When I was in college in southern Ohio I, and a few friends, started an organization we called AWARE, the Association of Whites Against the Racist Environment. Our goal was education that we hoped would lead to healing. We would hold discussion groups, which we called “rap sessions,” with student clubs, in dormitories, in the cafeteria. At times the discussions became so heated I feared getting thrown out of the building or beat up on my way home. It became clear to me that the problem was not Black, but rather, white vehemence and determination to maintain the status quo.
I thought things would change over time, and they have. Young people especially have moved us forward. But as I look back 52 years, it depresses me to see that things haven’t changed all that much.
Here’s what I think about Critical Race Theory.
#1, I’m baffled by fuss the republicans are making of it and their determination to keep it out of the schools. The reality is it is not taught in any public elementary, middle, or high schools across the country. It is offered in upper level college courses and in law schools. So, they are creating a problem that doesn’t exist.
#2, One of the main reasons the repubs want to cancel CRT from classrooms is they don’t want their white children feeling guilty for being white. Well, as Warren Zevon would say, “Poor, poor, pitiful me.” If more white children, and adults, felt a level of guilt and responsibility for the racial inequities that exist in this country, we would be able to move forward in righting those centuries-old wrongs.
#3, I believe the purpose of education is to challenge the student with new ideas. We should be causing discomfort by presenting students with different belief systems and with deeper understandings of our nation’s history. I thoroughly believe that the more knowledge we have, the better off we will be. To ignore our history conveniently relieves us of the responsibility of acknowledging how that history is perpetuated in our present day.
#4, In my humble opinion, CRT should be mandatory for all students beginning in middle school. Only then, will students grow into adults who possess an understanding of our country’s, and their own, relationship with its Black citizens, Native Americans, ethnic minorities, and people of color.
#5, To say racism doesn’t exist, or that the Confederacy isn’t alive, is to ignore the obvious.