I am more than
slightly amused and agitated by the current political climate and what is being
made of Critical Race Theory. After all, who knows anything about CRT?
Apparently not many know much about it. Then, if that’s the case, who is
talking about it as a big deal? Apparently, many people all the way from the
White House to the halls of congress to the state house to my friends and
neighbors, and yours as well. It has become synonymous with race and slavery
and other such words and notions. It has been weaponized by some folks over on
the right to beat up folks over on the left. It has left school teachers in a quandary
as to how to teach the history of America in these polarized and polarizing
times.
The Short Verse
The short verse,
for people who like to look at short summaries of things I write, goes like
this. The concept of Critical Race Theory was developed in a law school setting
as a way of organizing a massive amount of information around race, racism,
systemic racism, laws, oppression, and the like. It is not something that is
taught in middle schools or high schools. It is taught in political science
departments as what it is, a theory that organizes information. In the world
from which I come, psychology and marriage and family therapy, “theory drives
practice,” and the converse, “practice shapes theory.” CRT developed as a way
of making sense out of complicated systems that impact people of color. It
became weaponized in 2020 when a researcher was interviewed on Fox News.
President Trump watched the interview and called the writer to his office a
couple of days later. Soon thereafter, the President signed the executive
order, “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping,” as a reaction to sensitivity
trainings that were being held at various federal entities around the country.
At the same time, religious folk caught wind of it and began to make a big
to-do of it which led to the Southern Baptists and their decree against it in
favor of the Bible taking primacy in matters of race and racism. From there,
various state legislatures in Republican dominated states took up the mantel
and wrote laws outlawing CRT, despite the fact that CRT had never been taught
in those states, even lifting key points from the list inside the executive
order.
So, much ado about
nothing. Something that academics think about has now been foisted upon the
schools and teachers of our country out of a reactionary stance that will lead
to downplaying the significance of race, slavery, oppression, and all manner of
things that are important in this history of our country. Besides, no one
teaches CRT to elementary, middle school, or high school kids. To assume such
is ridiculous. Teach them the truth of America and let them know that we are a
democracy, a work in progress, still ongoing and yet unfinished.
For Those Who Want
More Detail, Please Read On
I am a family
psychologist. I have a doctorate in counseling psychology and am licensed as a
psychologist and marriage and family therapist in Texas. In my work with
families, I am guided by several theories:
family systems theory, general systems theory, and by a basic set of
models with their theoretical orientations and assumptions. The mantra is
“theory drives practice” and “practice shapes theory.” Rather than just going
on and doing stuff with individuals, couples, or families, students are taught theoretical
orientations and the techniques and interventions that are consistent with
those orientations. They learn what the assumptions are for those theories.
There are with each theory assumptions about universalities as well as
idiosyncrasies.
I have spent my
academic life learning, teaching, supervising, and practicing from a number of
theoretical orientations with their assumptions and interventions. I love that
stuff.
In terms of
Critical Race Theory. Notice the second word and the third word. Those are
important. RACE. THEORY.
Some people do not
know what they are talking about and their ignorance shows.
For instance, here
is a politician from Colorado who seems to get a lot of traction with CRT. Lauren
Boebert, @laurenboebert, who tweeted on May 20, 2021:
“Critical race
“theory” is a complete farce. Anyone familiar with the scientific method would
know you need a hypothesis before a theory. They use pseudoscientific terms to
try and make people fall for their racist delusions.”
Her tweet is ludicrous on so many different levels. It does not merit a response other than "she needs to go back to school and attend some basic science and social science classes."
One of my questions is this: how did a theoretical frame from an academic
environment, specifically originating in a legal environment, generally taught
to upper division undergraduate students, or first year law students, come to
be a tire-tool for politicians and people on the right end of the spectrum?
This article chronicles the story. A reporter, Christopher Rufo, did his
research and appeared on the Tucker Carlson show. President Trump heard the
interview, called Rufo to his office, and then on September 4, 2020, he signed
an executive order. https://religiondispatches.org/where-did-white-evangelicalisms-hatred-of-critical-race-theory-really-begin/
This, however, is
only one thread. Pastor John MacArthur, a minister of some renown, had been
speaking and writing about the evils of CRT for some time. Southern Baptists
then took it up at their national convention and approved a resolution
denouncing doctrines related to Critical Race Theory.
The table was set.
That which we know nothing about is now spouted in the highways and the bi-ways
of life in America in print and across various social media platforms.
And then I got to
thinking, “What do I know about Critical Race Theory, and how far back does my
limited understanding go? I had to go no further than an article published by
Hinson and Robinson in 2008.
I actually
stumbled onto the concept by accident somewhere prior to 2008. Dr. Edward
Robinson and I had been writing an article about African American farmers and
their struggles with land loss and the USDA. Sandra Jones-Havard (2001), a
professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, a person with whom I
correspond on occasion, had written materials that were game-changing for me.
She helped me understand the political and economic machinations of the county
committee system across America and how it had been co-opted into taking land
from Black farmers.
Professor
Jones-Havard made this assertion:
“In this instance,
I posit that critical race theory provides a basis for understanding how flawed
representational democracy presents an example of political space and its
consequences. In other words, critical race theory provides a basis for
examining the construction of race
as a neutral, accepted dominant norm. While there is a tendency to view what is
really a failed attempt at power sharing between the federal and local
government as successful cooperative federalism, I argue instead that the
geographical space (the county) defines the political space (who becomes
representatives or members of the county committee). The all-white composition
of those committees turned the race-neutral process of determining loan
eligibility into one of domination and subordination (337).”
In other words,
CRT provides a framework for understanding how a “neutral” construct like race
with its application in a particular location, e.g., the county, comes to be a
context in which domination and insubordination occur. White farmers elect
their white friends to the committee, and those white committee members have
the power to go thumbs up or thumbs down for all manner of things related to
farming including farm/home operating loans, loans to purchase additional
farmland, disaster relief programs and all manner of other things.In my vernacular,
I have said for years publicly and privately, “The County Committee System is
the best of democracy and the worst of democracy. We get to vote, a right of a
citizen of our country, and we get to vote our prejudices.” And sometimes those
votes and prejudices become power and a reflection of institutional racism
because the system allows itself to continue.
To back track a
tad, “What is Critical Race Theory and where did it come from?” Lauren Michelle
Jackson, in her article in The New York Times, chronicled the development of
CRT by Professor Derrick Bell and his work in civil rights and working for
Thurgood Marshall. His text, “Race, Racism, and American Law” is generally
considered pivotal to the development of CRT. These
things happened in the mid-1970s, not really that long ago. They happened in a
law school setting, not in grass roots America. Here is the article here.
Critical Race
Theory is Defined
“Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is a
theoretical and interpretive mode that examines the appearance of race and racism
across dominant cultural modes of expression. In adopting this approach, CRT
scholars attempt to understand how victims of systemic racism are affected by
cultural perceptions of race and how they are able to represent themselves to
counter prejudice.
See the full article here.
For those who want
to read some more, try this one as it explains the path CRT has taken from an
academic to a weapon of the right, the story is found here.
Here is another good article.
A good article is here.
Another good article here.
The Southern Baptist statement is here.
The President’s
Executive Order, the White House to the State House
So, Trump wrote,
or rather signed, an Executive Order in September, 2020. It was clearly written
by lawyers and all. It provides a huge section of background, all explaining
the error of our ways if we use this theoretical formulation to draw any
practical conclusions. His document then lists a number of “divisive concepts,”
all of which in my opinion are grossly overstated and appealing to a particular
segment of our society, e.g., his supporters. See the entire document here.
A number of states
like Texas and Tennessee have developed language which mimics the Executive
Order. Here is one from Texas.
Here is the one from Tennessee.
Here is what I
find most fascinating when looking at the Executive Order, Texas’ bill, and
Tennessee’s bill: the bills appropriate the language of the Executive Order,
and sometimes the precise language is followed. Some additions are made, but by
and large, the template was laid out by the president for state legislatures to
perpetuate legally. In academic circles that is called plagiarism, but I guess
it’s called something else when it comes from the White House to the State
House.
All of these
create “straw figures” against which to fight. All of these illustrate
extraordinarily shallow thinking about the history of our country, racism,
slavery, Jim Crow, the mistreatment of First Nations people, and all manner of
other things. They all assume that if we critique our country, that we will hate
it. The opposite might actually be true. So, let’s get legislators involved in
the teaching business and tell them what to teach and how and what the consequences
will be if they don’t. Seems like we left out the notion that teachers are
prepared and know how to teach what.
So, What is
America Afraid Of?
One thing that the
Texas bill includes that is not in the Executive Order nor in Tennessee’s bill,
is a list of topics and key authors. Yes, Native Americans, slavery, and other
key topics, along with key persons like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and
numerous others such as Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings (wow!!). MLK, Brown v.
Board of Education, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony, the history of the
KKK, the civil rights movement, and many others. It is curious that the lists
are not exhaustive. Other materials can be included. Teachers, however, are
limited in their ability to respond to difficult topics. They must discuss all
sides of an issue, something that I think is a good idea anyway, and the topics
more often than not must be student initiated. Some thing that the laws will dampen
teachers’ abilities to teach. I hope to find out how it works out for teachers
in my area of Texas.
So, a theory which
originated in a law school setting has now been placed into law in several
states and the theory has become a tire tool for which one party can beat up on
another party. A legal theory that helps us to understand how we got to where
we are, what we need to change, and what the future holds if we do has become
overblown and taken way out of context.
So, if you ever
hear me speak publicly or read what I write about the USDA and its mistreatment
of minority farmers and women farmers, especially Black farmers, you’ll
understand that Critical Race Theory undergirds what I’m saying or writing, but
you will likely not hear me use the term. Using the term is not necessary.
Where I speak and write are not law schools. That which is embedded into our
laws and our systems within the US are indeed, in my opinion, based upon the
color of whiteness and not just whiteness but maleness. And, it’s time for us
to make sense out of these things and work toward change and equity for all of
God’s children.
I think white
America is afraid that it is losing ground to a brown America. Republicans are
afraid of losing their footholds in American life and politics. Look at all of
the voter suppression laws that are proliferating across the country. That’s a
blogpost for another day.
So, What is
Critical Race Theory?
The next time
someone pulls this out as a tool to bash someone with, politely ask them, “Can
you tell me what Critical Race Theory is all about?”
Then, sit
patiently and wait.
