Christopher Ferguson Rufo is an American conservative activist, New College of Florida board member, and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He is an opponent of critical race theory, which he says "has pervaded every aspect of the federal government" and poses "an existential threat to the United States". He is a former documentary filmmaker and former fellow at the Discovery Institute, the Claremont Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism.
Rufo has been involved in Republican efforts to restrict critical race theory instruction or seminars. Critical race theory considers racism to be systemic in various rules and laws, and not only based on individual prejudices. Rufo described his strategy to oppose critical race theory as using the term to "put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category" and "to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think 'critical race theory.'" Rufo's appearances with Tucker Carlson on Fox News reportedly influenced President Donald Trump to issue an executive order in 2020 banning some topics from diversity training for the government and contractors; the order was rescinded by President Joe Biden in 2021.
Rufo opposes teachers discussing LGBTQ issues in schools. He has contended that public schools are often "hunting grounds for sexual predators." He has said that "To get to universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust."
