I’ve been feeling rather hot lately, both literally and figuratively.
Literally, I am feeling too hot and sweaty because it’s just blazing hot outdoors. Figuratively, I am hot because certain people want to dumb down America’s future generations by creating laws to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT).
What is CRT you ask?
Critical race theory is a field of intellectual inquiry that demonstrates the legal codification of racism in America.
Through the study of law and U.S. history, it attempts to reveal how racial oppression shaped the legal fabric of the U.S. Critical race theory is traditionally less concerned with how racism manifests itself in interactions with individuals and more concerned with how racism has been, and is, codified into the law.
CRT recognizes that racism is not a bygone relic of the past. Instead, it acknowledges that the legacy of slavery, segregation, and the imposition of second-class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue to permeate the social fabric of this nation.
So far, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Florida have passed laws to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory. And state legislators in Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia have introduced legislation banning what they believe to be critical race theory from schools. Apparently, these states’ legislators are highly sensitive about teachers asking young people to consider how systemic racism has impacted the fabric of our society.
These laws push back against the heightened awareness of the nation’s history of racial injustice in the wake of the popularity of the 1619 Project and last summer’s massive protests over the murder of George Floyd.
The 1619 Project, is a long-form journalism project developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine which “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ national narrative”. The project was first published in The New York Times Magazine in August 2019 for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the English colony of Virginia.
Here are sections from identical legislation in Oklahoma and Tennessee that propose to ban the teaching of the legislators’ imagined conception of CRT:
(1) One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;
(2) An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously;
(3) An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of the individual’s race or sex;
(4) An individual’s moral character is determined by the individual’s race or sex;
(5) An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex;
(6) An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress solely because of the individual’s race or sex.
David Miguel Gray, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Memphis asserts that as a philosopher of race and racism, he can safely say that Critical Race Theory does not assert the aforementioned concepts:
“What most of these bills go on to do is limit the presentation of educational materials that suggest that Americans do not live in a meritocracy, that foundational elements of U.S. laws are racist, and that racism is a perpetual struggle from which America has not escaped.”
Take a look at number 6:
An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress solely because of the individual’s race or sex.
Is there some sort of projection going on here?! Who in their right mind would dream up a concept that children should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress solely because of the individual’s race or sex?
WHO is really experiencing discomfort and psychological distress here?!
Fragile politicians who’d rather sweep ugly history under the rug and who don’t want their children and grandchildren to feel the same as they do, I think. (Or not-necessarily-fragile politicians who just want to be re-elected and who don’t want to hear from constituents who might be fragile.) Fugeddabout slaves, generations of brutal injustices and discrimination, eh?! Systemic racism – it is what it is, ok? Let’s move on. Tough shit!
To my mind, these legislators appear to want to pretend racial injustice isn’t real (especially if they’ve never been affected by it). They seek to diminish or erase Critical Race Theory as if racial injustice is a thing of the past, or worse, doesn’t exist – the way they do with the Insurrection of 1/6.
Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor and central figure in the development of critical race theory, said in a recent interview that critical race theory “just says, let’s pay attention to what has happened in this country, and how what has happened in this country is continuing to create differential outcomes. … Critical Race Theory … is more patriotic than those who are opposed to it because … we believe in the promises of equality. And we know we can’t get there if we can’t confront and talk honestly about inequality.”
As someone who has always loved history and appreciates people like Kimberlé Crenshaw who dig into the past and critically analyze it to understand our present, I wholeheartedly share her sentiments.
Why limit students’ exposure to the history of racial oppression? These state legislators may be okay with suppressing information and creating amnesia on certain matters, but I certainly am not okay with their actions! I’m not into dumbing down American citizens. Especially young American citizens.
Sources
The Conversation
Alternet.org
Wikipedia
American Bar Association