Advancing Critical Race Theory: Not Letting a Good Crisis Go to Waste
November 9, 2021
Anyone who is semi-conscious knows that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a hot topic. The doctrine emerged from the depths of silent and effective radical Leftist ideology and hit mainstream awareness when it became publicized by Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at The Manhattan Institute whose reporting showed that it is being taught in schools, businesses and other organizations across America. In September 2020, the publicity prompted President Donald Trump to issue an executive order that “it shall be the policy of the United States not to promote race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating” in the Federal, uniformed, grant funded or federal contractor workforces. Seemed reasonable.
But the words were penned by Trump whose hatred by the Left continues as an effective political tool. Fair enough: all is fair in love, war and politics. Therefore, CRT has naturally been supported by many on the Left not only because of Trump but also because the Left has gotten more extreme on average and has increasingly gone off the rails. In the wake of George Floyd’s death and the shock amongst the general population that followed, ideologues and opportunity-driven politicians recognized what Winston Churchill knew (and lots of politicians and managers know): “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Often, this can be a good thing, allowing a manager to get important changes made that bureaucratic inertia usually prevents. But many times it is used to evil ends such as Hitler's seizure of power in 1933 after the burning of the Reichstag.
CRT is in the latter category and is an obviously extreme doctrine by most any reasonable standard. But many on today’s Left inexplicably continue to defend it as either: 1) not actually existing, 2) only existing in faraway sophisticated graduate/law schools, 3) portraying it as consisting of normal, necessary values, and/or 4) painting its critics as the one’s with hateful beliefs. Some of these methods were smoothly used in a commentary published in the CT Mirror on October 25, 2021 that was well-written with a moderate/friendly tone but unfortunately was akin to a fairy tale. The opinion headline includes: “…teaching for life.”
The piece starts by saying, “If you’re like me … you’re growing increasingly impatient with the politically motivated narrative being spun about critical race theory.” Oh yes, yes, nodding in agreement. Uh, wait, except, the political spin is mostly occurring on the Left in this case who can count on the big media outlets to back up outrageous claims and make or unmake facts.
Remember Colin Kaepernick and others kneeling during the National Anthem? At first, it was shown as it obviously was – disrespectful – the acts spoke for themselves. It was right in front of you to see with your own actual eyes. That visual presented an obvious problem for the lefty ideologues. But over a fairly short time, media sympathizers alchemized them into “patriots” because the kneelers were exercising their first amendment rights! Uh again, except that kneeling to the national anthem is unequivocally disrespectful. But that’s not how it became characterized in the predominantly sympathetic media - it somehow became a twisted patriotism.
And the same has happened with CRT. It’s obviously racist but no, its actually the objectors to it that are racist!
There are too many empty rhetorical flourishes in the commentary to debunk in such a small space – such as those who oppose CRT are against an honest “reckoning with our nation’s history” and are “opposed to culturally conscious curricula.” Throughout the piece it dodges the theory itself and instead uses the silly defense about how it is needed to give kids “tools” needed to function in the world (not science, technology, math, language – you know, that useless stuff). Ideological sympathizers in the East Hartford and West Hartford schools as well as the ACLU agreed. No one ever challenges these hyperbolic statements. CRT expands, not lessens, the divisions in our country. In practice, it teaches “White Bad” and then forces people, even little kids, to say so. But if you knew nothing else about CRT, reading the piece alone would have you conclude that it is just another attempt at achieving long sought racial fairness and equality.
But here is the real story. You should be alarmed if you aren’t already. There are three issues about CRT that can clearly be established: 1) that it is racist, 2) that it is being taught in some K-12 schools in the U.S. (I don’t know how many) with intent to expand - in addition to higher education, and 3) it is being required of adults in various large companies/organizations across America.
If you want a good generic detailed description of CRT see the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Although it contains some good facts and tries to be accurate for a while, it reveals its political bias (or fear of media criticism and the associated effect on its financial bottom line) when it gets to a description of what is happening today: “In a later, successful effort to deflect public attention from the problem of racism and to manufacture provocative social issues that would galvanize conservative Americans, Trump and other Republican leaders opted to attack CRT.” A clearly political statement, that at best, works both ways, at worst is false since opposition is broad based and not just from whites.
In reality, many on the Left embrace CRT in schools. Just last Summer, the Biden Administration via Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, planned on tying school funding across America to the teaching of CRT but had to walk back the plans after an outcry. Although the “official” CRT expansion effort was curtailed, rest assured it will be pursued unofficially and quietly expanded. For example, 3rd grade students in Cupertino, CA “were forced to rank themselves according to power and privilege” and list “their race, class, gender, religion, family structure, and other characteristics” to structure their relative power maps. In Springfield Missouri, middle school teachers were required to form an oppression matrix with overt and covert white supremacy. Covert white supremacy includes calling the police on black people, anything MAGA, funding education through property tax and “white silence.”
At East Side School, a 6th-12th grade school in Manhattan, the principal sent out literature with “8 White Identities” ranging from white supremacist to white abolitionist for parents to reflect on. The author, a professor from Northwestern University argued that “It’s about time we build an ethnography of whiteness, since white people have been the ones writing about and governing Others.’’ In Oregon, and the Portland area in particular, schools have adopted the “pedagogy of the oppressed” in order to “replace education with activism.” The amount of indoctrination is too much too list but as an example, one district in Oregon “confessed that the district’s students of color, and Black students in particular, still regularly experience racism in [their] schools’” and demanded that the superintendent “implement a ‘collective equity framework,’ establish ‘pillars for equity,’ deploy ‘Equity Teams’ … create racially segregated ‘Student Affinity Groups,’ and use ‘an equity lens for all future curriculum adoptions.’” In short, CRT is obviously being taught in schools despite the claims it is not.
Just recently on October 12, 2021, CNN’s “New Day” show, hosted Asra Nomani, “a Virginia Muslim single mom” to debate CRT in schools and she brought tabbed children’s books that contain CRT elements including one young children’s book, “Not My Idea,” that prominently pastes “Whiteness is a bad deal – It Always Was” on one page with a Satan symbol on the next (I guess religion is ok when it is helpful to prove a point - but stick to Satan and avoid Jesus). The response of her debate companion, Kazique Prince, “Global Director, of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging” (at a technology company?) was: “We have too many people who know little or nothing about education trying to tell professionals…what education should look like” - even though Prince has no training in education. Which is way better than Nomani’s fellow Virginian, failed Governor candidate Democrat Terry MaCauliffe, who said in a televised debate on September 29, 2021 that “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” These are great illustrations of the blind spot that Leftist ideologues have for unwittingly promoting authoritarianism (e.g. people like Stalin): these aren’t your kids, they are the government’s kids. After all, as Hillary Clinton said: It takes a village to raise a child – dopey, untrained and unindoctrinated parents can’t be trusted.
Regarding CRT in organizations other than schools, it is not news to those that work for a living that CRT has infiltrated most companies and organizations. Rufo has uncovered swaths of evidence. AT&T’s CEO John Stankey (salary: $22.5 million) educates its employees that “racism is a uniquely white trait,” assesses employees on diversity and mandates participation in “discussion groups, book clubs, mentorship programs, and race reeducation exercises.” Walmart’s CEO John McMillon (salary: $21.6 million), who “runs” the largest company in the U.S., instituted a CRT effort that “denounces the United States as a ‘white supremacy system’ and teaches white, hourly wage employees that they are guilty of ‘white supremacy thinking’ and ‘internalized racial superiority.’” This is the company that doesn’t pay workers enough to avoid being on government health care but instead spends money on CRT. Larry Merlo (salary: $23 million), the head of CVS, the fourth largest company in the U.S., also felt it necessary to launch CRT trainings for his employees. According to documents Rufo obtained, “The training required employees to mark their race, gender, sexuality, and religion and reflect on their privilege which included 'celebrat[ing] Christmas...hav[ing] a name that is easy to pronounce...feel[ing] safe in your neighborhood...[and]... feel[ing] confident in your leadership style." The keynote speaker at the training told 25,000 CVS employees that they, including toddlers, are “walking through society ...and functioning...completely soaked in racist ideas." Amazon and Apple, the 2nd and 3rd largest companies in the U.S., follow right along.
This may not sound that unusual to you because we have all heard similar sounding things before and some of this can be seen as a ramp up of what many are used to. But not everyone, and that includes all races, have turned their brains off to this racist ideology. But few will say so for fear of imperiling their jobs and careers. You think those CEOs got where they are by not being political? In the case of rank and file workers at companies like CVS or Walmart, workers check whatever boxes they must to ensure their continued employment and the management institutes whatever it must to avoid negative publicity and justify/continue excessive executive pay.
CRT’s advantage is that anti-racism efforts overlap with parts of CRT, which have allowed extremist views a foothold to advance under seemingly benign banners like “cultural consciousness.” The fact that some states have passed a ban on CRT, e.g. racism, being taught makes sense if one believes in equality for all. But the Left, at least as exemplified by big media types and politicians, continues with its Kaepernick strategy: it’s those that want to ban something good that are bad! Judging by the reaction at school board meetings across the country, lots of people are not buying the snake oil. Meanwhile TV outlets are doing their best to paint these mostly female parents as the ones who are bigots and racists for having the nerve to demand a say in what their children are taught - OMG! These media types need to be reminded that the first amendment was created to protect the people from the government not the government from the people.