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Critical race theory (CRT) asserts
that racism is woven into the very fabric of our nation’s
institutions. This is not new information for those who have studied
how race affects our economy, politics, education, health care, and
more. CRT is not an attempt to "blame" white America for
its origins as much as it is a pedagogical approach to reality.
Through critical race theory, we can see the many ways that the
uneven application of laws allowed envious white people to destroy
Tulsa's Black Wall Street, colonizers to gentrify Black
neighborhoods, doctors to experiment on Black people and more. CRT
helps us understand how California stole parts of Mexico, Chinese
people were imported here (without wives or families) to build
railroads, and how our Constitution defined black folks as fractions
of people.
Attorney
and Professor Derrick Bell (1930-2011) wrote about the many ways our
racist gendered patriarch systematically oppressed Black people and
others at the periphery. He used both legal theory and fiction to
amplify his points. Critical race theory has been taught in our
nation's colleges and universities, and especially in our law
schools, for decades. Now white legislators are passing laws in
several states to outlaw the teaching of CRT because it hits too
close to home.
Much
of this legislation demonstrates how ignorant some of these
legislators are. It also illustrates how heated the battle for fact
and knowledge is. Some think the South won the Civil War, which they
describe as the war of “Northern Aggression”. Though the statues
are coming down, there are still those who believe those statues were
erected for heroism, not resistance to equality. And every time you
see a Confederate flag flying, you must know that hose stars and bars
were only added to state flags after Brown V. Board of Education
became law, and white Southerners wanted to communicate their
allegiance to racism.
The
legislators who oppose CRT also oppose knowledge. Now, their
fearlessly foolish conservative leaders are urging them to “take
over” the schools by running for school boards around the country.
Rich Lowry, the National Review Editor, wrote a piece, "The
Point of the Anti-CRT Fight Should Be To Take Over the Schools".
What he means is to take over young people's brains. Lowry is smart
enough to know that the historical whitewash conservatives are
attempting cannot withstand historical scrutiny. So he and his
conservative minions would instead inject their ideology into our
schools, using low-turnout, low-budget races to grab power.
Roland
S. Martin deserves credit for lifting this. He has been looking at
the damage school boards do for years. He says, and Lowry echoes, the
power school boards have. To choose book vendors. To shape the
curriculum. To select teachers and trainers. The anti-CRT crowd would
shut this down. But we also shut ourselves down when we get stuck at
the top of the ballot. It is essential to choose a President and
Vice=President, a Senator and Congressperson, and it is equally
important to select a zoning commissioner or a school board member.
Rich Lowry's piece makes it clear and makes it plain. He says that
"education is too important to be left to educators." He
wants rabid (he didn't say white, but I will) parents to run for
school boards and to use their passion to lock knowledge out.
So
this is my plea to woke, progressive Black folk. Please run for
school board. There are tens of thousands of Black women who have
retired from education. Would you please run for the school board?
There are young people of color who understand the flaws in the
education that was delivered to them. Please run for school board.
Some entrepreneurs decry the inadequate education that so many young
people bring when they apply for new jobs. Please run for school
board.
Many
of these posts can be won with a few hundred votes and a few thousand
dollars. The right-wing has their marching orders. We need to have
ours, too. We can serve our communities and our nation by standing up
for knowledge. Please run for school board.
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