America is divided. I know you’ve heard that before; I’m not stating anything new here. America has always been divided. Though tragedies and common interests have united us in the past, we aren’t the United States we claim in our name. With a big election coming up this year and the candidates being cemented, this is more prevalent than ever. The “culture wars” Americans participate in are now more unavoidable than ever; They bleed into our everyday lives, the content we consume, and even our legislation.
Members of our governmental body, both state and federal, the ones meant to be representing us, are attacking “ideologies” for culture war points. This has pushed itself into the public education system, and arguments have occurred over what should and shouldn’t be allowed for students to see. Legislators and everyday people in the conservative space have attacked “woke.” While defined as being aware of racial and social issues, politicians and influencers have used the word as a synonym to liberal or socialist.
Acknowledgement of racial discrimination and Critical Race Theory have been categorized under the word “woke,” and are apparently being taught to children. Proclaiming they’re getting brainwashed by wokeness, all in an attempt to “destroy the nuclear family” and “spread cultural Marxism.”
I’m sure many will write me off as being brainwashed by the public education system, but the “war on education” is something harming no one but the teachers they throw these claims at, and the students those people care so much about protecting.
You’ve probably heard Critical Race Theory thrown around a lot, but what does it mean? According to the Education Week, Critical Race Theory, or CRT, argues that racism is a systemic issue, with historical patterns of racism being integrated into our judicial systems and other modern institutions.
Maybe that’s what you’ve heard it was, or maybe you’ve heard something different. Critics have argued that CRT targets white Americans, proclaiming it teaches they are inherently racist at birth and stating it’s a way to divide the country, leading to “anti-white discrimination.” There’s nothing in CRT that suggests all white people are racist or puts white people below other races. What CRT theorizes about is the racism in our institutions, specifically law.
“Anti-white discrimination” has been something stated for years, yet the proof has been up for debate. Anti-white discrimination, which is essentially reverse racism, claims that things like affirmative action and other color conscious programs are inherently racist towards white people. A far more extreme belief emerging from that circle is something called the “Great Replacement Theory.” According to the National Immigration Forum, the theory claims that black and brown people are flooding into the country at such a rate to where white people are being “reverse colonized” by those said people. Recently, starting around 2017, various groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have used the theory to continue to push anti-Semetic rhetoric. Backing the theory at a rally chanting things such as “Jews will not replace us.” Many other extremist groups with these beliefs have also bashed public schools for teaching “woke ideology” to students, which includes CRT.
The massive modern debate is whether CRT is (1) being taught in K-12 schools, and (2) should it be? Well, for the first point, it’s complicated. Sources claim many different things, while some claim and give evidence of it not happening, others give evidence of CRT being taught to K-12 students. The reliability of some sources is questionable, with more conservative sources saying it is being taught and more liberal sources saying it’s not.
I wanted to talk to teachers about this, so I asked various PA and MD school teachers if they’re teaching CRT or concepts of it. They stated they have not taught anything labeled CRT, or really any direct concepts of it. They’ve taught about discrimination in history, specifically the teachers of the older grades, but nothing that suggests racism in itself is institutional. One thing they all did specify, which you’ll also see with the topic of LGBTQIA+ students, is they go in with the mood that all people are equal.
As a student of both public schools, I can personally tell you I have never been taught any concepts of CRT. I was never taught those claims that all white people are racist nor was I taught actual CRT either. The first time I ever heard that word was on the news, and where I learned concepts of CRT were completely outside of my school setting.
Even if I had learned it in the classroom, would that be so bad? Once again, CRT does not suggest that all white people are evil and racist, but that racism itself is systemic and institutional. Does that idea have any factual backing? The only way we can tell is through examples throughout history. Women and minorities have only slowly through this country’s 250 year history gained the rights of those cis-gendered heterosexual white men.
With the diagram there, is it really so absurd to say that the system was built to benefit certain people and not benefit others? People say that claim is an attack on those cis het white men, and is therefore making them the enemy in that framework. Yet again, that fact is more telling of the system rather than the people living in it.
If we do not teach history, do not teach that everyone is equal yet it has not been that way in history, do not teach society’s mistakes, then that same rhetoric will be repeated. All they are doing is limiting what kids are learning, depriving them of their education and making a more harmful environment in the world overall.
