Last updated on August 11th, 2021 at 11:35 am<\/p>\n
Critical Race Theory is a pernicious left-wing ideology that has been gaining greater prominence of late in the United States. While initially confined to the university, Critical Race Theory in the past decade has begun to spread its tentacles into K-12 schools, the government, and corporations; leaving divisiveness and animosity in its wake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What exactly is Critical Race Theory (CRT)? According to Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsey in their book Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity<\/a><\/em>, CRT is the idea that \u201cracism is present everywhere and always, and persistently works against people of color, who are aware of this, and for the benefit of white people, who tend not to be, as is their privilege.\u201d According to CRT, literally everything in America\u2014from the \u201ctruths\u201d we believe to the structures present in our society\u2014was \u201cconstructed\u201d by the majority white population (the \u201coppressors\u201d) to maintain its power over the minority population (the \u201coppressed\u201d). Under this theory, all white people are condemned as \u201cracists<\/em>,\u201d even if they oppose discrimination and support color-blind policies, because racism is structural<\/em>. Pluckrose and Lindsey write: \u201c[I]t is the social system<\/em> and its inherent power dynamics that are seen as the causes of oppression, not necessarily willful individual agents. Thus, a society, social system, or institution can be seen as in some way oppressive without any individual involved with it needing to be shown to hold even a single oppressive view.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n CRT is so damaging because rather than helping Americans look beyond race and ethnicity\u2014and judge people based on their character and competence\u2014it teaches that race and ethnicity are the defining<\/em> characteristics of a person. Individual autonomy and responsibility, and unifying appeals to universal human rights, are downplayed. Worse, CRT actively increases hostility between the races by demonizing the white population.\u00a0 Indeed, in many CRT classes and trainings, white students or participants are told to identify themselves as oppressors and to apologize for the racism that has plagued America since its founding. A more destructive ideology for multi-racial and multi-ethnic America could not be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, rather than sitting back and passively accepting the spread of CRT in our society, states, new organizations, parents, and teachers are fighting back. First, the states are acting to ban the teaching of CRT. On March 18, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida used his executive authority to ban the teaching of CRT in Florida public Schools. As DeSantis said: “Let me be clear: there is no room in our classrooms for things like critical race theory. Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money.” Other states have followed DeSantis’s lead by passing legislation that bans the teaching of CRT. On May 1, Idaho became the first state in the nation to legislatively ban CRT from being taught in public universities and K-12 schools. On May 3,. Arkansas banned state agencies from teaching CRT. On May 7, Oklahoma prohibited CRT from being taught in public K-12 schools. Similar bills have been passed by legislatures in Tennessee (banning CRT from being taught in public K-12 schools) and Iowa (banning the teaching of CRT in public universities, K-12 schools, and government agencies) that almost certainly will be signed by their states\u2019 governors. Other states like Texas, Utah, Rhode Island, Missouri, and West Virginia are considering such legislation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, new organizations have been created to specifically fight the scourge of CRT. For example, in January of this year, School House Rights<\/a> – a project of the International Organization for the Family – was created to fight CRT indoctrination in K-12 schools. Significantly, School House Rights was the primary funder of the first-known court case challenging CRT in K-12 education (Clark v. Democracy Prep, Fed. Court of Nevada). At the charter school in question, students were told to list their various identities (race, sex, sexual identity, religion, etc.) and then to label each one as either an \u201coppressor\u201d or \u201coppressed\u201d class; they then were told to \u201cundo and unlearn\u201d their \u201cbeliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that stem from oppression.\u201d A bi-racial student who objected to this teaching and wanted to opt out of the class was forced to stay in it and was given a failing grade that jeopardized his ability to graduate from high school.\u00a0While the case is still ongoing, an important victory has already been achieved as the school has agreed to remove the student\u2019s failing grade and allow him to opt out of the class.\u00a0School House Rights is currently investigating other potential cases that can be brought to challenge CRT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, concerned parents and teachers are starting to fight back against this divisive ideology.\u00a0After the left-wing school board in Southland, Texas, in 2020 voted to put CRT into the school curriculum and require educators to take CRT trainings, parents and concerned citizens organized to protect their kids and in a landslide victory last week elected candidates opposed to CRT to the school board (which they now control), city council, and mayor\u2019s office.\u00a0On April 13, Andrew Guttman, whose daughter attends the prestigious K-12 all-girls Brearley School in New York City (the daughters of Chelsea Clinton, Drew Barrymore, Tina Fey, among others, attend the school), sent a scathing letter<\/a> to all school parents that went viral explaining why he would not be sending his daughter back to Brearley the following year due to the school\u2019s obsession with promoting CRT. Guttman wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt cannot be stated clearly enough that Brearley\u2019s obsession with race must stop\u2026 I cannot tolerate a school that not only judges my daughter by the color of her skin, but encourages and instructs her to prejudge others by theirs\u2026 I object to the charge of systemic racism in this country, and at our school\u2026 Brearley, by adopting critical race theory, is advocating the abhorrent viewpoint that Blacks should forever by regarded as helpless victims, and are incapable of success regardless of their skills, talents, and hard work. What Brearley is teaching our children is precisely the true and correct definition of racism\u2026 I object that Brearley is fostering a divisive community where families of different races, which until recently were part of the same community, are not segregated into two.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Significantly, Guttman said that parents must not be afraid of speaking up on this issue: \u201cBut as I am sure will come as no surprise to you, given the insidious cancel culture that has of late permeated our society, most parents are too fearful to speak up. But speak up you must. There is strength in numbers and I assure you, the numbers are there\u2026 For the sake of our community, our city, our country and most of all, our children, silence is no longer an option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n