Is Critical Race Theory Being Taught in Schools? It's Far Bigger than That.
/Is Critical Race Theory being taught in our K-12 schools?
Right-leaning activists like Christopher F. Rufo are leading the revolution to make you believe that. Media pundits like Joy Reid deny it. Republican politicians are banning it, which makes Democrats furious. Teachers’ unions are vowing to protect it, some teachers are determined to teach it regardless, and parents are scared to death.
But what is the truth?
If parents are expecting to walk into a classroom and see “Critical Race Theory 101” on the board, that isn’t likely.
In Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic make it known that “Unlike some academic disciplines, critical race theory contains an activist dimension. It tries not only to understand our social situation, but to change it; it sets out not only to ascertain how society organizes itself along racial lines and hierarchies but to transform it for the better.”
If you were going to “transform the world,” would you wait to make a move until a student got into law school? Or would you take a more evangelical approach? If you’re a Christian and your goal is to convert the agnostics in your life, you wouldn’t blast them with early church history, the Greek translations, or deep dives into different doctrines. You’d try to be a good example of Christianity, give real-world examples of the love of God, and work in a few bible stories when relevant. Your goal isn’t to make them an instant theologian; it’s to make them a disciple of Christ.
The goal isn’t for your children to cite Derrick Bell and other CRT experts’ word for word. The goal is to convert them into that worldview and to radicalize others around them. When Brianna Keilar of CNN ran a segment on critical race theory, educator Keziah Ridgeway explained it is a “lens by which to view history and the way that law and race kind of overlaps and connects in society.” She goes on to say it can influence the way teachers teach, but that’s a good thing! “Race and racism is literally the building blocks of this country.”
What happens if you put on a pair of glasses with the wrong prescription? Your perspective isn’t clear. Parents don’t mind if their children are taught dates, locations, and events. They don’t want their children indoctrinated into a worldview that encourages a hyper racial view on life.
There are a few tenants critical race theory focuses on:
Racism is ordinary. It’s the “usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color in this country.”
We have a system that benefits white-over-color. The reality of racism is denied because it is “not acknowledged,” and since the system benefits whites, they have little incentive to “eradicate” it. Ideas of colorblindness and conceptions of equality feed into that system because it cannot remedy it.
Race is a social construct, as in “products of social thought and relations.”
Voices of color are unique. White people should particularly listen to people of color “because of their different histories and experiences with oppression.”
Are your children being taught critical race theory? Are they being forced to go on privilege walks to demonstrate the white-over-color hierarchy? Are they being taught they are privileged because they are white or that life is harder for them because they’re black? In some places, yes. Defenders of critical race theory say it’s about teaching “accurate history” but how is it accurate to assert “voices of color” have the corner market on oppression? Irish and Italian Americans, for example, faced discrimination in America.
When a principal in Alabama segregates elementary classrooms, are we not supposed to believe that reflects Derrick Bell’s distaste of integration? When Oregon Governor Kate Brown signs a bill to eliminate requirements to prove proficiency in math, reading, and writing because it will “benefit” students of color, are we not supposed to trace that back to the belief that neutrality is bad?
The problem isn’t that critical race theory is being taught today in our classrooms. The problem is that it’s being preached everywhere. This is an extraordinary long game the public is only recently catching onto.
Cartoon Network ran an ad encouraging everyone to “see color.” It’s being taught in our military, and General Mark A. Miley defended it because he wants to understand “white rage.” The African American History Museum in Washington DC was blasted last year for creating an infographic on “whiteness.” It included traits like rational and linear thinking, the nuclear family, respecting authority, believing intent matters in the law, and believing in one God. Coca-Cola had a training encouraging employees to be “less white,” which included being less oppressive, arrogant, certain, and defensive. They aren’t the only company with questionable training practices. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey donated $10 million to Ibram X. Kendi’s antiracist group. Kendi is also partnered with Netflix, so they’re sure to continuously create racial content like Antiracist Baby.
Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, who wrote White Fragility, have become very mainstream as of late. Defenders of critical race theory are trying to distance Kendi and DiAngelo from the movement, but they are products of the ideology. Delgado and Stefancic make it clear there are spinoffs of CRT and activism is necessary. Whether you want to acknowledge them or not, it’s problematic that DiAngelo’s work is incorporated into training across America and Kendi is embraced by teachers’ unions, the entertainment industry, and tech moguls.
Critical Race Theory isn’t like the Civil Rights movement, which was about progress and moving forward. Critical Race Theory criticizes the possibility of living in a post-racial world. They think the system is too corrupt. It’s impossible to fix unless we deconstruct and remake something in their image.
If you’re confused about how an ideology so incredibly focused on race can “transform” our world for the “better,” it can’t. But their idealism makes a lot more sense once you know Critical Race Theory is tied to Critical Theory, and Critical Theory has roots in Marxism.
And if you’re aware of how race has been historically used to advance Communism in America, outlined by defector Manning Johnson (in works like Color, Communism, and Common Sense), the dots start to connect. It also makes sense why many black activists are tied to Marxism, like the co-founders of Black Lives Matter.
The United States of America is the greatest country in the world, and you should be enraged that there are teachers who want to pretend racism is all we are.
Not everyone who believes or even spreads the beliefs of CRT is well-versed in the doctrine, just as Americans are affected by Judeo-Christian values without being educated in scripture. You don’t need to be an academic expert to protect your kids. But if you’re only looking for CRT in your children’s classroom, you have a severe blind spot.
