Anti Racism Moment 7/17/21
Critical Race Theory. Most of us first heard this term a fewmonths ago. We understand that it is a framework used in academia through which race and racism are viewed as embedded in U.S. Laws and Policies.
We also are aware that this term has become the new boogeyman of the right. It is being used as a catch-all term to describe what are actually diversity and anti-racism initiativesin K through 12 schools, many begun in response to George Floyd’s murder.
But Parents from Virginia to Texas, from Connecticut to Missouri, have overwhelmed PTA meetings and challenged school boards and educators with fury over their teaching of this“critical race theory”. Are they simply misguided and unaware that critical race theory is not present in K12 education? Will this “movement” clear up once they understand that?
No. These mostly white parents are reacting to the teaching of the truth, to the addressing of racism. They are not reacting to something imaginary, they are just calling it by the wrong name.
The problem is that this reactionary parent movement is having real consequences.
5 states have now passed laws that limit how teachers can address “divisive” concepts, like racism. 22 states have proposals on the table that would limit how schools can talk about race. White Voter’s net support for Black Lives Matter reached an all-time high in June of 2020 with those in support being 10% higher than those in opposition, but now, that figure has flipped, with 10% more opposing than supporting BLM.
Rydell Harrison, who is black, was hired as superintendent of schools in SW CT after the murder of George Floyd and was tasked with addressing racial inequity. But as the “critical race theory” protests bloomed this year, he was one of many educators relentlessly targeted by parents and his community, causing him to resign in June.
Brittany Hogan, a black woman recently hired as a diversity coordinator in Rockwood, Missouri felt she had no choice but to resign after being violently threatened by local and national figures.
So it seems obvious that we are facing an intense backlash against an equity movement that was making great strides a year ago. Why? Is backlash of the proportion we are seeing inevitable? What can we do to mitigate it so that the grassroots movement of Black Lives Matter can gain ground rather than lose it?
