County and Forsyth County. She met
Richard Wood, Georgia’s state school superintendent, and
he expressed the desire to keep invasive dogma out of public
education.
Wu said parents from Minnesota to Atlanta have noticed
children’s books in public libraries and school media centers
that subdy push the message of systemic racism and the call
for even pre-kindergarteners to pursue social justice. She said
the common threads in these Trojan horses are that all human
enterprise is viewed through a prism of race and they want to
dismantle current norms through anti-racism.
Wu said federal agencies are obsessed with the equality of
outcomes, like matching the teacher workforce to the ethnic
ity of students. She said enforcing diversity and affirmative
action is actually very Marxist. She said students should be
rewarded for and taught to value hard work and focused ef
fort rather than making diversity the priority.
Wu said some of her professors at University of Miami,
which is a liberal college, have told her they are disappointed
in the ideologies she now champions.
“I have a young child,” said Wu. “As I became older I realized
the importance of upholding American values and treating all
equally. I am more appreciative of the founding fathers.”
She emphasized the importance of local elections, including
the Board of Education. She lives in Monroe County’s District
5, but she agrees with the statement District 3 candidate Greg
Head made in the recent debate that even though the BOE
passed a resolution not to allow CRT in Monroe County
Schools curriculum, it is still important to be aware of what
individual teachers are teaching in their classrooms and to
make the board’s position clear to all teachers. Wu has volun
teered to help Monroe County schools analyze any pertinent
documents with a view toward emphasizing excellence and
rigor in the school system.
Wu said the move away from using the SAT and ACT as im
portant tools for college admission is a mistake. She sees great
value in standardized tests as a measure to predict academic
achievement in college since other measures, like grade point
averages, can be skewed.
Wu is passionate about protecting the American values that
say everyone can succeed, including immigrants, if they work
hard and focus on a dream. She doesn’t talk about personal
hardships but acknowledges that as an Asian woman she
has faced discrimination and has also had to deal with death
threats as an advocate of conservative ideology that is unpop
ular with a vocal segment of the population.
Wu said Americans should be united by common values
and goals instead of divided by “hyphenated identities.” She
said that Martin Luther King Jr. had it right when he said
that hate can’t drive out hate; only love can. She said another
philosophy with which she agrees is that of black economist
Shelby Steele, that life is not about getting even; it’s about get
ting ahead.
“I think for myselff’ said Wu. “ We need to make sure our
pursuit of truth is greater than any ideology’’
She said she studied English in Chinese schools beginning
in 5th grade and found it interesting but didn’t consider her
self strong in it. She said she is an example of what America
offers to immigrants as well as to all native-born citizens, that
someone without money and even with limited language
skills can work hard and achieve. She said zip codes and eth
nic backgrounds should be neither advantages or disadvan
tages. She said the uniquely American system of opportunity,
not equality, for everyone is fragile and deserves watch dogs to
protect it.
“I am first and foremost a mother,” she said. “I care about the
kind of nation we’re leaving our young ones.”
Dr. Wenjuan Wu has been interviewed by the Wall Street
Journal, Fox News, National Review, NBC News, ABC News,
NPR, Quartz, Ed Source, College Fix and others. She writes
for Minding the Campus of the National Association of Schol
ars and sits on the board of Parents Defending Education
Action. Since late 2020, Wenyuan has focused her advocacy
and research work on combatting the intrusion of critical race
theory (CRT) in American public life. In addition to partici
pating in high-profile public speaking engagements on the
topic and giving expert testimony in various state legislature
hearings, she and her team launched a website (www.rejectcrt.
org) to provide practical resources for everyday Americans
facing CRT. She can be reached at wenyuan.wu@cferfounda-
tion.org.