OK, so what is Critical Race Theory? And why do right-wingers cringe at it like movie vampires shrinking from crucifixes? Why do right-wing cartoonists depict CRT as an alligator threatening youngsters in a kiddie pool, or as a mad Marxist waving a hammer and sickle in the classroom?
The concept has come to the forefront in the 2020s, but the basic idea has been around since the 1970s. Regardless of political leanings, a lot of people do not understand what it really means. Ergo, we really need to do our homework on the true meaning of CRT before we draw laughably ignorant editorial cartoons or cry wolf in essays and letters to the editor.
CRT is not intended to make whites ashamed of how they have treated – and continue to treat – people of color. It is intended to make all people aware of the systemic racism that is deeply rooted in many of our nation’s institutions, including law enforcement, the courts, health care and finances. Its purpose is to reveal how whites both benefit and suffer from the oppression of Blacks, Latinx, Asians and First Nations/Native Americans. We cannot root out the evil of racism unless we know where it lurks and how it got there.
Scholars are concerned that the United States has become “color blind,” pretending that one’s skin color has nothing to do with one’s socio-economic status. People pretend that we have achieved Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of a society where people are judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character. Unfortunately, pretending that we have become a truly non-racist society doesn’t mean we are truly non-racist. Closing one’s eyes to the elephant in the room doesn’t make it go away.
In her book The Sum of Us Heather McGhee points out how racism hurts white people as well as its targets. When they smelled integration, whites were willing to not just cut off their noses to spite their faces, but cut off their entire heads to spite their noses. For example, when swimming pools were integrated, rather than let white and Black kids swim together, the committees that ran the pools filled them in. Private pool clubs, which could discriminate, charged fees that put their facilities out of the reach of disadvantaged white families as well as nearly all Black households.
Conservatives claim that stating our nation was founded on oppression and racism is unpatriotic. Balderdash! Is it unpatriotic to point out the truth? It is unpatriotic to encourage moral and social progress? Is it unpatriotic to seek solutions to the country’s woes? What could possibly be more patriotic than trying to solve problems that have plagued your country for generations?
You’ve probably heard the old saw that, for every 100 people who are hacking at the branches of evil, there is only one attacking the roots. If we want to eliminate racism, as well as other forms of prejudice, we need to stop hacking at the branches and go after the root causes. We need to face up to the inconvenient truth that bigotry pervades our society. We need to confront the racism within us all. We need to accept that ignoring racism, that pretending we are “color-blind,” merely allows it to not only survive but also thrive.
Those who fear CRT, who knee-jerk label it pernicious or subversive, are either ignorant of how racism weakens our society, or shamelessly racist. What is wrong with them? Maybe, as conservatives, they are too happy with how things stand and don’t want them to change. They are glad that straight white rich men are Large and In Charge, and don’t want this country to be any other way. They don’t want to share power with anybody who is “different.” They don’t want anyone rocking the boat. Our boat is one that needs to be rocked – hard.
Further information: https://www.thoughtco.com/critical-race-theory-4685094#
https://news.columbia.edu/news/what-critical-race-theory-and-why-everyone-talking-about-it-0
https://people.howstuffworks.com/critical-race-theory-news.htm
(of course this doesn’t apply to anyone here!)
