The Critical Race Theory "Controversy"

 

In recent months, right-wing groups have attacked the alleged use in our schools of "Critical Race Theory," using it as a cudgel to inflame people and to prevent the teaching of basic historical facts and to suppress discussion of the significance of those facts. This is part of an effort to agitate and excite its base to get them to the polls and school board meetings in support of their issues more broadly.  They assert that Critical Race Theory is a doctrine that people  “should view everything through the lens of race and then pit them against one another.”[1] 

 

But this is NOT what Critical Race Theory is.  Rather, it is  a framework which seeks to understand the impact of race in America. It is a graduate level academic construct focusing on the proposition that, from the beginning of the European migration to what is now the United States, racism has been so intertwined with American law and society that they cannot easily be disentangled. Critical Race theorists have drawn such conclusions based on their assessment of historical and current facts. Nowhere is Critical Race Theory taught as the official core doctrine of American history in our primary and secondary schools; but, one would hope that the kinds of facts that underly it are presented in an age-appropriate manner.

 

Kendall Thomas is the co-editor of Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement.  He observes that the theory maintains that racism “does not have to define our future if we have the will and the courage to reckon with it.”  Rather than encouragingWhite people to feel guilty, Thomas explains, Critical Race Theorists aim to shift focus away from individual people’s bad actions  and toward how systems uphold racial disparities. Thomas concludes that “Critical race theory is an effort really to move beyond the focus on [simply] finding fault by impugning [people’s] racist” animus and the like, and instead looking “at the ways in which racial inequality is embedded in structures in ways of which we are very often unaware.”[2]     Nevertheless, right-wing groups incorrectly assert that “Critical Race Theory” is a doctrine which asserts that all White people are inherently, unavoidably, and irretrievably racist, and that this doctrine threatens to take over education in our country.[3] They lump the theory together with the historical facts surrounding  race in America. They oppose mention in our classrooms of historical facts and current conditions that might make White children feel bad.  Their goal is to suppress uncomfortable facts about our shared history.   Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”  But the attack on “Critical Race Theory” is an effort to impose a whitewashed version of America, by suppressing discussion of relevant facts.   There are a variety of theories that seek to make sense out of the facts. One may be summarized by Chief Justice Roberts’  2007 statement that "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race"[4] ; this is a proposition that past evils are totally a thing of the past, that any legacies of human slavery in America have zero impact on our society today.    Recent attacks on “Critical Race Theory” are, at best, nothing more than attempts to ensconce “Roberts RaceTheory” as the official doctrine of American education, holding as irrelevant any possible impact of human  slavery and its legacy on 21st Century America.  At worst - and most of the time they are “at worst” – they are attempts to whitewash the facts of our history. For example, that is precisely what the recent Texas law limiting what may be taught in their public schools does.   In Texas, teaching of some relevant facts is permitted, but discussion of the implication of those facts is effectively prohibited by, for example, barring discussion of The 1619 Project.[5]   What our schools should do is to teach the relevant historical facts — the bad and the ugly, not just the “good” — so that students can draw their own conclusions. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat its errors.  Students need the factual bases and critical thinking skills to draw their own conclusions. That is education, not indoctrination.   William Faulkner wrote decades ago, “The past is not dead.  It is not even past.”  We need to face honestly whether or how much this is the case as we grapple with American human slavery and its impacts.      [1] https://dcist.com/story/21/09/29/mcauliffe-youngkin-spar-over-vaccine-mandates-education-policy-final-gubernatorial-debate/   [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/05/29/critical-race-theory-bans-schools/   [3] https://secured.heritage.org/critical-race-theory-ebook-offer/?utm_campaign=crtebook&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=criticalracetheory_1   [4] https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/04/race-and-the-supreme-court-what-the-schuette-decision-reveals-about-how-we-talk-about-race.html   [5] https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/pdf/HB03979F.pdf#navpanes=0   at  pp. 5-6: Teachers may not “make part of a course the concept that:  . . . . (ix) the advent of slavery in the territory that is now the United States constituted the true founding of the United States; or  (x) with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of,  or failures to live up to, the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality;  and (C) require an understanding of The 1619 Project.” (This is the same statute that scared school staff in South Lakes, Texas, to suggest that books on the Holocaust could not be in  school libraries unless there were books that presented “the other side” of the “controversy.”  Presumably, the same would  apply to books teaching the actual facts of Reconstruction and its aftermath – somehow requiring that something like D.W.  Griffith’s infamous film, Birth of a Nation should be presented as “alternative (albeit false) facts” to provide balanced teaching.) Attachments area

Kulanu Services at Temple Emanuel, 2000-2021

Kulanu Services at Temple Emanuel, 2000 through 2021 

June 11, 2021: Kulanu Shabbat (Guest Speaker, Evan Glass, Member-at-Large, Montgomery County Council: My Journey, Our Journeys, and Using the Political Process to Achieve Progress.) https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2021/05/evan-glass-to-speak-at-temple-emanuel.html

June 12, 2020: Kulanu Shabbat (Guest Speaker, Nicolle Campa, President, Metro DC Chapter of PFLAG: The Importance of Family in the Struggle for Equal Rights and Community Embrace and presentations by Youth Advisor Devorah Stavisky and Students Eli Herman, Quinn Spence, Kayden Reff, and Autumn Cook) 

June 7, 2019: Kulanu Shabbat (Guest Speaker, Ellen Kahn, Director of the Human Rights Campaign’s Children, Youth, and Families Program: Where are we now, where are we going?)

Sept. 16, 2016: Kulanu Shabbat (with Temple Community Social Action Commission) Comfort Cases for Children in Foster Care: Rob Scheer, founder of Comfort Cases. 

April 15, 2016: Kulanu Shabbat Mike Fishback, Intent and Impact) https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2016/04/intent-and-impact.html

March 27, 2015: Kulanu Shabbat Building Community by Sharing Our Stories: David Fishback, Sara Cytron, Glenn Northern, Nat Rasmussen, Marti Teitlebaum & Tim Zwerdling 

Oct. 4, 2013: Kulanu Shabbat Dr. Dana Beyer, Executive Director, Gender Rights Maryland, Jewish Values and Transgender Equality 

Jan. 2013: Co-Sponsor MLK Service Jonathan Jayes-Green (speaking about the Maryland Dream Act and the Maryland Civil Marriage Equality Act) 

Oct. 26, 2012: Kulanu Shabbat Jewish Values and Civil Marriage Equality, guest speaker State Senator Richard Madaleno 

Feb. 10, 2012: Kulanu Shabbat Celebrating Our Temple’s Rich Diversity: Sara Cytron, Lisa Feldman, Glenn Northern, and Tim Zwerdling 

April 1, 2011: Kulanu Shabbat Captain Michael Rankin (USN, Ret.), Retired Navy psychiatrist and openly gay advocate for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and Board Member, Union for Reform Judaism 

June 11, 2010: Kulanu Shabbat Delegate Heather Mizeur 

June 12, 2009: Kulanu Shabbat Rabbi Sarah Meytin, Jewish Community Relations Council, Issues of Human Rights 

Feb. 8, 2008: Kulanu Shabbat Delegate Anne Kaiser: Civil Marriage Is A Civil Right: A Gay Jewish View in Annapolis 

Jan. 2007: Co-Sponsor of MLK Service Patricia Corbett, Community Outreach Director, Metro DC PFLAG 

Sept. 15, 2006: Kulanu Shabbat Dan Furmansky, Executive Director of Equality Maryland, Equal Rights for Gays and Lesbians: A Jewish Perspective 

May 22, 2005 Temple Emanuel Celebrates Lag B’Omer: A Celebration of Life and Jewish Survival GLBT in the Family: Response & Embrace 

Feb. 27, 2004: Kulanu Shabbat Rabbi Leila Gal Berner, Values, Tradition and Challenges: A Jewish Approach to Sexual Ethics.  Also presentations from Temple members Ellen Mann (Karch), Bobbi Fishback, and Mike Fishback 

Nov. 16, 2001: Shabbat Service A Vital Part of Our Jewish Community: Embracing a Diversity of Sexual and Gender Identities, Ken Carroll and Stephanie Handel of Bet Mishpachah 

Oct. 18, 2001 Lee Walzer, Homophobia and Anti-Semitism, Temple Social Issues Committee co-sponsored with Bet Mishpacha Social Action Committee and Jews United for Justice 

May 19, 2000: Shabbat Service Gay and Jewish: Issues and Reflections. Rabbi Stone and Catherine Tuerk, Past President of PFLAG and PFLAG Member Hannah Lipman