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by Ian Wright
In this back to school season, millions of American students are returning to classrooms where the wrong course, lesson, or textbook can lead to deep trouble. Why? Because for the last several years, conservative activists and lawmakers have been waging a crusade against ācritical race theory,ā or CRT.
Critical race theoryĀ is an academic concept acknowledging that racism isnāt simply the result of individual prejudice but is also embedded in our institutions through laws, regulations, and rules.
As school districts haveĀ emphasized, itās a higher education concept rarely taught in K-12 schools. But cynical activists have used CRT as a catch-all term to target a broad range of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives ā and seemingly any discussion about race and racism in the classroom.
Since January 2021, 44 states have āintroduced bills or taken other steps that would restrict teaching critical race theory or limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism,ā according toĀ Education Weekly. And as of this writing, UCLA has identifiedĀ 807Ā anti-CRT ābills, resolutions, executive orders, opinion letters, statements, and other measuresā since September 2020.
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Bills that would have prohibited discussion of certain topics related to race and sex, forbid schools from awarding credit for student service learning with advocacy groups, and ban “any textbook, instructional material, or academic curriculum that promotes any divisive or inherently racist concept” all failed to pass during the 2021 and 2022 sessions.
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Critics claimĀ ā falsely ā that CRT teaches that all white people are oppressors, while Black people are simply oppressed victims. Many opponents claim it teaches white students to āhate their own race,ā or to feel guilty about events that happened before they were born.
In reality, CRT gives students of every race the tools to understand how our institutions treat people of different races unequally ā and how we can make those systems fairer. Thatās learning students of every race would be better off with.
But instead, this barrage of draconian legislation is having a chilling effect on speech in the classroom.
In 2022, Florida passed the āStop W.O.K.E. Act,ā which prohibits teaching that could lead to a student feeling ādiscomfortā because of their race, sex, or nationality. But the lawāsĀ vague languageĀ makes it difficult for educators to determine what they can or cannot teach, ultimately restricting classroom instruction. In my home state of Texas,Ā SB3Ā similarlyĀ restrictsĀ these classroom discussions.
Running afoul of these laws can get teachers and school administrators in trouble. As a result of this hostile environment, the RAND CorporationĀ foundĀ that two-thirds of K-12 school teachers have decided āto limit instruction about political and social issues in the classroom.ā
Notably, this self-censorship extendsĀ beyondĀ states with such policies: 55 percent of teachersĀ withoutĀ state or local restrictions on CRT have still decided to limit classroom discussions of race and history.
As a student, I find this distressing.
My high school history classes gave me a much richer understanding of race in our history, especially the discussions we had at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests. And in college, Iāve gotten to learn about racial inequalities in everything from housing and real estate to health care, politics, education, and immigration policy.
As a person of color, I canāt imagine where Iād be without this understanding. Neither white students nor students of color will benefit from laws designed to censor their understanding of history, critical thinking, and open dialogue in the classroom.
The fight against CRT is a fight against the principles of education that encourage us to question, learn, and grow. Rather than shielding students from uncomfortable truths, which they can certainly handle, we should seek to equip them with the knowledge to navigate the world, think critically about our history and institutions, and push for a more inclusive country.
This column was originally published atĀ OtherWords.org.
Ian Wright