But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, while supporting the bill, used the occasion to condemn Democrats for embracing critical race theory, which he called a new form of racism. “The Democrat Party has doubled down on what I consider a shameful history by replacing the racism of the past with the racism of Critical Race Theory,” said Mr. McCarthy of California on the House floor. The academic legal theory has set off a firestorm of controversy as it has begun to be taught in schools and used in training members of the military about diversity. It claims that while individual White people may not be racist, many laws and policies continue to discriminate against Blacks, and that Whites reap the benefits.