Why Should Lawmakers Legislate Against Critical Race Theory?

After the killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, riots raged in numerous cities and gripped the attention of the nation. According to an article published at The Daily Signal by Jonathan Butcher and GianCarlo Canaparo, critical race theory also gripped the nation. “According to Google Trends, the search term peaked in June 2021, then interest tapered off going into 2022.” However, “the radical philosophy has not disappeared from public life.” 

What is critical race theory? It claims that “racism is the cause of every negative event in politics, education, economics, and culture.” It teaches “ideas such as diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI]; microaggressions; and white privilege.” These “creatures of critical race theory … trace back to the Marxist claim that the world is defined by racial power struggles.”

K-12 education remains a crucial part of the national conversation on how the theory is teaching young people to consider themselves victims instead of individuals responsible for their own choices and decisions.

For example, policymakers in California and Minnesota have made “intersectionality” – critical race theory’s idea that we are oppressed in intersecting ways, based on our race, sex, and other immutable characteristics – a central component of their states’ ethnic studies curriculum.

This is horrible! Children should be taught that choices and decisions have consequences and that they can overcome “victimhood” by making good choices. However, this teaching is strategic: “The now-deceased critical race theory scholar Derrick Bell wrote that he hoped the theory would inspire academic ‘resistance’ to America’s ideals of freedom and equality under the law, which would lead to wide-scale ‘resistance.’”

In other words, Bell was hoping that critical race theory would undermine and lead to the destruction of the Constitution of the United States. I do not believe that most Americans support such a terrible idea, particularly if they truly understand what it is and its purpose.

Not all state lawmakers are allowing this radical movement to march through their educational institutions, however. In a review of the laws adopted in 14 states since 2020, we found staunch rejection of the use of critical race theory in K-12 schools. The work is not finished, even in many of those states, however. Earlier this year, a federal judge overturned a law adopted by New Hampshire officials that was meant to prevent the theory from spreading racial discrimination in the state’s elementary and secondary schools. The judge said that key provisions in the law were not well-defined, sending lawmakers back to the drawing board.

State lawmakers should continue to pursue proposals that reject critical race theory, but they must be specific about what they are prohibiting.

State policymakers should prohibit the application of the theory in the form of compelled speech and mandatory racial affinity groups and other clear examples of racial discrimination….

Lawmakers should prohibit school officials from forcing students and teachers to defend, affirm, or profess ideas that come from critical race theory as a condition of enrollment, course completion, hiring, retention, or promotion.

State policymakers should also ban the sort of discriminatory conduct that critical race theorists deem appropriate – but that are, in fact, racist – to fulfill their discriminatory aims….

A law is on much stronger legal ground when it protects someone from being forced to say something that it is when it prohibits them from saying something. Instead of “banning” critical race theory from classrooms, state education officials should update K-12 academic standards to discuss the institution of slavery in 19^th century America, the failure of Reconstruction efforts after the Civil War, ad the Jim Crow era. At the same time, educators should explain the significance of the end of systemic racism, both legally and culturally, through federal civil rights laws.

Critical race theory’s racist ideas – DEI, intersectionality, and more – are lessons from the “school of resentment” as literary critic Harold Bloom said. Children need to be taught to aspire to something, not resent everything.

I agree with the authors that children should be taught to look for the positive things in life. When they look on the bright side of life – their cup is half full and there is a silver lining to their dark clouds – they will be happier and find more enjoyment in life. I also agree that it is essential that lawmakers in all the states reject the teaching of critical race theory in schools.