The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) is an American nonprofit organization, founded in 2021, that campaigns against diversity and inclusion programs, ethnic studies curricula, and antiracism initiatives that it refers to as "critical race theory" (CRT).
[1][2][3][4][5] Critics liken FAIR's approach to the "All Lives Matter" response, arguing that the organization conflates CRT with any race-related discussions, distorting its academic origins.
[6] The group has supported lawsuits against school equity policies and opposed COVID-19 treatment guidelines that considered race as a risk factor, citing discrimination against white people.
The school introduced a theme of "allyship" for the schoolyear, promoting the idea that members of "privileged classes" should advance the interests and the voices of oppressed groups over their own.
After removing his children from Riverdale Country School, Bartning founded FAIR to oppose antiracist efforts that he views as "a kind of religion taking hold in American education that forces people into categories according to their race.
[11] Bartning established FAIR in January 2021 and expressed his concerns about how schools teach about racism in a March Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
[6] Advisors include former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, musician Daryl Davis, Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, linguist John McWhorter, economist Glenn Loury, and right-wing writers Melissa Chen,[17] Bari Weiss, and Abigail Shrier.
[9][18][19] The organization claims to be non-partisan,[11] and its board includes cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, a Democrat, as well as venture capitalist and Republican donor Alexander Lloyd.
[2][3] In January 2021, a mother in Nevada claimed that her biracial son could not opt out of a mandatory sociology class that "appeared to be teaching students critical race theory and intersectionality".
Her case was supported by Schoolhouse Rights, a project of the anti-LGBTQ group International Organization for the Family, the anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom, and FAIR.
[21] In April, a federal grant program supporting American history and civics education projects that, among other criteria, “incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives” was opposed by Mitch McConnell and FAIR.
[1] In June, FAIR started a campaign to support Dana Stangel-Plower, who resigned from the Dwight-Englewood School due to what she called "essentialist, racialist thinking".
Featured speakers included state Senator Russ Ingalls, who has criticized teaching about race, and Ben Morely, who started the Vermont chapter of FAIR.
The policy, which was developed with input from more than 2000 community members in 2019, said that the district would support the equitable allocation of funding, diverse hiring practices, and a "culturally responsive" curriculum and training for staff about historic achievement inequities between white and nonwhite students.
[26][27] In January 2022, Joseph Boyle of the El Paso-Teller chapter of FAIR criticized an audit by the American Institute of Research that was paid for by Colorado Springs School District 11.
The SBA wrote that it denied the charter because the group's goals overlapped with other established clubs and because they were concerned with the lack of safeguards such as moderators to facilitate discussions.
Letitia Kim, managing director of the Legal Network at FAIR, wrote a letter to the SBA president, Jadyn Taylor, urging the board to reverse their decision to reject the charter proposal.
FAIR alleged that requiring students to announce their pronouns violates freedom of speech because it forces them to adhere to an ideology that can conflict with religious beliefs.
Their main focus has been opposing Bill 67, which would require boards to implement anti-racist policies and redefine racism to include systemic and unconscious forms.
[34] On October 17, FAIR hosted a webinar titled "Understanding Gender Dysphoria and Its Impact on Clinical Care" with Lisa Littman, Stella O'Malley, Zander Kreig, Teva Johnstone, and Dr. Carrie Mendoza.
[35] The report stated FAIR uses the framing of "parental rights" to suppress LGBTQ+ representation and that it fights to oppose the social affirmation of transgender people.
[35] In May 2023, FAIR sponsored a letter to Springer Nature demanding they refuse to retract a paper on Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria and retain Kenneth Zucker as the journal's editor.
[35] In September 2023, FAIR supported a petition by members of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) and Genspect that called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to halt the prescription of puberty blockers to trans youth.
In June 2021, with the help of FAIR, the Upper Midwest Law Center, and America First Legal, Gustilo filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging she had been discriminated against due to her race.
[38][39][40] In June 2022, Brown University expanded eligibility for a "Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction" teacher training class that had originally restricted enrollment exclusively to racial and ethnic minorities.
[41] The same month, Keith Ray, a part-time teaching artist at New 42, filed a lawsuit supported by FAIR accusing the organization of discriminating against white employees, saying that the institution’s diversity trainings were themselves discriminatory.
[43][44] In July, Meg Smaker allied with FAIR to argue that her documentary "The UnRedacted", originally titled "Jihad Rehab", was being targeted since she was a white non-Muslim woman.
[7] In response to the omicron surge in December 2021, the New York State and City health departments issued guidance on the use of COVID-19 drug treatments and therapies that were then in limited supply.
FAIR filed a lawsuit asking the guidance to be blocked, claiming that it discriminated against white people and also members of minority racial and ethnic groups by labeling them as more prone to disease and therefore contributing to stigma and by subjecting them to experimental treatment.