What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Harmful?

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is critical race theory. Three days ago, on January 18, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis condemned critical race theory and said that there was “no room” for it in the classrooms in Florida. 

Florida’s civics curriculum will incorporate foundational concepts with the best materials and it will expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like critical race theory and other unsubstantiated theories….

Let me be clear: There is no room in our classrooms for things like critical race theory…. Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money.

DeSantis said that Florida “will invest in actual, solid, true curriculum and we will be a leader in the development and implementation of a world-class civics education.” DeSantis proposed spending $106 million to support the teaching of civics in the state. He proposed devoting $16.5 million to training teachers and principals in civics education. This amount included $3,000 to every teacher who becomes credentialed in teaching civics. Another $6.5 million would pay for developing partnerships between schools and governments to interest students in public service. In addition, $17 million would pay for developing civics curricula, a curriculum that would not include critical race theory.

DeSantis and Florida are not the only Americans concerned about critical race theory. The Heritage Foundation held a virtual event on January 11, 2021, titled “The New Intolerance: Critical Race Theory and Its Grip on America.” According to The Heritage Foundation, “Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become one of the dominant paradigms of our age, making race the sole prism through which proponents analyze all aspects of the American experience.”

Jarrett Stepman of The Heritage Foundation reviewed the webinar in an article titled “Critical Race Theory Infiltrates Government, Classrooms.” He stated that critical race theory is “an ideology that has dropped deep roots into America’s most powerful institutions [and] is opposed to the very foundation of Western civilization. He also wrote that the webinar explains “what critical race theory is, how pervasive it has become, and what needs to be done to stop it.” Stepman introduced the four panel members and summarized their presentations as follow. Critical Race Theory Infiltrates Government, Classrooms (dailysignal.com)

Mike Gonzalez is a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation. He is also the author of The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free. Gonzalez explained how critical theory developed in Germany in the 1930s and further developed into critical race theory in the 1970s. “Critical race theory combines Marxist theories of oppressor versus oppressed with the lens of race. It ultimately defines all history and human interactions as a perpetual racial conflict.” [With this kind of garbage being taught in the schools and universities, there is little question about why the United States cannot get past the race problem.]

Jonathan Butcher is a senior education analyst at The Heritage Foundation. He is the co-author with Gonzalez of a paper on critical race theory. He explained why this theory is dangerous for the future of America. “Critical race theory and its parent, critical theory, are rooted in a worldview that wants to dismantle social and governmental norms.” Butcher warned that we should not “ignore the intolerance and ‘dogmas’ of critical theory” even though “racism and other prejudices still and will continue to exist.”

[He continued,] “Critical theory is not a sympathetic perspective with policy goals that lead to racial reconciliation, freedom, and opportunity…. It’s talking about subjugation and retribution.”

Butcher further explained that proponents of critical theory acknowledge that America was founded on “the values of the Enlightenment and classical liberalism” and that critical theory ideas counter those values.

Christopher Rufo is the director of the Center on Wealth and Poverty at Discovery Institute as well as a fellow at The Heritage Foundation. He explained that the critical race theory ideas are not confined to the margins of academia, but they are “pervasive in countless private and governmental institutions.”

In conducting research into human resource departments and governmental agencies that are increasingly reliant on critical race theory, Rufo found the following:

The National Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico was holding a critical race theory-based training in which they took their white male executives to a resort and forced them to go through a series of trainings to deconstruct their white male identity, which was consonant with the [Ku Klux Klan], MAGA hats, mass killings.

They then had to publicly condemn themselves and write letters of apology for their “whiteness.”

The [Federal Bureau of Investigation] was holding intersectionality training for FBI employees, the Justice Department was teaching the tenets of critical race theory, and even the Treasury Department was holding training sessions outlining how the United States was a fundamentally racist and irredeemable country.

The research completed by Rufo led to President Donald Trump signing an executive order to ban these trainings in the federal government. [President Joe Biden signed an executive order that cancelled the one signed by Trump.]

Lindsey Burke is the director of the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. She said that the ideas about critical race theory have spread from the fountains at colleges and universities. She suggested that parents and other interested adults should pay attention to local school boards because they shape the curriculum in classrooms nationwide.

            What can be done to stop the spread of critical race theory? In a report by Burke and Gonzalez, they explained “how interest groups are able to lean on school boards and get material, like The New York Times’ 1619 Project, into classrooms.” Burke suggested that “State lawmakers should require public school boards to make curricular materials available for public review.” She had other suggestions for countering critical race theory.

Those in churches and community groups, in the workplace, I would cast a very careful eye to things that go under the guise of diversity trainings…. I think that anything that is casting accusations or calling people to apologize for simply their identification or their category, that removes hope. You are what you are born into.

            It is obvious that critical theory and critical race theory are pervasive in schools, private businesses, and government institutions. These theories are the opposite of the ideas upon which America was founded. If such theories and concepts are allowed to spread, they will destroy America as it has been for more than 230 years.

Critical theory and critical race theory must be rooted out of our nation as quickly as possible, and the best way to get rid of them is to expose them. I encourage all my readers to listen to the webinar and learn all that you can about these dangerous theories. Then you should do all that you can to spread the information to your family, friends, and neighbors. Another thing that you can do is to find and support conservative members of the school board.