What is the Critical Race Theory?

[CJD]

(05-17-2021, 12:25 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: I really haven't gotten any examples or an answer about what this actually entails.  All I've gathered so far is that Robin Diangelo's program is not representative of CRT.

I'll just lay out some questions, hopefully someone here will be kind of enough to answer them.  (Note: All of these questions are specifically related to how it's used in the lower levels of the education system.)

1.) Is CRT a stand-alone class?
Probably not, no

2.) If it is a stand-alone class, what other classes are you removing or shortening to make room for it?  (Ex: Gym)
N/A

3.) If it is a stand-alone class, is it to be taught every year, or is it taught periodically or as a one-off?  (Ex. 7th, 8th, 9th, etc. vs once in Jr. High and/ once in high school vs only once overall.)
N/A

4.) At what age is it most commonly accepted that people think this curriculum should start?
Probably high school but, really, whenever they start teaching about the civil war would be a good place to start.

5.) If it's not a stand-alone class is it something that will somehow be woven into their entire curriculum?
Pretty much, yea

6.) Is it something that would just be taught in US History?  (Ex: Spending more time exploring the after-effects of slavery and Jim Crow)
Yea, most likely

7.) Does it include terms like White Privilege or Institutional Racism?
Yes, most likely, but it would be important that it properly explains these terms, as they are so often misinterpreted as attacks on white people.

8.) Would there be a state or federally approved lesson plan that must be followed or would individual teachers develp their own? (I don't trust every teacher in America to tackle such a sensitive subject on their own.  Every profession has hacks, and agendas can be found anywhere.  Teachers are not immune to this)
It would likely require some sort of homogenization. The 1619 project was the first crack at it, I believe.

I'll kinda wait to see the replies before I explain why I think #7 is particully harmful to children.  In fact, I think it's harmful to everyone but like I said I'll wait to better explain myself.

PS For those of you who are actually teaching it or have studied it, I honestly would like to see some of the lesson plans and materials you spoke of earlier.  When I hear that the examples in the media are not reflective of the actual material it seems to me this is an opportunity to correct it.

I don't have an answer for every question you have, but an answer to a fair number of your questions would be the following:

CRT is less a "topic" that could be covered in a specific class or specific grade. It's more of a lens through which we can view history and/or current political topics.

The classic way to explain CRT is by discussing how black people are still affected by slavery and Jim Crow today. You could say "there are currently no laws on the books that are objectively racist" and you'd technically be correct. What CRT would say is the way in which we treat black people in this country is reflected in how the laws of this country are administered.

For example, during the war on drugs, crack and cocaine were both illegal and both carried prison sentences for possession. But, for some reason, crack was a much higher penalty than cocaine. a Critical Race Theorist would relate this to the fact that crack was used far more by black people than other races and cocaine was used far more by white people than black people. Could this have been a coincidence? Perhaps...But a Critical Race Theorist would argue that it is a continuation of the demonization and persecution of black people in this country.

The same could be said of marijuana crimes, as more black people are arrested for smoking weed than white people, despite the races doing it at an equivalent proportional rate.

Then there is the question of generational wealth. Why is it that black people are, as a race, vastly more poor than white people in this country? A Critical Race Theorist would argue that, for generations, black people were stripped of the ability to own land and, during slavery, were actually controlled and had their labor converted into wealth for their masters rather than themselves. Even after slavery was banned and black people's civil rights were given back, there was still redlining, a practice that prevented black people from getting loans in more affluent areas even when they were qualified for such a loan. This sectioned off the more affluent areas from black people and, some would argue, created "ghettos" as we know them in this country. All of these policies, and their after effects, prevented black people from benefitting from their parents' and grandparents' wealth, thus letting them fall behind more and more as the generations went on.

Imagine you and your friends were playing Monopoly, but for 200 consecutive turns, you were not allowed to buy any property you landed on and, when you crossed go, your money was sent to the community bank rather than your own bank account. Then, at the end of the 200 turns, those rules were reversed and you were allowed to buy property and get your pass go money, but by that time, your opponent had already bought up the majority of the properties and had been collecting their go money this entire time.

That's basically the position we've put black people in in this country, as taught by CRT. That isn't to say an individual black person can't succeed in America, as they obviously can. But the game is stacked against them.

A reading of the laws would suggest systemic racism ended in the 60s, but a CRT perspective of the laws would suggest that systemic racism is still alive in well, even if it isn't technically written down.

Now, I'm not a scholar on CRT. I don't have a perfect or even fair understanding of it, but those are likely the types of things that would be discussed in a classroom setting.

So it wouldn't be a class. You wouldn't have Critical Race Theory during 3rd bell as a sophomore. It's just that your history classes would actually teach history as it happened rather than sugar coating it and looking back on it with rose tinted glasses.

Or that's the way a critical race theorist would put it.

As a side note, Robin DiAngelo is an idiot who is actively making race relations worse with her idiotic nonsense that misrepresents CRT and any thoughtful discussion on the impacts of racism in today's America. She is a hack who is getting rich off of preying on companies' desire to appear "woke" and is actively hurting the movement. She does not represent what I believe to be CRT or the beliefs it stands for.

I will never apologize for being white and you shouldn't either. White privilege is real, but it is not a white person's fault that they have it. The goal of CRT is not to shame white people, but rather to educate them (and everyone else) on the impacts of racism so that they can fight for racial equality and make this world a better place.