RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s top education official sent a letter to state lawmakers over the holidays pushing back on a lawsuit from a teacher claiming he was fired for criticizing Critical Race Theory.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt wrote that the news coverage of “claims about wokeism” at the North Carolina Governor’s School and the instructor’s complaint “gave me great pause and concern.”
The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of “woke” is to be “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice.” Started as African-American vernacular, it eventually became a catchall criticism used by some conservatives of progressive policies that are connected to race, social justice, equity and equality issues.
