Critical Race Theory: Trusting the System to Teach the System?
Over the past few months, there has been a lot of controversy over Critical Race Theory being taught in public and private schools to children as young as 8-years-old. But what is Critical Race Theory? Does it pose a threat that justifies state intervention? Should it be banned from grade schools?
Critical Race Theory was created by Derrick Bell in the 1970s as a way of analyzing bias in the justice system. It is commonly taught in law schools and universities. While the theory in its is not being taught in primary schools in-depth, its core principles, along with more modern social and political rhetoric on race, have found their way into grade schools. Some of its core principles are that America is inherently racist and that white people are oppressors and Black people are oppressed. This has caused many parents, both, Black and white, to push back against CRT lessons. On the surface, CRT being taught in grade schools seems like an attempt to improve the country by providing a better understanding of The Black American Experience, end racism, empower Black children and bring about “equality.” However, there is reason to believe that it is not the case. Instead, CRT fosters a form of indoctrination that would create and perpetuate racism where it either doesn’t exist or is on the verge of dying out. It would also perpetuate cycles of poverty as they teach Black children from low-income families that they are oppressed while failing to properly educate and prepare them to compete in tomorrow’s economy.
While CRT contains some elements of truth, at heart, it is a divisive tool rooted in marxism. Upon researching CRT, I couldn’t help but notice its parallels to Karl Marx’s concept of society in which there is an oppressed class (proletariat) and oppressor class (the bourgeois). Bell uses the same concept but instead of classifying people by their socioeconomic status, he uses race.
Given that our political leaders have been focused on making America a socialist-communist nation, it is reasonable to believe that the use of CRT in grade schools is intended to divide America in order to destroy it. Cultural revolutions that divided citizens into oppressed and oppressor classes is a tactic that has been used throughout the 20th century to implement communism in various countries. With promises of helping the oppressed, it always resulted in tyrannical control, mass murder, and less opportunity for the oppressed class its proponents promised to help.
CRT amplifies racial tensions because it teaches people to see everything through the lens of race. This runs contrary to the fact that relationships between Black and White Americans have drastically improved. Parents have reported that their children have been separated from their classmates by race. Parents have also reported that their children were told to behave according to their CRT-defined racial characteristics. In other words, they were told to conform to stereotypes. What we need to ask ourselves is: do we want to realize Dr. King’s vision of racial harmony, of not judging by race but by the content of character? Or do we want to realize the critical race theorist vision of a society that sees everything through the lens of race? The latter will only create bitterness and racial hostility in the next generation, one that is least likely to maintain racism. Therefore, teaching that White people are oppressors and Black people are oppressed only reinforces a power structure that they (the proponents of CRT) claim to want to destroy.
Critical Race Theory is reinforcing a problem rather than implementing solutions to the problem. It would be far more productive to address the issue of students in low-income Black communities who are reading below their grade level and who sometimes graduate without being able to read. Also, teaching them monetizable skills, instead of teaching them that they are oppressed, would help them make real progress. The public school system continues to fail our children (especially those in poor communities of color) yet it opposes school choice and charter schools even though they would provide an adequate alternative to failing public schools and incentive for public school reform. Even though black children (from low-income neighborhoods) attending charter schools perform equal to, or better than, children from affluent families in private schools, school choice and charter schools have been a target of the teacher’s unions and the political left. For anyone looking for systemic racism, this is where they should look. This is a system that tells black children they are oppressed while failing to equip them with the basic tools that people of all races need to create a path and determine their future.
For these reasons, I find it difficult to trust the system to teach the truth about their system. The system will always prioritize achieving its goals. Ultimately, it will use its own failures, against the people. The more we seek government to repair social matters, the more control we lose. Where personal bias exists, it can only be eradicated by the gospel, not state-mandated indoctrination. Faith shatters glass ceilings, oppressive limitations, and softens hard hearts. While CRT may provide some truth and some comfort to those looking for answers to disparities and discrimination, its godless efforts to explain the Black struggle offer no hope and no real solutions to racism. There is nothing a black person in American CANNOT achieve. Millions of Black Americans have already proved that they can rise above economically oppressive conditions (from slavery and Jim Crow to today) and take advantage of the plethora of opportunities available to them. A defeated mindset – a victim mindset – will only stifle the brilliance and potential in our young Black youth, blinding them to opportunities, magnify obstacles, and minimize their potential and their God-given gifts.
