What is critical race theory, and why is it under attack?
Education Week, May 2021
Is “critical race theory” a way of understanding how
American racism has shaped public policy, or a divisive discourse that pits
people of color against white people? Liberals and conservatives are in sharp
disagreement.
The topic has exploded in the public arena this
spring—especially in K-12, where numerous state legislatures are debating bills
seeking to ban its use in the classroom.
In truth, the divides are not nearly as neat as they may
seem. The events of the last decade have increased public awareness about
things like housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy in the
1990s, and the legacy of enslavement on Black Americans. But there is much less
consensus on what the government’s role should be in righting these past
wrongs. Add children and schooling into the mix and the debate becomes
especially volatile.
(Mis)Understanding critical race theory
In 2020, the city of Cleveland declared racism a public health crisis, bringing to the forefront honest conversations about systemic racism’s influence on equity, access, and human rights. Yet, the debate around Critical Race Theory has been heating up nationwide.
What exactly is Critical Race Theory? And what is it not? And how has this framework of analysis become the new punching bag in the culture wars of the country?
Listen and watch Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, associate professor of History at The Ohio State University as he discusses the issue with the City Club of Cleveland.
Dr. Jeffries has worked on several public history projects. From 2010 to 2014,
he was the lead historian and primary scriptwriter for the $27 million renovation
of the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis,
Tennessee, the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He
hosts the podcast “Teaching Hard History: American Slavery,” a production of
the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance Project. Dr. Jeffries has
also contributed to several documentary film projects, including the Emmy
nominated PBS documentary Black America Since MLK, as a featured on-camera
scholar.
A lesson in critical race theory
American Bar Association, January 2021
CRT is not a diversity and inclusion “training” but a
practice of interrogating the role of race and racism in society that emerged
in the legal academy and spread to other fields of scholarship ... CRT is not a noun, but a verb. It cannot be
confined to a static and narrow definition but is considered to be an evolving
and malleable practice. It critiques how the social construction of race and
institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people
of color to the bottom tiers. CRT also recognizes that race intersects with
other identities, including sexuality, gender identity, and others. CRT
recognizes that racism is not a bygone relic of the past. Instead, it
acknowledges that the legacy of slavery, segregation, and the imposition of
second-class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue
to permeate the social fabric of this nation.
Critical race theory: the concept dividing the U.S.
BBC News, July 2021
For supporters, it's an important framework for understanding the way systemic racism can perpetuate discrimination and disadvantage. For opponents, it's a subversive plan to indoctrinate young Americans to reject their country and its history.
To start, there is an inability to even agree on what
critical race theory is, where it came from and what it seeks to accomplish.
Beneath the rhetoric, however, lies an ongoing fundamental dispute about
equality and equity - what these concepts mean, and what government's role
should be in addressing them.
Ask the Expert: What is critical race theory and why is it under attack in our schools?
MSUToday, June 2021
Dorinda Carter Andrews, professor and chairperson,
Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University’s College of
Education, said this is an ill-formed conflation, and answers other questions
about critical race theory.
Why is it important for students to learn about systemic
racism in schools?
It’s important to try to help youth understand how bias and
oppression are institutional, structural and systemic, and not simply
interpersonal. Young people are not colorblind or color mute. They see color
and they talk race and racism in their own social circles and peer groups.
Research indicates that as early as age 3, children have negative associations
about some racial groups. By the time they enter elementary school, children
already have a level of racial literacy that evidences their awareness that
some individuals and groups are treated differently in their schools and
society based on skin color. This is particularly apparent for elementary-aged
children of color. If children of color are old enough to experience racial
discrimination and injustice, then all children, especially white children, are
old enough to learn about racism in ways that enhance their cross-cultural
competency, racial literacy skills and skill set for improving our democracy.
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