A right-wing extremist, Missouri organization has released an alarming map notifying followers to “hot spots” of what they describe as “woke” activity taking place across the state. Harvard-trained lawyer and Founder of Mighty Missouri Project, Lindsey Simmons, says the group is funded by “dark money” and described the map as reading like a “school hit-list.”
After finding out about the map, Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted
“I’m concerned, but sadly not surprised to see a heat map released recently by an extremist Missouri outfit masquerading as a mainstream political organization that attacks and targets schools and individual educators in Kansas City and throughout Missouri.” – Mayor Quinton Lucas
As of this week, the 12 map locations are all related to educational institutions and link to tweets, articles, and videos targeting schools that teach material relating to race, Black history, gender and other topics which white extremists often incorrectly define as “Critical Race Theory,” or “sexual material.”
The “hitlist-like” heatmap identifies at least 12 schools or school districts, which is particularly chilling given America’s rapidly rising rate of mass shootings motivated by white supremacist terrorist ideologies.
On its website, Liberty Alliance describes itself as “committed to fighting back against the woke agenda permeating all across Missouri.”
“The first step in fighting back is uncovering their crazy ideas — from Critical Race Theory to grooming toddlers with sexually explicit books,” the group says. “That is why we have officially launched the Woke Heat Map — an interactive tool designed to expose the insane actions of the radical Left. This map will alert Missourians of craziness happening in their own communities.”
Critical race theory, a primarily legal framework which observes how laws and policies perpetuate systemic racism, has become a right-wing, fascist, catch-all phrase employed by largely white supremacists who do not want schools teaching anything about race, white supremacy, Black history, or quite frankly, factual American history.
Since the ascendance of the Anti-CRT movement, educators across the country are increasingly experiencing abuse, physical violence and even threats of prison time for simply teaching accurate historical facts. In New Hampshire for instance, teachers face new legal threats for teaching so-called ‘divisive concepts’ on race with the law citing it as ‘psychological warfare’.
The “woke heat map” appears to be inspired by the fascist law implemented in New Hampshire “which is enforced by everyday citizens who can use a new web portal to report teachers.” Once a report has been made, a person “can sue the school district and the New Hampshire State Board of Education can discipline a teacher by terminating their position or stripping their teaching license.”
One of the hotspots on the so-called heatmap links to a tweet by the Florida governor’s Press Secretary who infamously said that all pro-LGBTQ allies are pedophiles.
While the map claims to be “interactive,” and its creators boast it as a “new technology,” it is in fact neither. Rather, users of the website are told to interact with the site by filling out forms on the site in order to report new “woke hotspots” that will then be added to the map.
Numerous Twitter followers were incredibly disturbed by it
According to HuffPost, “little is known about the organization’s funding. It’s registered as a social welfare organization rather than a political action committee under 501(c)(4) of the IRS code. That classification allows it to dodge campaign finance filing requirements, even though the Missouri Democratic Party has said the group is involved in elections.”
