Controversy after CMS hosted Kendi. Here's what the professor shared on anti-racism. Anna Maria Della Costa, The Charlotte Observer Jul. 3—Despite two top North Carolina Republicans issuing an angry statement last month, charging that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools was "embracing a discriminatory ideology," video released Friday of the event in question shows something different. Critical Race Theory was specifically discussed for less than two minutes — out of a more than 40-minute-long session — during a keynote address from Ibram X. Kendi to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' leaders in June. The politicians, N.C. Sen. Phil Berger and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, had claimed: "This is the state's second-largest school district embracing a discriminatory ideology by paying $25,000 to learn from (Critical Race Theory's) most prominent adherent."