Off The Editor’s Desk – 7-14-2021
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What is Critical Race Theory?
The headline reads, “Critical Race Theory” is teaching Americans to hate each other and our country.” Is a piece written by Catherine Mortensen, the Vice President of Communications for Americans for Limited Government.
For some time I have heard the term “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) and have just pushed it aside until recently while I was listening to a news program that indicated that it was a theory that listed white people as oppressors against people of color.
As long as I did not know anything about the subject, I took some time last week researching to find out some information so I could get some background on it.
The problem that I saw right away is when I heard that the education system in this country is teaching, or would like to teach that theory, which labels our white kids as racist and oppressors.
Last Wednesday morning as I turned on FOX News, they had a clip from the head of some Teachers Union saying, that they were ready to support any teacher who taught “Critical Race Theory.” That brought my attention to the matter and I really needed to find out what it is all about.
I found a piece in Education Week, written by Stephen Sanchuk. He wrote: “Is “critical race theory” a way of understanding how American racism has shaped public policy, or a divisive discourse that pits people of color against white people?
“The topic has exploded in the public arena this spring, especially in K-12, where numerous state legislatures are debating bills seeking to ban its use in the classroom.”
He continued, “Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.
“In truth, the divides are not nearly as neat as they may seem. The events of the last decade have increased public awareness about things like housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy in the 1990s, and the legacy of enslavement of Black Americans. But, there is much less consensus on what the government’s role should be in righting these past wrongs. Add children and schooling into the mix and the debate becomes especially volatile.”
The Heritage Foundation, a conservation organization, recently attributed a whole host of issues to CRT, including the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, LGBTQ clubs in schools, diversity training in federal agencies and organizations, California’s recent ethnic studies model curriculum, the free speech debate on collage campuses, and alternatives to exclusionary discipline, such as the Promise program in Broward County, Florida, that some parents blame for the Parkland School shootings. “When flowed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based”, so claimed the Heritage Foundation.
The problem that I see is that we are getting the blame for what happened more than a hundred and fifty years ago, and if the schools push this idea, our kids will suffer.
According to an article from the Associated Press from June 3, “a group of white Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin have introduced legislation that would bar public schools, the University of Wisconsin system, and state technical colleges from teaching critical race theory concepts that racism is built into society.”
The bill would stop all government units including local bodies from indoctrinating employees about the theory. Former President Trump issued an order last September keeping federal employees from being trained on CRT. But, President Biden countermanded that order in his first week in office.
I wish I had a solution for these problems, but I feel that some people would like to keep it as a problem for their own benefit. So lets all join together and erase hate, before our country crumbles into another civil war.
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton