Criticizing Critical Race Theory as Another Form of Racism -

Criticizing Critical Race Theory

CRITICIZING CRITICAL RACE THEORY. US parents of all races are rising up against school boards that insist on teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT). One Virginia parent, Xi Van Fleet, compares CRT to the Chinese communist indoctrination she once endured.

Maoist China used “the same critical theories to divide people,” she said. “The only difference is that they use class instead of race. During the cultural revolution, I witnessed students and teachers turn against each other, we changed school names to be politically correct, we were taught to denounce our heritage. The red guards destroyed everything that is not communist … statues, books and anything else.”

Contrary to CRT and the 1619 Project, a Center for Education Policy study found that only 17% of school board members and 25% of parents nationally believe that schools should teach that the founding ideals of equality and liberty were false when written, and that history of the US must thus be reframed. Yet thousands of US schools teach CRT.

So does the federal government. On Inauguration Day, Joe Biden reversed President Trump’s ban on teaching CRT to federal workers.

CRT holds that the most important thing about you is your race, not your behavior or your values. If you belong to a minority race, systemic racism will not allow you to succeed, no matter your behavior or values. If you happen to be white, you are an exploiter, no matter your behavior or values.

Racism is not the answer to racism

No matter what you do, CRT criticizes it as racist one way or another. Therefore, CRT proponents practice the racism they denounce. And they also contradict themselves by allowing no criticism of critical race theory. A teacher who criticizes it will risk being fired by a pro-CRT school board.

CRT also contradicts the Constitution’s 14^th amendment. That clause mandates that individuals in similar situations be treated equally by the law. The US system works according to the Constitution, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and other similar laws. Therefore, we have systemic anti-racism. Anyone who practices racism by treating races differently is violating our system of laws.

Many countries have used the US Constitution as a model for their own constitutions. For example, every Belizean has the same “rights and freedom… whatever his race, place of origin, political opinions, colour, creed or sex” (II.3, Belize Constitution).

CRT proponents are not opposing systemic racism. They are producing systemic racism by establishing it in US school systems. Racism is not the answer to racism.

Martin Luther King would denounce CRT. He famously said that we should judge others not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Schools should build character, not build animosity by race-baiting. So let’s oppose racism in all its forms. And teach kids to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18).