At a school board meeting this week in Raleigh, North Carolina, local youth pastor John Amanchukwu criticized members for failing to educate Black students while “wasting taxpayer dollars” on Critical Race Theory and diversity programs. During the public-comment portion of the October 18 Wake County school board meeting, Amanchukwu quoted Luke 17:2 and warned board members that God will judge them for decisions they make regarding the community’s children.
The pastor, who is Black, used his three minutes at the microphone to blast expensive efforts at teaching CRT and LGBTQ inclusion while ignoring subjects such as reading, writing, and math. “As we are teaching cultural Marxism and grooming children to be the next pervert,” he said, “we are damaging our kids in this public school system, and it needs to stop.”
Black Students Are ‘Trapped’ in Public Schools, Says Pastor
Citing state-test statistics from 2020-2021, Amanchukwu noted that 78 percent of the district’s Black third- through eighth-graders aren’t proficient in math, and 66 percent aren’t proficient in reading. “We’re wasting money on a diversity, equity, and inclusion office while we are failing Black students ‘in the name of diversity,’” he said. “In the Jim Crow era, Black students were locked out of the public school system, but today they are trapped in.”
Wake County, the state’s largest school district, spends $1 million per year on an Office of Equity Affairs. The program, launched in 2013, applies an “equity lens” to all aspects of education, according to a district manual. That, in turn, “benefits all students.”
Amanchukwu advocates for school choice, including vouchers so families can apply their tax money to schools that actually “benefit,” “support,” and “educate” students.
His speech went viral after conservative activist Ryan Fournier, founder of Students For Trump, shared it online. “This pastor in NC nailed it while giving this speech to the woke Wake County school board,” Fournier tweeted. “God Bless this guy!”
Other reactions to Amanchukwu’s statements were mixed. Local parent Renee Sekel tweeted a face-palm emoji, writing: “A kid who is being bullied; who is made to feel uncomfortable in their own skin, who must hide who they are, is not in a great place to learn reading and writing. ALL kids deserve to be safe and comfortable at school.”
David Blackwelder, a former Republican candidate in Wake County elections, lauded Amanchukwu as a “servant of god” but added: “I wish he would reconsider his position. I have personally known many in the LGBT community who are conservative, but are dismissed for their sexual preferences. God loves ALL people, regardless of their standing or beliefs.”
RELATED: Baptist Pastor Resigns School Board Over Clash of Faith and Culture
Pastor Tackles CRT, Abortion in New Book
Amanchukwu, who ministers at Raleigh’s Upper Room Church of God in Christ, leads protests outside local abortion clinics, supported North Carolina’s controversial transgender “bathroom bill,” and just published a book titled Eraced: Uncovering the Lies of Critical Race Theory and Abortion.
