Recently, CRT has been at the forefront of discussion in Virginia schools. And it should be.
For the past year, school board meetings have been heated; parents calling for books to be pulled from library shelves, and classroom curriculums being criticized for teaching racial propaganda, and social theory.
As much as the left would like us to look the other way, it’s nearly impossible to ignore the harmful, anti-American redirect that CRT teaches.
Redirect like that of the 1619 project, by Nikole Hannah-Jones, have been one of the many books that teach anti-American ideas that are not backed by history. Essentially, the 1619 project is a retelling of the American revolution, and it’s essential claim is that the revolution was fought only to preserve slavery in North America.
This idea however, has been debunked by virtually every living historian, and even her own Newspaper, the New York Times had to debunk the theory.
But regardless, some Virginia schools have adopted this theory in it’s curriculum, even inviting it’s author, Nikole Hannah-Jones, to speak at high schools in DC.
With this came much controversy, and in November of last year, these issues came to the forefront of the Virginia Governor's race. Republican Glenn Youngkin, ran on protecting the right of students to have an unbiased education. His opposition however, Democrat Terry McAuliffe basically ensured Youngkin’s win, by declaring:
“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
That statement alone, ensured that suburban voters and parents would vote red this time around.
And sure enough, Youngkin won by a landslide. On his first day in office he signed a number of executive orders targeting Critical Race Theory, and masks in schools.
"Executive Order Number One delivers on his Day One promise to restore excellence in education by ending the use of divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory, in public education," a press release from his office.
Numerous articles followed suit from left leaning papers claiming that Youngkin, “Doesn’t understand critical race theory”. This, and dozens more enraged at the idea that kids receive unbiased education.
Even though this may sound like a big win for parents, the fight against CRT is not entirely over.
Recently, I took a deep dive into some of the books offered in Spotsylvania County schools, and I was astonished to find that some of the main proponents of CRT were still available.
Ibram x Kendi, a professor and “anti-racist activist”, has a book called “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You”. This book is in our k-12 library, under the ‘History of Racism” category. And what is truly astonishing is how anti-history Kendi, and his works actually are.
This book separates American society into three categories: Segregationists, Assimilationists, and Anti-racists.
It describes Segregationists as people who believe the white race are biologically superior to African-Americans. Assimilationists on the other hand, believe in biological equality and that all humans share a common ancestor.
Kendi goes on to explain how Assimilationists are subservient to the white race in that they suggest that inequality is not due to a system of oppression, but rather a series of factors like economic and cultural differences that would contradict the idea of systemic racism.
What is particularly eyebrow raising about Kendi’s definition of Assimilationists, is that he frames them as sort of counter to the Anti-racist movement, and to be truly against racism you have to ‘revolutionize’ against the government.
He explains that historical leaders like Abraham Lincoln, MLK, Frederick Douglas, W.E.B Dubois, and other civil rights leaders were actually harmful to the black community. Kendi goes even further, explaining these figures as “cowards”.
To Kendi, Assimilationists are essentially go-along, get-along types who “think there is something wrong with Black people and … that “Black people as a group can be changed for the better.”
Kendi’s fashionable paragons of antiracism, are notorious communist Angela Davis and the self-acclaimed Marxist co-founders of Black Lives Matter, who want to do away with the nuclear family and the “tight grip of heteronormative thinking.”
Kendi goes on to assassinate American society throughout his book, and reframe American history in a series of fragmented talking points that suggest that all areas of society are designed to discriminate against black Americans.
To Kendi, the ideal “anti racist” is someone that devotes their entire life to activism. Someone with Marxist ideals, and prejudice against aforementioned groups of people like assimilationists, which he even attributes to black conservatives, like Candace Owens.
These ideas are harmful.
This also raises many questions about how effective the Governors ban on CRT really is. Is it time to let the parents weed out such harmful pieces of literature, like Kendi’s book from our libraries?
And if so, we should start with banning ALL proponents of this hateful theory, like Ibram X Kendi, and his works. As a student, there is nothing more harmful to our education, than purposeful attempts by leftist ideologues to reframe our history and divide us by race.
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