Columbia Professor Denounces NJ Prep School Over Critical Race Theory, Urges Parents to Withdraw

A professor at Columbia University denounced a New Jersey prep school on Twitter after an English teacher resigned her position because of the school's critical race theory teachings.

Professor and writer John McWhorter took to Twitter on Tuesday to commend former Dwight-Englewood School English teacher Dana Stangel-Plowe for speaking out on issues inside the school in her resignation letter, which was published by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism.

"All hail Dana Stangel-Plowe, who has resigned from the Dwight-Englewood school, which teaches students 'antiracism' that sees life as nothing but abuse of power, and teaches that cringing, hostile group identity against oppression is the essence of a self," McWhorter tweeted.

He followed up with a second tweet, calling on parents to pull their children out of Dwight-Englewood. "Truly antiracist parents, in the name of love of their kids, should pull them from the Dwight-Englewood school as of next fall. Only this will arrest these misguided Elect parishioners from their quest to forge a new reality for us all."

McWhorter previously received media attention for his outspokenness in criticizing critical race theory. As an associate professor at Columbia, he has taught English and comparative literature courses, according to the New York Post, and released a book on Substack called, The Elect: Neoracists Posing as Antiracists and their Threat to a Progressive America.

In the book, McWhorter, who is Black, criticized what he called "Third Wave Antiracism," an idea that he says is fundamentally embedding racism into society.

A similar narrative was expressed in Stangel-Plowe's resignation letter, which said she believed the critical race theory teaching in the school was creating a "hostile culture of conformity and fear."

"One student did not want to develop her personal essay — about an experience she had in another country — for fear that it might mean that she was, without even realizing it, racist," Stangel-Plowe wrote. "In her fear, she actually stopped herself from thinking. This is the very definition of self-censorship."

Stangel-Plowe brought up other instances where she saw students reacting in unhealthy ways to the philosophies they were being taught, saying that students "recoil from a poem because it was written by a man," adding "students have internalized the message that this is the way we read and think about the world, and as a result, they fixate on power and group identity."

"At all schools being choked by this unintellectual, hostile and essentially religious way of thinking, parents who seek true education for their children must start withdrawing their support in large groups and publicizing it on social media," McWhorter told Newsweek. "Only in this way will this unelected clergy lose their sense that they have been anointed to forge a new world order."

The implementation of critical race theory, the teacher wrote, has damaged "our students' intellectual and emotional growth," and has ruined "any chance at creating a true community among our diverse population."

Dwight-Englewood school's principal, Joe Algrant, told the New York Post, "All I can say is that Ms. Stangel-Plowe notified us several months ago that she would not be returning next school year."