A movement in the U.S. that suggests that race is a social construct used to oppress minority groups is emerging as a fierce point of division among Americans. Many Republicans are pushing new policies to bar public schools from teaching critical race theory (CRT) and the issue has made its way into political campaigns.
Originally developed through legal scholarship in the late 20th century, CRT is a concept that aims to explain how discrimination and inequity are woven into laws, policies and systems. Thus, the doctrine states, racism is perpetuated in American culture. The theory argues that racism goes beyond individual prejudice and is an ingrained component of American society.
CRT supporters argue that it aims to create more equity, rather than equality, for all racial groups in America. A commonly cited example is that of two children, one short and one tall, looking over a fence to watch a baseball game. Equality is giving the two children the same size stool to stand on, while equity is giving the shorter child a higher stool, providing more resources to those who have been historically marginalized and oppressed.
“Scholars and activists who discuss CRT are not arguing that white people living now are to blame for what people did in the past,” Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow in governance studies at liberal-leaning think tank Brookings Institution, argued in support of CRT. “They are saying that white people living now have a moral responsibility to do something about how racism still impacts all of our lives today. Policies attempting to suffocate this much-needed national conversation are an obstacle to the pursuit of an equitable democracy.”
Critics of CRT, however, argue that the movement is discriminatory because it assumes that all white people are racist and that all people of color are victims. Several Republican-leaning states — including Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona, and South Carolina — have already enacted legislation to ban CRT in public school classrooms, including those at public universities.
“Public funds should never be used to promote hate and racism,” Idaho Republican state Rep. Ron Nate, who co-sponsored the House bill to ban CRT in the state, told a local news station. “CRT, rooted in Marxist thought, is a pernicious way of viewing the world. It demands that everything in society be viewed through the lens of racism, sexism, and power. CRT tries to make kids feel bad because of the color of their skin, or their sex, or any other category — one group is seen as an aggrieved minority and another group is the oppressive majority.”
Although most of the legislation passed is vague and therefore difficult to enforce, the move to ban CRT in school has made some educators question what is safe, or not, to talk about in their classrooms. While it would be difficult “to police what goes on inside hundreds of thousands of classrooms,” wrote Stephen Sawchuck, associate editor of Education Week, “social studies educators fear that such laws could have a chilling effect on teachers who might self-censor their own lessons out of concern for parent or administrator complaints.”
The debate around CRT also emerged on the campaign trail this past fall, notably in the Virginia gubernatorial race. Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe was attacked by conservative opponents for promoting the inclusion of CRT in schools while he was governor in 2015. McAuliffe, meanwhile, argued that CRT was not being taught in schools, though he dodged questions to define CRT when asked by reporters how he knew it was not being taught and called the issue “another rightwing conspiracy.”
McAuliffe also made the argument in a late September debate with his Republican opponent, businessman and eventual winner Glenn Youngkin, that he doesn’t think “parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
Youngkin promised voters that he would ban CRT in classrooms on his first day in office. “America has fabulous chapters, I mean, it’s the greatest country in the world,” he told supporters at a rally in October. “But we also have some important chapters in our history, we must teach them but what we won’t do … is teach our children to view everything through a lens of race. … I mean, we know in our hearts it’s wrong.”
While the debate around whether or not to include CRT in classrooms does not necessarily fall neatly down party lines, it is likely to continue gaining momentum as the 2022 midterm election cycle starts up as Republicans lean on the issue to help win over moderate voters who are uncomfortable with the ideology behind CRT.
For more background, see the January 2016 issue of Supreme Court Debates on “Race in College Admissions.”
