Critical Race Theory: What is it? Who Cares?
Critical race theory (CRT) has been a hot topic in middle and high school curriculums this year. CRT is an academic movement following the claim that racism is not naturally occurring- instead, race and white supremacy are social constructs that serve to uphold the interests of white people. CRT also claims that segregation, discrimination, and Jim Crow laws (laws that enforced racial segregation in the South) result in an uneven playing field for people of color (POC) today. People against CRT say that it’s thrown down to accuse all white people of racism while dividing people. In September 2020, Donald Trump issued an executive order directing agencies of the United States federal government to cancel funding for all programs that mention "white privilege" or "critical race theory" because they were ‘divisive’ and ‘racist’. This ended funding for over 300 diversity and inclusion programs.
People against CRT don't believe that it should be taught in middle/ high school history classes. However, these people fail to understand what CRT is. These people assume that teaching CRT is teaching a class about America’s bad track record, like slavery and social injustice, but this is incorrect. A history class that teaches both sides of an issue is just factual and unbiased. It’s just as important to talk about the ‘Black Codes’ in the South during the Reconstruction Period as it is to talk about Southern leaders in the Civil War. Ironically, CRT is very rarely taught in elementary, middle, or high school. There are college courses taught on it, but there are no ‘Critical Race Theory 101’ classes offered here in high school.
In a recent West Valley School District Board Meeting, parents complained that CRT was being taught in their schools and that their kids don’t need to be taught “how racist they are” and “to see the world through a lens of color”. Those are some wild claims! Let’s dig a little deeper into West Valley’s curriculum. Social Studies should probably be the place CRT would be taught, right? After conversing with a social studies teacher at West Valley, I learned that a textbook representative of most 6-12 grade social studies classes was being used. You guys know the classic layout of the history textbook. The tattered, stereotypical patriotic book where, if you’re lucky, you’ll find some drawings from a former student. This textbook, called The American Journey, was originally published in 1997. Pretty outdated, I would say. Then, I searched for and located a copy of the textbook (quick tip for students- please do not use the website libgen to locate textbooks and download their pdfs for free. Again, the website http://libgen.st/ ).
Anyways, I used the ‘find’ tool on my desktop to search exclusively for terms like ‘race’, ‘racism’, ‘color’, and others in the textbook. There was no mention of the term race until Chapter 10, over 300 pages in, which detailed a Spanish rebel’s execution for supporting racial equality. After that first mention in chapter 10, race is mentioned only a few more times throughout the book, pertaining to racial issues at the time. I also found out that African American events and history were largely overlooked in this book. The picture above is one of a very limited number of parts exclusively focusing on African Americans, and the word ‘race’ isn’t even listed in the glossary. There is NO mention of CRT or institutionalized racism at all. All in all, the book supports white, anti-CRT ideals like breezing past racial issues and ignoring Black voices rather than teaching kids about and in support of CRT.
Where do these anti-CRT ideals stem from, and why doesn’t anyone know the actual definition? Let’s take a look at the demographic in West Valley. The picture shown is the Republican/Democratic voters in Yakima. As you can see, West Valley is a majority Republican area. That’s a whole lotta red. And I’ll bet the majority of angry parents over there against CRT are Republicans as well. So why Republicans? Lawmakers and leaders of the Republican party have been using critical race theory as an umbrella term to cover all sorts of white grievances about how society is talking about anti-racism. It’s easy to hop onto an ideal without evidence if the candidate you support or like says to, even if they’re wrong. Even easier if it’s on the news. Fox News mentioned critical race theory 1,300 times over a 3.5 month period! It’s easier to associate anything related to race with critical race theory, especially if you don’t understand what it actually is.
Saying that critical race theory is taught in primary and secondary schools is just wrong. White people are just afraid to take responsibility and acknowledge that racism is embedded in society today. The argument of CRT shouldn’t even be an argument. It exists, and is out there, but remains untaught in schools, only argued by ignorant white parents who refuse to let their kids see America’s mistakes.
