A debate about Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been in the news recently.  Some fear that teaching this theory is being pushed throughout the Federal government and the nation’s military services, and they fear its effect.

Critical race theory asserts that white supremacy exists in America and its existence is maintained though the nation’s laws and institutions.  Those who subscribe to this theory apparently believe that racial emancipation can only be achieved by a total restructuring of the legal system and government.  They reject an incremental, step-by-step approach toward racial equality and tend to rely more on political organizing and radical change.  They seem to favor myth-making over historical evidence.  Many of its advocates express a total distrust of white people whatever their political persuasion.

CRT scholars often question the motives of white liberal activists.  Some say that civil-rights advances for black people coincided with the self-interest of white elitists.  Another CRT scholar concluded that U.S. civil-rights legislation was not passed because people of color were discriminated against; rather, it was enacted to gain the support of third-world countries that we needed as allies during the Cold War.

As an academic movement, critical race theory has spread widely in American universities, and there are efforts to spread its curriculum to public schools.  This has caused a number of state legislatures to ban the teaching of CRT in various state school systems.  Naturally, liberal educators are reacting against this ban.

I believe critical racy theory is a poisonous brew.

I do think that students need to learn about our nation’s racial history, both good and bad.  They should learn about 1619, the Sand Creek Massacre, and the Tulsa atrocity.  They should also learn about the Mayflower Contract, the whites who died to give them freedom, the black heroes that served this nation so faithfully, and the civil-rights movement.  We are not a perfect nation. No nation is.  But we are a good people, and we can become even better.

An American should not defined by his or her race or creed but by love of country.  Don’t try to divide us on the basis of ethnicity.