Patty: We would tell the school board, we know critical race theory is being taught. And they continue to say, no, it wasn't. They basically were trying to intimidate us to shut up. And it had the opposite effect.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: The critical race theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our school.
Meeke Addison: If I'm given to hatred in my heart for someone based off something that they cannot control, then Christ often offers me a way out of that. Critical race theory says, no, he doesn't.
Patty: Can't you help my son prepare for his future instead of teaching him to be a social justice warrior?
Xi Vanliere Fleet: If we don't do anything, we're going to lose America.
Patty: I never wanted to get involved in politics, but when it comes knocking at your door and your children are involved, there's nothing you won't do for them.
Meeke Addison: All God asks of you is faithfulness. Then conquer. We must for our cause it is just and this be our motto. In God is our trust. We need desperately to have men and women of courage and discipline, for courage
Patty: and discipline are contagious. So my parents were born in Havana, Cuba, and in 1958 they were married. And this is the time that Fidel Castro was taking over the country. But they ended up escaping Cuba, thank God, and arrived in Miami. I'm the fifth of six kids. And our faith has always been a big proponent of our family dynamics. We were raised with such a spirit of patriotism and realizing when you don't have freedom, the people cannot prosper. Independence in America is what brought my parents here. You know, they knew that the freedoms they had in Cuba were non existent. I moved to Virginia in I was only 22 years old after college and it was a beautiful place to raise a family. And so I did raise a family there. I'm a mother of three, six sons, and we live in Ashburn, Virginia. I was asked to take over the Republican Women's Club in Loudoun County. I would meet people in the grocery store and give them a business card and say, we would love for you to get involved. And in two years, we grew from 25 to nearly 500. And it was about this time when the club was growing, that COVID lockdown happened. And members of my club would share videos and screenshots of what some teachers were pushing on our children. And one in particular was a teacher in an English honors class that was asking his class, what is race? The student not only was smart enough to record it, but to share it with others. And it quickly came to me. We re edited so that the Children's names were taken out and it went viral.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: Tell me what, what this seems to be a picture of. It's just two people chilling, right?
Meeke Addison: Just two people.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: That's nothing more to this picture?
Patty: No, not really.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: Just two people chilling.
Meeke Addison: Yeah, but I think you're being. I think you're being.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: I think you're being intentionally coy about what this is a picture of. Well, I'm confused. Are you trying to get me to say that there are two different races in this picture?
Patty: Is that what you want to say? And that was our first, fact based way to show people what was truly going on in our schools. They were trying to separate our children just by the color of their skin. And I had the courage to address it with the school board. Culturally responsive training, diversity, equity, whatever you call it, it's components of critical race theory. That's exactly what it is, a theory. Can't we get back to academics? Can't we focus on teaching my junior in high school the basics of math, science, writing? Can't you help my son prepare for his future instead of teaching him to be a social justice warrior? It doesn't matter to my son what color the child sitting next to him in the classroom is or the color of the player on the football team with him is. It matters that they respect each other and can have a great dialogue in the classroom without making them feel guilty or victimized because of the color of their skin. Pleading with you to please put aside your progressive ideologies and do what's best for all 81,000 of these Loudoun county students. Put our children first. I mean, this administration in Loudoun county, they partnered with a minority organization and the NAACP to create two buckets of students, victims and oppressors. And if you were white, you were an oppressor, but if you were, a black student, you were a victim. I mean, can you imagine telling these students what kind of people they are before they even have a chance to use their minds and their hearts to do well? These children are innocent. They're putting this fear into them. They're putting this division into them. They're putting this mental anguish into them. I mean, they've never looked at their classmate by the color of their skin. And now they're afraid to use certain words to offend them when they've been friends for so many years.
Meeke Addison: Critical race theory, or CRT as it's commonly called, roots itself in critical theory. It comes out of Neo Marxism or NewSong Marxism, which then repackaged itself as critical theory. but in the late 1980s, these critical race theorists came out of these critical legal scholars who were committed to finding all of the ways that our American legal system was inherently racist and set up to favor whites over blacks in America. On its face, people think of it as a new way to approach or deal with racism, but really it's not. It's an old way to keep people separated and to divide people.
Patty: So being president of the largest Republican women's club, I would send out emails every Monday morning encouraging more moms to get involved, whether it was letters to the editor, attending school board meetings, anything they could do to make a difference.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: I got ah, email from Patty and said let's go to the school board and just tell them that we are against the crt. I said absolutely, I'm on board. My name is Xi Vanliere Fleet. I'm just a private citizen and a parent and just fed up. I spent my first 22nd, six years in China, most of it under Mao, living under communism. First of all, you don't have freedom. I have no freedom of information. Books were banned and of course you have no freedom of thought because all you got is the same propaganda. So I have no idea what the world outside China was like. And I have to say I'm thoroughly indoctrinated, through their educational system. And I thoroughly believed that Mao was our own, also our real parents. We have sons that we sing Father is dear, mother is dear but no one is as dear as Chairman Mao. And when Mao died, I thought our world ended. And I just could not believe that this could happen. And what we do, you know, that is what communism can do to a person. Totally take away this person's ability to think. So I went to college and studied English and later become an English teacher. in 1986 I was fortunate enough to be able to get a scholarship, from a university and then come here to get my graduate's degree. In the very beginning of coming here, I was just dazzled by everything, everything. Freedom, material prosperity. And I know that the American dream is for me to achieve. You know. So I focus on getting a degree, getting married, getting a job, getting a house, buying a house and all this and raising a family. And I did not really pay any attention to politics. And a lot of times I did not even understand what was really going on. When I saw the riots, when I saw people tearing down statues, changing demand, changing names of streets like in Washington D.C. the name, one of the streets was named Black Lives Matter. I said, that is cultural revolution that I witnessed myself. The Red Guards tore down statues of Buddha and Jesus statues from churches. And a lot of people just, they don't know. A lot of Americans, they're baffled. They're really baffled. What's going on in this country. Why all of a sudden all this is happening? But to me, this is something I know, this is something I experience. This is communist revolution. The aim is tearing down America.
Patty: We would tell the school board, we know critical race theory is being taught. And they continue to say, no, it wasn't. We FOIA requested and found an invoice from an equity consultant that they'd hired that said critical race theory training. We found it and they continued to say it wasn't there. And so we know the truth, whether they wanted to state the facts or not.
Meeke Addison: That's interesting. People don't cover up good things. And I think if for parents to question whether or not critical race theory is healthy for children, probably the big answer that is no, is that there is such a cover up. I always, I tell parents, you know, don't look for a handout to come home with your kid that has critical race theory at the top of it. You won't find it, but you will find assignments that allude to this ideology. And they start with a certain position, right? So it may be, the position that law enforcement officers are automatically racist, that law enforcement is bad. And so your kid may have an assignment to talk about all of the injustices wrought by law enforcement. Like, you know, what are the ways that our criminal justice system, would be flawed in a high school? At the high school level, certainly. I grew up in the 80s and the 90s, and we didn't make much out of the color of people's skin. We just didn't. And I'm so grateful for that. But you would be surprised the number of kids who, have race and ethnicity, privilege and class and equity and inclusion and diversity. All of this is at the top of their minds. And why? Because they are being fed this healthy diet of it day in and day out.
Patty: It's our fundamental constitutional right to go to these school board meetings during public comments and inquire, you know, what's going on, what's our plan for in person learning? What is this, this video of this teacher pushing separation of race. And they didn't like that. So they made a list of us parents and There were about 40 to 50 of us on this blacklist and they put three pictures of me in there. My first and last name, what my husband's name, was where my son goes to high school. And they basically were trying to intimidate us to shut up, to not go back to the school board meetings and explain that we didn't like what they were doing. And it had the opposite effect. This caused myself and, lots of other parents to say, this is wrong. What you were doing is wrong. And we got organized, and we became a movement of just parents resign, reserve power.
Meeke Addison: The Western culture and values that brought forth Christianity in the founding documents and are being called evil and racist. I'm reminded of the tyranny of communist China, where your money is legally stolen and then used in government schools, not public schools. These are not public schools.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: These are government schools, like here to
Meeke Addison: indoctrinate children against their parents. My child is not oppressed. And don't assume that as long as you Marxists push your unconstitutional agenda on my child, she will not be returning back to Loud County School.
Patty: I've had many, a night wondering, am I doing the right thing? Should I keep fighting for our children? it's not an easy thing to get the arrows, attacking you for your beliefs. People would find me through Facebook messenger, through Twitter, message through LinkedIn, and they would send me such horrible messages. I hope you die of COVID I would love to pop you. You're a racist. You're a white supremacist. And they didn't know. They just went off of the way the left was, talking about parents. And it was my father that said, patty, they're using the same tactics that they used in Cuba. We didn't have an opportunity to stop it. But you do. He encouraged me every day. Put on your armor of God, Patty. You need to go back into that school building and tell them that this is wrong.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: I always tell people, if you want to get involved, you want to fight the fight, and you are still not called a, racist or bigot. You're not in the trenches. You have to be in the trenches. And once you're in, you will be called everything like everybody else that, are fighting the fight. So take it as a badge of honor.
Patty: More developments tonight on how parents and
Meeke Addison: common sense Americans are pushing back against the destructive far left critical race theory ideology that's infiltrating America's schools. Just look into how one Virginia mom who actually survived Mao, China eviscerates her local school board amid the district's critical race theory. Push, take A look at this.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: I've been very alarmed about what's going on in our school. You are now teaching, training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history. growing up in Mao's China, all this seem very familiar. The Communist regime used the same critical theories to divide people. The only difference is they use class instead of race. This is indeed the American version of the Chinese Communist, the Chinese Cultural revolution. The critical race theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our schools. I just want people to know that the freedom is fragile and we can lose it anytime if we don't defend it. And there's a lot of, Chinese, Americans who have the same experience and share my point of view. And I know that more and more people will step up and share their stories and tell the American people. Critical, race theory is not anti racism. It itself is racist. It's divisive, it's destructive, and it is dangerous. After the, Fox News interview, it really put me on the national spotlight. This is the best way for me to reach out to Americans because, the left tells everybody my truth. Your truth? My truth is my lived experience. And I want to tell those people, you sit down and listen to me because this is my lived experience. So this is my mission to go and talk to anyone, anyone who want to listen about my story and my warning. If we don't do anything, we're going to lose America.
Patty: You know, you gotta have some thick skin to be able to talk to the opposing side. Because I think there's so much emotion involved. They look at through their lens that they're pushing these, they're trying to help the little guy and we're trying to defend our faith in our children. And so I've always been willing to talk to people, but they don't want to talk. They just want to use social media to lambast us and use media to point us as a crazy Christian.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: I'm not a Christian, but I understand, I understand that this country is built on Christian principles. It is built on Christian values. So actually this we can go further. And Christianity is the foundation of Western civilization. It is so important. And that's why the left want to destroy Christianity.
Meeke Addison: I hope. I long for Christianity to be the threat that it is to all lies and all deception. And critical race theory is that James writes in chapter two of his letter to the Church. He writes about partiality and basically he's saying without using a bunch of eloquent words, it's not good. Like, he's like, don't show partiality, okay? It's not good to show preference for this person over that person for these flimsy, you know, whimsical things. And then he says. He says, if you show partiality, haven't you broken the law? He goes. And then he says, so there are some people who would say, well, I haven't committed adultery, but I've murdered. And he says, but if you break any part of the law, haven't you broken the entirety of the law? So now think about that. When you have Christians who will say, and I'm speaking of white male Christians that I have heard say, I'm a racist. I will always be a racist. I will. That is just who I am. And I will struggle with that until the day I die. And I know as a white pastor,
Xi Vanliere Fleet: I have blind spots, so I am part of the problem.
Meeke Addison: I, want to say I'm sorry for the ways that in my past that I have been a denier of
Xi Vanliere Fleet: this, that there's still racism in the
Patty: body of Christ and in our country.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: I would like to ask all of our minorities here, and I'm not talking about just African American. I'm talking about all of our minorities, our brothers and sisters.
Meeke Addison: Would you forgive me?
Xi Vanliere Fleet: And would you forgive Perimeter Church?
Meeke Addison: Okay, so that is a confession of sin. And so now what you're telling me is that you are a sinner and you want to serve in a position of leadership while publicly acknowledging sin that, according to you, cannot be atoned for. So my question is, so then what of Christ? Like, why. Why. Why did he appear? Why did he come? Was he successful? I mean, he is risen. Am I justified? Am I forgiven of my sin? You see, when you start trying to reconcile critical race theory to the gospel, one has to go. So either Christ's sacrifice is not sufficient and we all are still in our sin, right? Or it is sufficient. And if I was given to partiality, when I come to Christ, his blood is enough to cleanse me of that unrighteousness. if I'm given to hatred in my heart for someone based off something that they cannot control, like the color of their skin, then Christ offers me a way out of that. Critical race theory, says, no, he doesn't. You're always the oppressor. And that's again, of necessity, because there always has to be an, oppressed group. And you can't have an oppressed group if you don't have an oppressor. So in other words, when the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, this whole list of all the ways that we have transcribed transgressed God's law, you know, and he says, such were some of you. You know, we were the swindlers, we were the homosexual offenders, right? We were the adulterers, we were the liars, we were the. The cheats, we were the scoundrels. And the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians in his first letter, chapter six, he says, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were cleansed. Right? So all of this sin, all of this offense that we came to God with has been removed from us because of Jesus Christ. Critical race theory allows for none of that. And on that basis alone, we could stop there and say it's incompatible with biblical Christianity.
Patty: Has it been worth it? Yes, I think I grew a lot. I learned to have, thick skin. our governor is now Youngkin. Governor Youngkin appointed very brilliant minds in the Virginia Department of Education, and they are really trying to keep the standards of learning to a Christian forefront. We've had a lot of pushback from the Northern Virginia school boards against the Youngkin administration. But the attorney General is implementing lots of, legal lawsuits to try to protect parents rights. And it's pretty exciting to see. Now, we have not done much with this school board. Unfortunately, our superintendent, who's the, mastermind behind all of this CRT and transgender movement, he just got a raise because 5 of the school board members gave him high marks. I never wanted to get involved in politics. It was something that I thought, you know, other people did. But when it comes knocking at your door and your children are involved, there's nothing you won't do for them. So I will always be that support for our community, for our children. And who knows where God wants to lead me next.
Xi Vanliere Fleet: to me, it's, a few things we can do as ordinary people, just like me, you know, like, never get involved politically. Get involved and join your local conservative, groups. That's number one. Because, together we have more strength. And, so get organized and then get educated. And that's what I'm doing to tell people. You use my own story about the danger, and the threat of communism to America, and, also teach people the same. And that's how we, win the war.
Meeke Addison: So when we're talking about this war or this battle that we are in, spiritually speaking, we're Talking about a war of kingdoms, right? Colossians, teaches us that when we came to Christ, we were taken from the domain of darkness, and we've been brought into the kingdom of God. And so if you think about an ideology that would try to wrestle us away from the gospel, then the ultimate goal really, is that we would descend into eternal separation from God. And so what I often say is that we're looking at this topple, and we're looking at the. This cause our nation to crumble. If we would save our nation, if we would spare our nation the destruction that befell other countries that descended into Marxism, then what we've got to do is make sure that people have a clear understanding of the gospel. We've got to make sure that we entrust the gospel to our children so that they can teach their children as well, and so that our grandchildren are equipped. If I make sure that as I'm working my way through scripture with my kids, that I'm being faithful and devoted to the truth of God's Word, then when there are, philosophies or ideologies that rival that, my kid, being thoroughly steeped in that truth, will go, wait a minute. That can't be true. Because we know that this is true. And I will tell you, even with all that I've researched and all of the reading that I've done and looking into critical race theory, I actually don't lead with teaching my kids how to reject critical race theory. I actually lead in teaching them God's word. I lead in teaching them how to live faithfully for the glory of God. And so when these conversations pop up, I have seen it firsthand that they will say, well, that doesn't make sense, because what about this? Or what about that? And that's a delight to my heart to see them refer back to the word of God. I don't want them to refer to an opposing ideology, right? Even if it's in favor of where I stand, I don't want that. I want them to refer back to the word of God, and I want them to know it so thoroughly that it's as natural to them as breathing. Sam.
