It’s another holiday family dinner with our crazy uncles. In our case, the conservatives in my family have to deal with their crazy Auntie, me. This annual convergence of family we all do is stressful and we got a primer of what not to say over the last few months, but not so much of what to say that works.
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This is what I’m planning to say to:
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I don’t want my kids coming home telling me about Critical Race Theory.
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The cheap shots:
“Wow! When did Casey start law school! I had no idea she skipped 15 grades.”
or
CRT is taught in law school not grade school.
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The problem with taking the witty cheap shot is it might get a laugh, but it’s often dismissed in short order. It’s not CRT. It’s about racists and racism. It’s about keeping the status quo of teaching white approved U.S. history and only including snipits of POC U.S. history. It’s about ignoring and hiding the parts that make some white people uncomfortable at best or livid angry at worst. Talking about CRT and racism is emotional, not rational. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to respond.
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Racism is morally wrong. I was taught that way back in the 1960s as a child. What wasn’t taught was how racism permeates throughout our society’s thinking, policies, laws and regulations. What is only coming to light now is how racism hurts all of us economically. Racism limits our ability to see solutions. Racism holds everyone back, not just the targets. I wasn’t taught how to recognize the secret racist who often turns out to be a misogynist as well. Lee Atwater was hardly unique in how he made racism less overt and more covert, but not less detrimental. Major changes happened in the 1960s that helped minority populations, but those changes didn’t make for less racists. It drove racists underground. This two faced approach to mitigating racism has led to making a show of saying we’re against racism while allowing racist policy and procedures to accomplish the racist agenda. “I’m not racist, but” precedes racist statements. We aren’t going to reach the overt racist, but we can state we aren’t ok with racism.
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Some pundits call for the end of polite conversation regarding racism. Sure, I’m with that. I feel the same way about misogyny. Black people are continuously dying over white fears. This has been going on for over 400 years in this country and it needs to be seen, addressed and ended. I feel the same way about how women have been killed for similar reasons for thousands of years worldwide.
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The one concept I know is true, is I won’t change anyone’s mind if I insult them first.
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So I try to respond:
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CRT is way above most kid’s heads, but I think we do need to tell our kids the truth about how America was formed. Warts and all. That includes all the great achievements and the facts that most of the grand achievements were made on the backs of slave labor and exploited labor.
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There’s nothing wrong with teaching children that we got a great country based upon a great idea that all men are created equal, but was short on delivering that equality to black and brown people. It’s also ok to point out our founders excluded women of all colors in that written statement — “all men are created equal”. There’s nothing wrong with pointing out their short sightedness.
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I have no problem with telling our children the real U.S. history. We formed our nation based on a great idea that all men are created equal. Nothing wrong with teaching we had to fight for freedom that turned around and denied freedom to black people and treated women and children as chattel with fewer rights.
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Look, U.S. history is both bloody and violent. The U.S. was not fair to everyone and used power to achieve what was known as our Manifest Destiny that swept Native Americans aside. Nothing wrong with explaining that our Manifest Destiny was achieved by killing people who objected to that destiny and used forced black labor for free, and Asian labor for a pittance. We need to own up to the fact that our country was and is built on shoving Native Americans aside and on the backs of unpaid and underpaid labor.
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Children need to know that American slaves were used, abused and discarded. Slaves were not thought of as human beings…. you know 3/5’s of a person. Native Americans were also not regarded as people. Our children need to know why dehumanizing people based on race is wrong and how prevalent that misconception is. More importantly, they need to learn to recognize dehumanization when they see it and not repeat that error.
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My school teachers never told me more than a few sentences about Harper’s Ferry or John Brown. They mentioned John Brown was an abolitionist and tried to free slaves and was hung for it. I was told about the Dred Scott Decision, but it wasn’t well explained. Less than a day was spent on Jim Crow or the KKK. Hardly any time was spent on the economics of slavery and why it was so attractive to Southerners and so despised by rich Northerners. We should spend more time teaching our kids about how racism goes directly against our constitution and that the economics of cheating people out of compensation hurts us all.
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I never heard about the Tulsa Massacre, Rosewood, Elaine, Arkansas, Atlanta Massacre or any of dozens of others that killed black people for simply living while black. I’d bet you weren’t taught about these massacres either. That’s wrong. Our children need to know our nation’s history. All of it.
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You are conflating CRT with America’s racial reality. It’s much easier to let our 5 year olds think that slavery is all in our past. It’s more comfortable for me a white person to say we are in a post racial America. It is easier to tell our children lies, but that is selling them short and us out. If you are black or brown, you get daily reminders that you are not white. I have no problem with children learning how America is founded on the idea that all men are equal, but the implementation of that idea excluded all women as well as black and brown men, too. We need to own that and do better.
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I do think children should be taught that history sees the the United States was created by men who aspired to govern with the idea all men are created equal but governed based on the idea that black people weren’t people at all, brown people were somehow less worthy of personhood, and women only got the privileges their husbands and fathers portioned out to them. While they were at it, they treated women as things to be traded [marriage alliances] and used. Children were seen as unpaid assets and free labor. These ideas are not CRT, they are the facts that can be proven over and over again in our history. CRT is hard for a law student to understand that are illustrated by statistics gathered by government sources. I don’t see that complex set of concepts taught in grade school. What I do see taught in grade school is the unfairness of racist comments and actions. That’s appropriate job training.
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I think we do need to tell our children about the Tulsa Massacre and Rosewood. We need to own up to how the Civil War gave birth to the lost cause. We need to own up to the fact that allowing Southern traitors to show up in statues and on the sides of mountains gives a mixed message. We shouldn’t say racism is wrong then turn around and put Bedford Forest riding a horse on a dais in a public park that serves mostly black populations. We need to teach just how two faced the U.S. is on black rights. We need to fill in the dotted lines between racism and racist policy.
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School is different today than it was when we started. Kindergartners are expected to be able to read basic words on the first day of class, but that doesn’t mean they are able to understand the complex concepts of CRT that is taught in law school. What 1st graders need to understand is using the n word is hurtful. They need to understand that saying the Civil War was fought over slavery and the assertion that it was over “state’s rights” is a euphemism for the states right to allow some people to own other people and all that meant.
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Feel free to edit to fit your personality.