This is an insight written by Stella Hudson on the recent Anti-Black Racism Initiative panel on “Critical Race Theory: Public Debates and Teaching in the Classroom” co-sponsored by the Bahá’í Chair for the World Peace on September 15, 2021.
Critical Race Theory has recently become a boogeyman in the media. The misrepresentation of the approach has pushed over 20 states to pass legislation restricting the ability to teach Critical Race Theory and anti-racist history in schools.
As the speakers in “Critical Race Theory: Public Debates and Teaching in the Classroom” point out, Critical Race Theory is a framework and a set of tools for understanding and dismantling white supremacy and related forms of oppression. In the most basic terms, it is a way of approaching and thinking about issues and structures of racism, particularly within legal and practical applications. Like Intersectionality is one way to approach feminism, Critical Race Theory is one way to approach racism. In fact, both schools of thought share Kimberlé Crenshaw as a founding thinker. Within Critical Race Theory there are debates and different takes, as there are in any academic theory. It is not, despite how the theory has been portrayed, a monolithic mandate teaching white children to feel ashamed about how racist they might be.
In some ways, it feels ridiculous to have to say that. A simple google search tells you all you need to know to set such fears aside. Beyond that, most children are barely taught accurate US history at all, let alone Critical Race Theory. The majority of people don’t actually hear the words “Critical Race Theory” unless they go into higher education, and even then some never encounter it at all. The hysteria is quite out of proportion, yet it is hardly surprising. It is clear why Americans would hear “critical” and “race” and assume that it is an accusation of racism. It’s because we are a country founded on racism.
As Dr. Ray pointed out, it seems in this case we are combating ignorance that fights back. In learning about race, anti-racist history, and even Critical Race Theory itself, most of us have to reconstruct our knowledge from the ground up due to the sanitized and sometimes entirely false history and framework that we are taught in school. Learning about the complexities of history and race is hard enough, it is made ten times harder when you are starting from a lifetime of misinformation that you have to discard and rewrite.
As all of the speakers pointed out, young people are curious, and they can understand the concepts of fairness and unfairness. If they are old enough to be aware of the world around them, and to be asking questions, then they deserve thoughtful and honest answers rather than sanitized sugar-coated fantasies that will only end up leaving them ignorant as adults or confused when they realize the truth.
Learning the honest truth and history of our country from the beginning seems like a good place to start, yet many educators still feel the need to justify this to parents, school boards, and even legislators who are trying to restrict their free speech. So what should we have to do to convince people that learning about race and racism is worthwhile? The fact that that is even a valid question also serves as an answer. We live in a country where it is a question of whether or not people should be educated about real things or false realities. People do not want to talk about a world in which black and other non-white people have been and are actively being oppressed because talking about it might make white people uncomfortable. Why is white comfort more important than anything? Again we know the answer to this question.
We live in a society founded on racist structures which benefit white people. We all hold implicit biases, and white people perpetuate racist structures and societies whether intentionally or not. Closing our eyes, and covering our ears will not make this stark reality go away. Running from discomfort and reality will not make things better. A reaction of shame when confronting this is understandable but unproductive, especially if it causes a continuation of denial or functions as an excuse to lash out at others.
The rejection of the picture the term Critical Race Theory paints is based on a need to dismiss what makes us uncomfortable and maintain the fiction that long ago slavery and racism were bad, but we solved that problem and now everyone is equal. It is striking how intense the backlash to Critical Race Theory has been when compared to how little people actually understand what it is. This level of panic highlights how fragile the foundations of a society based on racist structures are. Though the issue of when and how to begin teaching children about reality, history, and ongoing struggles is complex, it seems clear that our current system is not working.
Legislating against better education is a step in the wrong direction, and shows just how far we have to go. Children are more resilient than we think, and if the next generation does not have to rework an entire lifetime of misinformation, it will likely be easier for them to grasp difficult, sad, and complex content. Whether or not it is labeled as “Critical Race Theory,” schools should teach the truth from the beginning.
About the Author:
Stella Hudson is a Graduate Assistant with the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2021 with a B.A. in English. She is attending the University of Maryland and pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Science.