The GOP campaign over the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools rages on despite the fact that its critics don’t have the faintest idea what it is. There is also the inconvenient truth that CRT is not being taught in schools - but truth, regardless of convenience, is not the current GOP metier.
CRT is a theoretical framework through which to view the indisputable facts of racial bias. Its prime architect, the late NYU law professor Derrick Bell, was a guest at my former school - Calhoun School in Manhattan - and was an elegant, thoughtful intellectual, not a strident polemicist. CRT is taught and debated in law school, not elementary school, as a way to examine legal theory and social policy in order to better understand systemic racial problems.
A well-orchestrated campaign suggests that millions of angry parents are rising up over the “indoctrination” of their children into an anti-racist ideology that hates America and believes all white people, including pre-schoolers, should hang their heads in deep shame because of their complicity in the brutality of slavery.
There is indeed a campaign, but it is not led by millions of angry parents. It is led by conservative con men who hide behind the screen of credibility provided by “think tanks,” a gross misrepresentation of “think.” One such con man is Christopher Rufo, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who reportedly convinced the Trump administration to issue an edict prohibiting diversity training at federal agencies. I suspect it didn’t take much convincing.
Rufo has lied serially about CRT, school curricula and much else, probably the very trait that endears him to GOP power brokers. Rufo also served as a research fellow at the Discovery Institute, another think tank that promotes intelligent design. “Research” and “intelligent” are not words I associate with the anti-evolution crowd.
Rufo recently made the mistake of appearing with Joy Reid on MSNBC, believing he could fast-talk her and the audience. She reduced him to a quivering, stammering boy. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool a well-informed black woman.
It is true that some parents object to diversity work in schools. Of course they do, as they object to school lunches, the grade Suzy got in geometry or the books Bill is reading in freshman English. But they are reacting to the phony conservative campaign rather than the campaign being a response to widespread parent concerns.
A recent article in P.J. 0’Rouke’s American Consequences (a conservative magazine), in which Calhoun and I are cited, revealed the manipulative genesis of a brouhaha over CRT in Manhattan’s most elite (elitist?) private schools. Most parents in these schools said, “Huh?” and fully support the schools’ admirable efforts to address persistent racism and implicit bias.
I began this post with a different intention, to which I turn posthaste.
The objections to diversity, inclusion and equity programs really take the cake, given that they are coming from the right wing of the right wing.
Indoctrination?
How about the untold millions of children, including my entire generation, who were indoctrinated into the myth of white, Christian exceptionalism? Or about how the Mexican-American and Spanish-American Wars were fully justified as “manifest destiny,” rather than brutal conquest? Or how Native Americans were (and are) primitive savages and the taking of their ancestral lands was our divine right? Or that the Civil War was about states’ rights, not slavery, and there were “good people” on both sides?
When I was a young boy, why did my school never mention racism or Jim Crow? I was “indoctrinated” every morning into believing there was “liberty and justice for all.” Why do all public schools in America require students to assert that they live “Under God,” despite that the existence of God is far more theoretical than Critical Race Theory?
The most vocal and influential GOP leaders are pledging allegiance to the most prolific liar in American history and perpetuating the “Big Lie,” an indoctrination that threatens the future of our democratic republic.
It is beyond mere irony that the GOP use of CRT as a rallying cry for sinister political purposes is the biggest indoctrination of all.
Hi, Steve! I absolutely agree with all you say and, having read the article in American Consequences, agree that Calhoun was way ahead of the curve and did things in a way that didn't alienate folks. CRT is that latest propaganda bogeyman that Republicans and Rufo have come up with the scare people into thinking that American exceptionalism means we didn't make any mistakes and everyone throughout our history only had good intentions. Your common sense writing (with a meaningful dash of sarcasm) always makes me think and smile. I hope you are continuing to do well! Best, Larry Sandomir