As conservatives aim to capitalize on critical race theory backlash and their Virginia gubernatorial win from November, one longtime educator in Rhode Island has positioned herself at the center of the fray.
Ramona Bessinger, an English teacher of 23 years currently working in the Providence Public Schools, has been making the rounds on the conservative media circuit since this summer, ever since she first warned of CRT’s “infiltration” into the classroom.
Bessinger first appeared in July on Legal Insurrection, a blog affiliated with a Rhode Island–based conservative nonprofit. She alleged her predominantly nonwhite students had been “introduced to one of the most racially divisive, hateful, and in large part, historically inaccurate curriculums I have ever seen in my teaching career.” Bessinger outlined a shift in Providence school curriculum during the 2020–2021 school year, one overly focused on “identities” and “almost exclusively on an oppressor-oppressed narrative.”
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