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Banning Critical Race Theory

ConnorEl

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What is critical race theory, and why do Republicans want to ban it in schools?


WaPo piece that’s a brief primer to the growing Republican passion to ban teaching or curricula related to “critical race theory”.

Of course, they spin it as an important movement against “divisiveness”, “Marxism” and feelings “white guilt”.

And they are making active efforts to brand the term “critical race theory” as essentially evil, wicked, crazy, etc.

Now…it seems to me this is merely yet another example of Republicans striving to inventing “problems” they can posture/claim to care about. To inflame misdirected, misinformed, and ultimately misguided passion amongst Trumpublican sheeple. For the purpose of gasping for political power.

Rather than caring to understand or address actual problems.

I mean, is it really wrong to explore the issue of systemic racism? To try and understand our collective history honestly? Even if to do so is uncomfortable? In order to live collectively better and more honorably? Is this the true thrust of critical race theory?

I’m sure some of those academics exploring and writing actual critical race theory make mistakes and/or are mistaken. But I’m pretty sure this rising Republican passion to ban teaching/curricula is an intentional effort not as an honest corrective but as an intentional self-serving mischaracterization.

Yes, this could go under the Republican debacle thread or the fascism one. But maybe a somewhat more specific thread is warranted on this…?
 
Apologies for the several grammatical mistakes in the op.

Too much distraction on my end. Won’t try to edit.
 
Piece in today’s W-SJ: State GOP lawmakers try to limit teaching about race, racism


… Kimberlé Crenshaw, executive director of the African American Policy Forum, was among those who helped popularize critical race theory in the 1970s and 1980s as a response to what she and others felt was a lack of progress following passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

She said Republicans are twisting the concept to inflame racial tensions and motivate their base of mostly white supporters.

“This is a 2022 strategy to weaponize white insecurity, to mobilize ideas that have been mobilized again and again throughout history, using a concept or set of ideas that they can convince people is the new boogeyman,” Crenshaw said...
 
A real problem that's going to develop in public education is that what Republicans call "Critical Race Theory" is usually left very vague and discussed in rather broad terms. It's like using "Socialist" or "Communist" to criticize Democrats for things that actually aren't socialist or communist. I strongly suspect that we may soon reach a point at which public school teachers in some places might face dismissal for teaching long-accepted historical facts about the Trail of Tears, the Middle Passage, Antebellum Slavery, Native American massacres like King Philip's War or the Sandy Creek Massacre, or even that the Civil War was caused by slavery. North Carolina just cut the teaching of American History in high schools from one full school year to just one semester starting next year (the second semester will now be a "Personal Finance" Class) and I suspect one reason for doing so was due to the growing controversy over what to teach. I'm not opposed to teaching Personal Finance, but it seems rather odd that as ignorant as many people are of American History that we're basically cutting that course in half. If the GOP has their way, good luck in recruiting and retaining good Social Studies teachers in the future.
 
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I thought Republicans were against hiding American History.
 
I thought Republicans were against hiding American History.

Don't hide the white heroes of the past. Hide the fact that they were racists assholes who helped shape the discriminatory society we live in today.
 
Don’t like what they’re teaching in public schools? Send your kids to the private school of your choosing. Oh what? You can’t afford it? Oh that’s terrible, I’m really sorry to hear that.
 
Don’t like what they’re teaching in public schools? Send your kids to the private school of your choosing. Oh what? You can’t afford it? Oh that’s terrible, I’m really sorry to hear that.

That’s what the vouchers are for. Republicans want people to go to private school and learn about Jesus riding dinosaurs.
 
Yeah, I’m very much against the vouchers, but clearly they don’t go far enough for most families to afford private school who otherwise could not, right?
 
Is CRT taught in high schools or earlier? I didn’t come across it until a high level major course in college.
 
I don’t know enough about CRT for an educated opinion. But, I know conservatives hate it, so it must be pretty great.
 
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Is CRT taught in high schools or earlier? I didn’t come across it until a high level major course in college.

Usually the specific theory is taught more at the college level, but a lot of these Republican attacks on CRT include high schools and even lower levels in their claims that CRT is being included in the curriculum. Which goes back to the fact that this isn't about just the specific theory, but virtually anything that's being taught in Social Studies that they don't like or approve of. To Republicans CRT is probably a vague umbrella to describe any teacher teaching something that conflicts with their "America is always #1, Greatest Nation of All Times!" line of thought.
 
Yeah, I’m very much against the vouchers, but clearly they don’t go far enough for most families to afford private school who otherwise could not, right?

As far as I know vouchers mostly subsidize private school for people who could otherwise afford it.

Is CRT taught in high schools or earlier? I didn’t come across it until a high level major course in college.

No. I’ve taught a 3000 level race course for the last 16 years and I’ve maybe mentioned CRT once or twice. They’re just using CRT like they’ve traditionally used “socialism” and “communism.” It’s something people vaguely know so they can shape the discourse around it.
 
Here's a perfect example of what we're talking about. A high school and community college teacher who has taught summer classes in "race and ethnicity studies" for years had her already full summer community college class suddenly cancelled due to the Oklahoma state legislature and governor passing a bill outlawing the teaching of critical race theory. In signing the bill, Oklahoma's GOP governor stated that "We can and should teach the history without labeling a young child as an oppressor or requiring he or she feel guilt or shame based on their race or sex. I refused to tolerate otherwise", but the teacher said that she had never taught that one race is superior over another, but that her classes and students do talk about racism and privilege. "To learn that there are actual disparities between the races in terms of education, housing and income," she said. Also, this was actually a required class for graduation for some students at the college.

So the OK GOP has gotten exactly what they wanted - a community college preemptively cancels courses in which racism and its effects are openly discussed due to the new law. One wonders how many other classes like this one will be cancelled across the country. Cancel Culture indeed.

 
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Another article about Oklahoma.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/25/antiracism-teaching-ban-oklahoma-490159

Oklahoma's law includes prohibitions on lessons that suggest an individual “by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously,” or that individuals are responsible for past actions committed by other members of the same race or sex. The law also bars colleges and universities from requiring mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling.

It basically outlaws discussing racism, past or present, individual or structural.

It seems like they could legally talk about the Tulsa race massacre, but not talk about how white people looted Black businesses and stole generational wealth.
 
Heard a good interview on Pod Save America with Clint Smith about his forthcoming book, How the Word is Passed. He mentioned visiting Monticello and taking to other visitors who had no ideal Thomas Jefferson was a slaveowner. Of course, Jefferson ran one of the largest human trafficking operations on the continent.

Republicans want to preserve this ignorance among future generations. The worst thing that can happen to Republicans is for people to discover the truth about this country and be critical of it.
 
I love the idea that a teacher can "require" a student to feel shame for his or her race.

Like, what happens is a good human who happens to be white learns about some horrible shit white people did and naturally feels pretty fucking bad about it.
 
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