Fact check: What is critical race theory?
Critical race theory -- a broad set of ideas about systemic bias and privilege -- might have its roots in legal academia, but it is fast becoming one of the more explosive flashpoints in America's state legislatures.
Posted — UpdatedFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, is pushing forward on a reworked civics education curriculum for K-12. For DeSantis, the new plan is as much on what it bans, as what it promotes.
Critical race theory — a broad set of ideas about systemic bias and privilege — might have its roots in legal academia, but it is fast becoming one of the more explosive flashpoints in America’s state legislatures.
Educators warn that they will have their intended effect — turning teachers ultra-cautious, confining their lessons to a limited view of American history and current events.
"This will scare a lot of school districts," said Columbia, Mo., high school social studies teacher Greg Simmons. "A lot of teachers don’t feel comfortable teaching around race anyway, and this will put a kibosh on all of that."
Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones, a South Florida Democrat and former public school teacher, said, "The crazy thing about this is, now critical race theory is not even taught in K-12 education."
Regardless, Republicans are pressing the issue.
What is critical race theory?
Critical race theory isn’t one set thing, but more a changing package of ideas.
The grandfather of the movement was Harvard Law School professor Derrick Bell, who in the mid-1970s voiced frustration at the limited impact of landmark civil rights laws and U.S. Supreme Court rulings of the previous decade. While those changes aimed to broaden access to high-quality education, jobs and housing, they fell short, he said. Laws remained embedded in a set of values and practices that discriminated against people of color, Bell said.
They said that the fundamental problem was the "distribution of political and economic power." And they defined their movement as one that was "race conscious" and was committed to change.
Critics often call the theory Marxist, and there is a tie. As Crenshaw and others wrote in 1995, a "collection on neo-Marxist and new Left activists" in law schools were part of the movement to challenge the ways American law served "to legitimize an oppressive social order." Far from every scholar was a Marxist, so the label is overly broad.
In plain terms, critical race theory holds that racism is part of a broader pattern in America: It is woven into laws, and it shows up in who gets a job interview, the sort of home loans people are offered, how they are treated by police, and other facets of daily life large and small.
What are the criticisms of critical race theory?
A central complaint of critical race theory is that, because it focuses on race, the approach is itself racist. Critics say it presents solely a negative picture of the United States and is designed to make students feel badly about their country.
The head of the Republican Study Committee, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said, "teaching students to be ashamed of our country and to judge each other based on their race is wrong and divisive." Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., added that it "aims to indoctrinate Americans into believing our nation is inherently evil."
Politicians aren’t the only ones who are concerned, however. New York University social psychology professor Jonathan Haidt raised a deep concern about the approach’s focus on power relationships
"It is a toolkit for examining and addressing racism and other forms of marginalization," they wrote.
Is it used in the classroom, and how do you know when it is?
Opponents of critical race theory suggest that the theory is pervasive, but that’s proven hard to pin down.
Elements of a race-conscious approach can appear in education policies, but not as part of a full package of critical race theory.
University of Missouri education professor LaGarrett King said the problem is blown out of proportion.
"The majority of teachers are not even familiar with what critical race theory is, nor do they teach it in their classrooms," King said.
"It’s a lens, but it’s just one of the things taught in that class," King said. "It doesn’t define the whole curriculum."
Does it say white people should feel guilty?
"The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, approved on July 4, 1776, proclaims that ‘all men are created equal’ and ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.’ But the white men who drafted those words did not believe them to be true for the hundreds of thousands of black people in their midst."
Missouri Rep. Brian Seitz, a Republican, singled out this effort in his bill to bar critical race theory in schools.
Emotional responses depend on the person, but there’s no intent to make anyone feel guilty, said Columbia, Mo., high school history teacher Simmons.
Simmons draws his students at Battle High School into researching uncomfortable topics, such as issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. Simmons said he can’t control how someone might react, but he doesn’t frame things in terms of guilt. And he uses his own education as an example.
"We need to be real with students and show them the complexities of the world," Simmons said. "I grew up in rural Missouri in a family that used the N-word. When I got to college, I took some history and Black studies classes. Those things opened my eyes to a world that I had no clue about. My instructor didn’t try to make me feel guilty. I took it as, things are messed up. Is there some way we can make them less messed up?"
That problem solving approach changed the fate of a Utah bill. A measure to ban critical race theory in that state’s schools was moving forward until Republican Gov. Spencer Cox blocked it. Cox said he was no fan of critical race theory, but he had another concern.
What are states doing?
Lawmakers in about a dozen states have introduced bills that target teaching that might be considered part of critical race theory. The details vary.
- "The United States is fundamentally racist or sexist."
- "An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously."
- "Any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex."
- "Meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by a particular race to oppress another race."
Simmons, the Missouri high school teacher, says what seems lost in the debate is the good that can come from discussing hard topics like race.
"I was raised to be racist and sexist," Simmons said. "That’s a bias that I had to work through. The kids I teach see the world differently. And they are much more accepting of anyone who is different in any way. They get it."
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