The Manhattan Institute has released a new study shedding light on the spread of critical race theory (CRT) in our public school system, and its nefarious effects. The study surveyed over 1500 Americans aged 18 to 20, and illustrates how pervasive CRT and radical gender ideology has become in American schools.
Now, it’s one thing to teach about our country’s dark history of slavery, segregation, and oppression. Most Americans agree that this is essential to understanding our progress as a nation. But it’s quite another to promote the idea that the United States was founded by a white male power structure with the intent of suppressing black Americans and people of color to maintain white dominance. According to this idea, whites are privileged oppressors, and if you are black or a person of color, you are a perpetual victim of a racist system.
This ideology reduces people to stereotypical representatives of their racial affiliation, and there is no tolerance for further debate on this concept. CRT’s message to white students is that they are unacceptable as they are and must re-construct themselves to acknowledge and accept their white privilege, racist proclivities, and role in perpetuating a corrupt and discriminatory system. For everyone else, CRT casts them as victims to white bigots in a fundamentally racist state, never allowed to realize their full potential.
This pedagogy is not about a comprehensive or expanded narrative of our nation’s struggles with slavery or an abstract social concept to be debated. “Once this premise is established, the reasoning follows that if you are white, regardless of your individual circumstances or awareness, you are upholding and perpetuating an inherently racist society. You must also accept the guilt and shame of the racist sins of your past generations. If you are not white, you are forever a victim of a cultural arrangement designed to keep you subservient to the oppressors. There is no tolerance for further debate on this concept.”
CRT adherents are unwavering in their view that the American system of government is thoroughly corrupt and therefore must be dismantled and replaced with a more “diverse, equitable, and inclusive” regime. But where do they want to take us? A dehumanizing world where inhabitants are distinguished only by skin color, and individual identity ceases to exist? Where diversity of thought is punished, equity equals mediocrity, and inclusiveness is achieved through obedient submission to a collective ideology?
The purpose of education is to mentor students on HOW to think, not WHAT to think. CRT is just a theory, not an empirical fact. Children are not born racists; racism must be taught. Congress cannot legislate a set of unifying ethical principles to a diverse populace, and neither can a president enforce a singular moral code among all Americans. Human beings come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, each exquisitely unique with talents, dreams, and ambitions, freely contributing to societal progress through the development of diverse values, opinions, and ideas.
So, what can we do about this? First and foremost, we need to educate ourselves and our children about what’s really going on in our schools. We need to speak out and hold our school boards accountable. We must demand that our children be taught how to think critically, not what to think. We must reject the notion that America is a fundamentally racist country and that our children should be judged by nothing more than their skin color or gender.
As Black Panther activist-turned-conservative Republican Eldridge Cleaver put it, “If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.” Maybe he was onto something. We don’t have to teach people how to be human; we have to teach them how to stop being inhuman. Let’s stand up for our children and for the principles that make America great: equality, freedom, and opportunity for all.
