By George Smith — October 8, 2021
Question of the day: “What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?”*
“Is ‘critical race theory’ a way of understanding how American racism has shaped public policy, or a divisive discourse that pits people of color against white people? Liberals and conservatives are in sharp disagreement.
“The topic has exploded in the public arena this spring—especially in K-12, where numerous state legislatures are debating bills seeking to ban its use in the classroom.
“In truth, the divides are not nearly as neat as they may seem. The events of the last decade have increased public awareness about things like housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy in the 1990s, and the legacy of enslavement on Black Americans. But there is much less consensus on what the government’s role should be in righting these past wrongs. Add children and schooling into the mix and the debate becomes especially volatile.”
My opinion is just that, an opinion, but is based on the reality that “history is history” and should be made available and studied and discussed in open forums. Truth — telling it and being able to listen to it, to discuss it, is important.
History is full of good, bad, ugly, wretched, horrifying and evil deeds by humans, organizations and governments.
Educational facilities should be charged with relating these truths so the bad/evil/mean events are understood and not repeated.
Examples:
— White settlers, assisted by the military, took land from Native Americans? Historical fact.
— Taxicans absconding with a humongous tract of land from Mexico because it suited the white man’s purpose and dream? History.
— Slavery as a beloved institution is part of this country’s recent past? Real down-and-dirty historical fact.
— Continually unfairly persecuting people of color and treating them as second-class citizens for more than 250 years? It’s a fact.
Why not teach history? Why not teach all of it, from the events that brought forth angelic hurrahs to the festering boils of depravity, the evil deeds of humans throughout history?
There are those who want to cover up the bilious behavior of certain individuals snd groups, including factions of the federal government, like they never happened.
In one of my college classes, I asked students various questions aimed at testing their historical knowledge of the building of this social fabric of this county.
How did the western expansion of predominantly white settlers affect the lives of Native Americans?
Did shavery have any good attributes?
What do you know about the Trail of Tears?
Tell me about the Meadow Mountain Massacre.
What were “carpetbaggers” and how did their actions affect the South after the Civil War?
What caused the rise of the KKK? Why is it still active today?
You know…history questions, important questions to assist putting current events into perspective.
If we do not learn about history, ALL history, it’s hard to develop a strong, intuitive, moral compass that creates a need to right the wrongs upchucked by our ancestors.
Did your know that in Germany, students are taken on field trips to historical sites preserved to show each generation the depths of human sorrow and depravity… they visit Nazi concentration mcamps where more than 6,000,000 hunan beings were exterminated. Think a school district would bus students to the site of a lynching of a black man by a white mob as a life and history lesson?
History must be taught…all of it. Historical fact cannot be changed because it is just thst—fact!
To attempt to hide historical fact, is intellectually fraud. We are better than that. Aren’t we?
*Education Week provide background information for this article)
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Parents and teachers must unite in unequivocally rejecting the illiberal and pernicious notion that the repudiation of CRT is itself a form of impermissible racism. Insisting on viewpoint diversity and the airing of different ways of thinking about race in America is essential to reclaiming our education system from the noxious grip of CRT advocates and acolytes. It is also vital to defending traditions of critical thinking, reasoned discourse, academic freedom and First Amendment protections that are strengths of our system.
There are currently political efforts underway to ban the teaching of certain ideas—including the one-sided, negative views of America peddled by CRT proponents—from academic curricula at public institutions. More effective might be legislative mandates for viewpoint diversity and evidence-based learning, if only as a reminder that taxpayers expect First Amendment values to be honored by the institutions they financially support.
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