By Chase Wheaton
The United States was first founded on a number of different belief systems. These included the belief that people should have the freedom to practice any religion they’d like, the belief that people should have the freedom to criticize and speak out against their own government without fear of punishment, and sadly, yes, the belief that Black people were meant to be enslaved simply because of the color of their skin. That is an objective truth, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either not knowledgeable of American history or is deliberately trying to portray our nation as something it isn’t. Oddly enough, right now there are efforts being led by conservative legislators across the country to do just that by passing laws to ban teaching critical race theory (CRT) in K-12 schools.
These right-wing efforts to whitewash history books and the American education system more than it already is are unconscionable, and the legislators leading these efforts, as well as those in support of them, should be ashamed. Many of these legislators have made bogus claims that teaching CRT in K-12 schools is divisive and contentious, but I would instead argue that it’s their own white fragility and fear of being confronted with their privilege, that’s making them feel that way.
In fact, there’s nothing divisive or contentious about CRT at all. CRT is simply an educational framework based on science and law that says that racism, and in turn, white supremacy, are woven into the fabric of America, and that Black Americans therefore continue to experience the effects of racism and white supremacy to this day. Again, I would consider this to be an objective truth. There are countless statistics that show the unfair treatment that Black Americans receive when it comes to finding equitable housing, jobs, health care, and education, and even more that show the clear racial bias present in the criminal justice system. But for some sad and hateful reason, instead of trying to pass legislation that would remove this bias from these different systems, or that would create a more equitable and just country for Black Americans, Republicans are focusing their efforts on this figurative “cleansing” of American history and the consistent gaslighting of Black Americans as they describe their experiences living in America.
Furthermore, there are several layers of irony to this discussion that should not be lost on you. First, at the same time that Congress and President Biden passed, and signed into law, legislation marking Juneteenth as a federal holiday as a way to acknowledge that Black enslavement did not end in 1863, the conservative legislators behind these efforts are making it so that children in some states won’t even be able to learn that truth. Second, the fact that this group of legislators, who are trying to insert themselves into the American classroom and impose restrictions on those academic settings also claim to be the party for less government and regulation, is both astonishing and absurd at the same time. Finally, the fact that this is yet another example of white people telling Black people what they are and are not experiencing in their day-to-day lives, is sadly but almost quintessentially American.
This general delusion and departure from reality is unfortunately just what I’ve come to expect from the modern Republican party. This is the same group of politicians who, to this day, claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, without any proof or evidence of the sort. The same group of politicians who nominated a racist proponent of the ‘Birther Movement’ to the Oval Office. And most despicably, the same group of politicians who say that All Lives Matter, but not that Black Lives Matter. Whether they like it or not, and whether they’ll say so or not, racism is embedded into the foundation of our country and is still very much prevalent in our nation today. But unless schools are able to teach children about this, and empower them with the knowledge to dismantle the racist systems in place, how can we hope to progress past this appalling reality?