Whatever happened to the fight over Critical Race Theory?
How Republicans’ brief national crusade against CRT changed the political landscape.
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for those who are not aware, i should mention that the bogus scandal over 'critical race theory' was invented out of whole cloth by a specific #GQP strategist, christopher rufo, who didn't even try to his cold-blooded, sadistic cynicism about using this to scare low-information voters into voting for GQP people and initiatives.
by 'didn't even try,' i mean: he literally tweeted out his strategy [and his reasons for recommending it].
and guess what: it worked.
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@LiberalLibrarian wrote:
Critical race theory should be taught from kindergarten.
No. I'm not saying white people should feel guilty. But they and their children should be fully aware of the entirety of American history. And oddly, most people agree, according to this study.
@grapho @LiberalLibrarian I completely disagree regarding critical race theory. I took it in law school and it is a legal analysis. Children don’t study the law. We can deliver claims of education, but critical race theory isn’t appropriate for kids because they can’t understand legal concepts.
There are plenty of other ways to address the issues of racism and discrimination. I never had critical. Race theory when I was in school and I very much understood racism was wrong.
@J_Windrow I may have had my tongue firmly in cheek. Just to show that, yes, the totality of US history, good and bad, needs to be taught. @grapho
@LiberalLibrarian @grapho I agree that we need to teach history. But be aware that everybody’s history is different. Think about how the Japanese have hit the history of what happened in China for instance. History seems to always be tolls from the perspective of the person who won.
When I grew up, I went to school with kids who his parents were in the Japanese internment camp. I became extremely aware of what happened. And it wasn’t because it was taught in school.
there is a lot to unpack in your comments here. some of what might appear as substantive disagreement may actually be confusion over terminology.
your remarks do not appear to take into account the fact that the phrase 'critical race theory' now means at least two things in the public discourse.
[contd]
one, the earlier and arguably more accurate meaning, is what you were probably taught in law school. [the words 'critical' and 'theory' are key here, on which more in a moment.]
the other is, unfortunately, the meaning the phrase has acquired since rufo defiled it: namely, '"woke" historical accounts of racial oppression in america.'
a key distinction here, as noted, is what the words 'critical' and 'theory' bring to the conversation.
[contd]
to some extent, 'critical' in this context is a gloss on 'theory.' but what i would emphasize above all is that THEORY is distinct from HISTORY.
by blurring that distinction, rufo & co. have discounted [even effaced] the actual historical record. this is one of the most cynical things about his program: posing as a patriot embracing 'traditional' values, he is actually advocating for an orwellian rewriting of the facts.
[contd]
this points up another details in your comments that deserves attention: i emphatically disagree that 'everybody's history is different.' facts are facts. historical events are historical events.
what DOES differ for each individual is their INTERPRETATION of the historical record. for any event X, they may have wildly divergent interpretations of both the causes and the effects of X. and/or they may seek to suppress knowledge of X entirely.
[contd]
what a good 'critical theory' will offer is not a different set of 'facts,' but a framework within which to understand or interpret those facts.
and this brings us back to the question of academic courses for children.
the question 'can history" be taught to children without "critical race theory?"' obscures the fact that no teacher can teach history without a critical framework.
[contd]
the effects of this are instantly operative – in the simple process of the teacher's deciding what events to include or exclude. from there, it extends to ways of seeing, ways of evaluating [e.g. 'is fascism a good thing or not?']
but it's not just teachers who have [and must have] theoretical frameworks. we all do, and must.
[contd]
@grapho @LiberalLibrarian I need to get off for a while. Terrible electrical storms hit. I may be back later.