Post by addisona on Feb 11, 2022 12:32:55 GMT
How Abolishing critical race theory Preserves White Power
It’s hard to miss the controversy surrounding “critical race theory,” which has become a flashpoint in many discussions around public education. To be clear, critical race theory (CRT) is not a framework used in K-12 education. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor at UCLA and Columbia, coined the phrase in 1989 as a tool to explain how laws and legislation in the United States are deeply rooted in systemic racism. Over the last few years, the term has become a catch-all for people seeking to discredit discussions about diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in education and other, broader spaces. And as an organization that understands how poverty is inextricably linked to systemic racism, CLASP knows that advancing racial equity leads to economic security for everyone.
While CRT is relatively new in the public conversation, the distortion of it for ideological purposes is just the latest version of tactics spanning centuries aimed at upholding white supremacy and racism. Simply put, CRT is history repeating itself. Throughout history, white people have preserved their power by hoarding knowledge or banning the access of knowledge to Black people and allies. For example, the government created legislation in the 1700s that prohibited enslaved people from learning to read and write. Additionally, school districts banned abolitionist readings in schools, claiming the people who were enslaved would start a rebellion.
Today, we see white parents storming school board meetings demanding that schools ban CRT. This rhetoric began with Trump’s executive order in 2020 prohibiting federal agencies from conducting diversity, equity, and inclusion training. He justified his order by claiming that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives represented “reverse racism,” which has been debunked as a myth. Before the executive order and Trump mentioning CRT in one of his tangents, very few people outside of academia were familiar with the term. The executive order provided leverage to his supporters to try and remove any semblance of anti-racist pedagogy in K-12 schools, including CRT.
Over the last year, white parents have tried to redefine the term, erroneously claiming CRT teaches children to not get along with others and causes mental illness. These arguments have led many states to ban CRT in schools along with documented parts of history, specifically Black history. In fact, some states have gone farther by banning books as well as other programs like social emotional learning (SEL), which helps students learn important skills in critical thinking, teamwork, decision making, conflict resolution, and others. Although SEL has nothing to do with anti-racist training, opponents have conflated it with CRT.
www.clasp.org/blog/how-abolishing-critical-race-theory-preserves-white-power
It’s hard to miss the controversy surrounding “critical race theory,” which has become a flashpoint in many discussions around public education. To be clear, critical race theory (CRT) is not a framework used in K-12 education. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor at UCLA and Columbia, coined the phrase in 1989 as a tool to explain how laws and legislation in the United States are deeply rooted in systemic racism. Over the last few years, the term has become a catch-all for people seeking to discredit discussions about diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in education and other, broader spaces. And as an organization that understands how poverty is inextricably linked to systemic racism, CLASP knows that advancing racial equity leads to economic security for everyone.
While CRT is relatively new in the public conversation, the distortion of it for ideological purposes is just the latest version of tactics spanning centuries aimed at upholding white supremacy and racism. Simply put, CRT is history repeating itself. Throughout history, white people have preserved their power by hoarding knowledge or banning the access of knowledge to Black people and allies. For example, the government created legislation in the 1700s that prohibited enslaved people from learning to read and write. Additionally, school districts banned abolitionist readings in schools, claiming the people who were enslaved would start a rebellion.
Today, we see white parents storming school board meetings demanding that schools ban CRT. This rhetoric began with Trump’s executive order in 2020 prohibiting federal agencies from conducting diversity, equity, and inclusion training. He justified his order by claiming that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives represented “reverse racism,” which has been debunked as a myth. Before the executive order and Trump mentioning CRT in one of his tangents, very few people outside of academia were familiar with the term. The executive order provided leverage to his supporters to try and remove any semblance of anti-racist pedagogy in K-12 schools, including CRT.
Over the last year, white parents have tried to redefine the term, erroneously claiming CRT teaches children to not get along with others and causes mental illness. These arguments have led many states to ban CRT in schools along with documented parts of history, specifically Black history. In fact, some states have gone farther by banning books as well as other programs like social emotional learning (SEL), which helps students learn important skills in critical thinking, teamwork, decision making, conflict resolution, and others. Although SEL has nothing to do with anti-racist training, opponents have conflated it with CRT.
www.clasp.org/blog/how-abolishing-critical-race-theory-preserves-white-power