Critical Race Theory: Should It Be Taught In Schools?
This has become a war between local school boards who decide curriculum of K-12, local politicians trying to get elected, parents of their kids who want to have their voice heard as to what is being taught, school districts trying to meet State and Federal guidelines mandated in or to receive funding, right and left wing media outlets creating more hysteria.
The war is not in the actual classroom of elementary or high school kids who are being force fed American history against their interests. I suspect, many of the topics covered in American history goes way over their heads and most don't care about it. They study it just to regurgitate facts to pass a test, to get a passing grade. That IS it.
CRT in a Nutshell
Basically, it drills down into more details about how the white and black experience evolved from our white founding father's in the 1700's (as they fled England's persecutions), the evolution of slavery from Africa, how all this created a legal and social system that favored whites in ways one does not even know of or think about, then and now. How the culture is systemic with racism against the black man in business, criminal courts, voting, representation in government, education and entertainment in the past. While to some, it paints all whites as BAD people and all blacks as victims, CRT knows this is not so because there have been several white key political figures in American history that sought to correct the systemic built-in racism that evolved over hundreds of years. CRT simply examines and exposes more than what has been done before in school curriculums. Some think it divides America more than it does to unify, creating a white and black America. These people think it is socialist propaganda meant to divide America with more hate.
American history is what it is. Founded with white men, some did get slaves from Africa, some did not. They think they were not equal to white men, yet, they did produce the Bill of Rights and Constitution that many world leaders look to. By the time President Lincoln had outlawed slavery, racism had already become systemic because most of the power was in the whites. It would stay like that until the mid-1960s and beyond. Change was slow. For instance, it was not until the late-1960s or early 1970s, that first all black sitcom aired. In fact, the TV show, I Spy (with Bill Cosby) in 1967-8, broke all color barriers. Up to then, TV shows were nearly all white actors. When the Beatles were offered to play in the deep south for a lucrative sum in 1964, their one condition was that blacks would be allowed to attend along with whites. They got their way.
CRT simply exposes more examples of how racism then and now continue via different ways. Information is power and with students now seeing how racism can exist, some will attempt to make changes to remove them.
The whites that oppose CRT are just trying to bury the truth about racism. Maybe some of them are guilty as charged and they want to pass this onto their kids. Maybe they have a fear that a crazy black man will hang him as a payback. On the other hand, maybe some teachers ARE radicalized in their own upbringing and life experiences and through CRT that can get some retribution against a white person, just to put the racism shoe on the other foot. It IS hard to understand unless you do walk in the other's shoes for a bit.
