Article by Tyler O'Neil in PJMedia
Critical Race Theory Has Sparked a Civil War in American Education
On Tuesday, an upstate New York school board meeting almost descended into a brawl after a school board member called a father an “a**hole” and tried to punch him. On the same day, an English teacher at a private New Jersey prep school announced she would resign due to “the hostile culture of conformity and fear that has taken hold of our school.” Also on the same day in Virginia, a teacher encouraged parents, students, and teachers to revolt against the ideology that is creeping into her school district.
These episodes and many others like them illustrate how Marxist critical race theory (CRT) has sparked a civil war in American education. While school boards, administrators, and many teachers have launched a coup to teach CRT in classrooms, many parents, teachers, and leaders are fighting back. While this conflict may break down along political lines, CRT represents a rejection of America’s highest ideals and liberals should join conservatives in opposing it.
CRT justifies blatant racism in the name of promoting “equity.” One of its architects has even supported racial discrimination to counter historic discrimination and has called for a totalitarian bureaucracy to enforce his vision of “equity.” This new racism masquerades as “anti-racist,” but it judges people according to the color of their skin, not the content of their character.
Marxist thinkers invented critical race theory (CRT) in order to upend society by claiming that hidden racism pervades American institutions. CRT teaches people to seize on any racial disparity as ipso facto proof of racial discrimination, despite the clear prohibitions on racial discrimination in federal law. Advocates claim that the American status quo is racist — if not “white supremacist” — so extreme measures to reverse historic injustices are the only “anti-racist” option.
Since American society must be secretly racist, CRT advocates attribute various aspects of society to the nefarious impact of “whiteness.” The Smithsonian briefly published a “teaching tool” infographic on “whiteness.” That infographic claimed that the nuclear family, science, capitalism, the Judeo-Christian tradition, individualism, “objective, rational linear thinking,” and even values such as “be polite” are aspects of oppressive whiteness. The Smithsonian rightly removed the graphic after facing criticism, but this incident illustrates just how mainstream CRT has become.
CRT has led teachers and authors to make comments about white people that would be universally condemned if directed against any other race.
CRT proponents equate “whiteness” with racial oppression, subtly branding all white people racist oppressors. Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes, an associate professor of practical theology at Mercer University, published a devotional that included a prayer asking God to “please help me to hate white people. Or at least to want to hate them.”
Dr. Aruna Khilanani, a psychiatrist who gave a lecture at the Yale University School of Medicine, said that “white people are out of their minds,” describing them as “demented, violent predators.” She openly discussed her “fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body, and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step. Like I did the world a f***ing favor.” Yale condemned her remarks, two months after she delivered them.
Last week, an Amazon driver violently attacked a white woman who had been waiting for her package. The woman received a notification that her package had arrived, so she went to the front door of her apartment complex but failed to see the package. She asked Ramirez, who was wearing an Amazon vest, about the package.
Ramirez told the woman she would have the package shortly, but the woman reportedly waited for about 15 minutes in the lobby. When she asked Ramirez about the package again, the driver reportedly told her to “check her white privilege.” The woman reportedly said, “Well, you don’t have to be a b***h about it.” As she started walking away, Ramirez punched her from behind, hitting her in the face and breaking her nose.
PJ Media’s Kevin Downey, Jr. noted that black offenders murder twice as many white victims as white offenders murder black victims, a statistic that is wildly out of proportion given the fact that white people outnumber black people 5 to 1. Downey also noted that Colin Flaherty has written three books about how the legacy media not only ignores black-on-white crime but also claims that white people are oppressing and attacking black people.
CRT also inspired much of the destruction of the Black Lives Matter and antifa riots last summer. While many Americans protested after the death of George Floyd, many of those protests devolved into arson and looting. In a tragic irony, this violence in the name of helping black people destroyed black lives, black livelihoods, and black monuments.
This nefarious ideology is spreading in America’s schools. When a superintendent in Oregon said CRT-style “anti-racism” training “isn’t optional anymore” and suggested that teachers who disagree should seek work elsewhere, school board members defended him, as did the Oregon Department of Education.
The New York school board meeting that almost descended into a brawl involved the passage of CRT-based curriculum and the hiring of a new employee who would push CRT in the name of “equity.” The New Jersey prep school teacher who resigned said she did so because her school had embraced CRT. The Virginia teacher spoke out because Loudoun County Schools has pushed CRT in the classroom.
Parents, teachers, voters, and elected officials should unite to fight the divisive and dangerous ideology of critical race theory that is making inroads in America’s schools. Parents are leading a counter-revolution against this woke CRT coup, and Americans of all stripes should join them. CRT has started this civil war in American classrooms, but this nefarious ideology cannot have the last word.
