Letter: Critical Race Theory is dangerous for our schools and community
To the editor,
–Some of the speakers at the last school board meeting have attempted to defend Critical Race Theory (CRT) with all of the standard talking points being spread around the internet. Arguments like, CRT is not being taught in our K-12 Schools; CRT is simply the study of our past; Opposing CRT is proof that you are racists; the Germans are taught about the Holocaust so we should be taught about slavery, and so on.
To start we should understand what Critical Race Theory is and have a better understanding of it. If we look back at Marxism we will see that the Marxist movement was built on the idea that there was an imbalance of power between the capitalists and the workers. What Marx suggested would solve this problem was for the workers to revolt and take over the companies and the means of production. This would then bring in the new socialist society that Marx wanted.
During the 20th century, many regimes underwent Marxist-style revolutions and every one of them ended in disaster. Not one of them succeeded in achieving the peaceful bliss that Marx promised. The Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Cuba, and more recently Venezuela, all tried it and all ended up with many people dead, and more people starving and a broken society riddled with poverty. There were show trials, executions of dissidents, and mass starvation, it was not a good time for “the workers.”
In the 1960s though, the middle class of Western Society was thriving. Marxist followers knew that a “workers revolution” would never work here. Americans especially did not develop a class consciousness and felt that the “American Dream” was alive and well and no matter where they started in life, with hard work, dedication, and some luck, anyone could work their way out of where they started and transcend their origins.
The Marxists were not about to give up on their leftist ideology so they had to come up with a new way to sell this idea. They decided to abandon the idea of workers against capitalists and switch to racial unrest. They simply substituted race for class and off they went, pushing a racial revolution in the West. The civil rights movement championed by the Republican party put a fairly decisive stop to this movement at that time but the left will not give up that easy.
In comes Critical Race Theory. In its purest form, Critical Race Theory is reserved for high-level college campuses and academia, but in the more common form, it looks like corporate training programs focusing on diversity training programs, anti-racism, and so on. They use terms like “equity,” “Social Justice,” Diversity and Inclusion,” and “culturally responsive teaching.” All of this sounds harmless and seems like we should all be able to agree on these terms. Equity for instance sounds non-threatening and can easily be confused with the American principle of equality, but we have to make sure we understand the difference because they are huge.
I took the next two passages from an article by Christopher Rufo. He says it so well I could not improve on it.
“equality—the principle proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, defended in the Civil War, and codified into law with the 14th and 15th Amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965—is explicitly rejected by critical race theorists. To them, equality represents “mere non-discrimination” and provides “camouflage” for white supremacy, patriarchy, and oppression.”
He continues,
“In contrast to equality, equity, as defined and promoted by critical race theorists, is little more than reformulated Marxism. In the name of equity, UCLA Law Professor and critical race theorist Cheryl Harris has proposed suspending private property rights, seizing land and wealth and redistributing them along racial lines. Critical race guru Ibram X. Kendi, who directs the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, has proposed the creation of a federal Department of Antiracism. This department would be independent of (i.e., unaccountable to) the elected branches of government, and would have the power to nullify, veto, or abolish any law at any level of government and curtail the speech of political leaders and others who are deemed insufficiently ‘antiracist.’”
Simply put “equality” means equal opportunity and “equity” means equal outcomes. Removing the need for some to work as hard as others or take the same risks as others because they are promised equal outcomes. CRT pushes the idea that equal opportunity is racist as only white people can take advantage because racism is built-in…
This story sheds a lot of light on what the effects of CRT are and where it is already poisoning our systems of government society. It is no less of a threat to our democracy than any terrorist out there and actually since they have been successful in fooling many Americans into defending it or outright fighting for it, in many ways it is more dangerous. I encourage you to go read Christopher’s article and any others that you can find.
The fact is true that “Pure Critical Race Theory” is not being taught in our K-12 schools. It is however being filtered down through instruction and re-branded as “anti-racism.” Children are taught that based on the color of their skin they are either part of the oppressor class, or the oppressed class and this is about as close to a definition of racism that I can think of. If you try to claim that you are not racist, then by CRT’s definition you are in fact a racist. The only way you can be not racists as a white person according to CRT is to actively be anti-racist. CRT does not allow for a dissenting opinion. According to their doctrine, what CRT teaches is fact and therefore is not questionable.
The claim by some that banning critical race theory would mean that we do not teach about the country’s past is simply another lie from the left. The fact is that we all learned, and still learn today about racism. About the civil rights movement. About the Civil War where hundreds of thousands of Americans, of all races, died to defend the rights of black Americans. The history of this country, the mistakes we have made, the progress we have made in an effort to be a more perfect union, are all part of the current curriculum. Another teaching from CRT is that white people will only help people of color if it somehow benefits them. This again paints people as either helpless or selfish based on the color of their skin.
The Republicans have not made this an issue. It is an issue all by itself. It is strictly speaking racist to teach kids that based on the color of their skin they are part of a particular class of society. CRT is Marxism by another name. Do not be fooled into thinking this is a good thing for our kids, for our community, for our country.
Lastly, it is absolutely the right of the people to have a say in what is taught in our schools. The school system is a product of the taxpayer. Teachers and staff are paid by local, state, and federal governments. Therefore they are government employees. Therefore teachers are not afforded the right to “free speech” while working in the capacity as a teacher. We must stop this, and we must stop it now.
Gary Brown
Paso Robles
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