This is an editorial piece written for our local paper in Murray, KY.
Well, here we go again!
Republicans are currently creating great fear by hysterically attacking “critical race theory” (CRT). This term is an academic way of saying that racial discrimination has been around for centuries in the United States and has become embedded our social and political institutions and policies.
However, many Republicans and rightists want you to believe that the notion of racial inequality and systemic discrimination by whites against blacks and other people of color, is really not much of a problem, but a Marxist inspired plot to turn whites against blacks and create turmoil.
We all really get along pretty well with each other, these critics of CRT say, despite a few unwarranted killings and traffic stops by a few “bad cops” here and there. We have laws on the books against discrimination in banking, housing, education, and other areas of public life. There really isn’t any bias built into our social, political, or financial structures, they say, and all this talk about “systemic racism” just divides us.
As evidence that I am not being too sarcastic, I present as evidence of this new right-wing fear-spreading tactic a proposal by three Kentucky legislators to “ban teaching critical race theory in Kentucky,” according to a headline on the front page of the June 8 edition of the Ledger & Times.
Representative Joe Fischer (R-Fort Thomas), and fellow Republican Representatives Matt Lockett of Nicholasville, and Jennifer Decker of Waddy will introduce legislation in the 2022 General Assembly of Kentucky to prevent the teaching of critical race theory (by which they mean the history of racism) in all public schools and universities.
Lockett’s comment was intriguing: “Those who subscribe to critical race theory are more interested in labeling people, dividing them into categories, and pitting them against each other than they are [in] actually addressing important issues like racism.”
He then adds that he wants to ban teaching that: “one race, sex, or religion is inherently superior to another race, sex or religion” and that “an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race, sex, or religion.”
These statements are irony, defined by my dictionary as “a state of affairs [or words, in this case] that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is [thus] often amusing as a result.”
Lockett also is engaging in what I have heard psychologists call “projection”—accusing others of what you yourself believe or do. Haven’t many white Americans for centuries regarded black Americans as “inherently inferior”? Wasn’t this one of the justifications of slavery? Even after slavery officially ended, didn’t white leaders, especially in the American south, pit poor whites against blacks in order to prevent any collaboration between the two groups during the Progressive Movement of the late 19th and early 20thcenturies?
Lockett and his colleagues should choke on their words as they claim that people who support teaching about racism believe that “an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race, sex, or religion.” Discrimination by whites against blacks has been blatant throughout American history, both before and after slavery. Lockett’s colleague Decker’s comment is even more unbelievable: “Frankly, teaching that one race or sex is superior to another is insulting and dangerous.”
It certainly is! But to have the effrontery to try to shift your behavior and beliefs onto your political enemies is even more “insulting and dangerous.”
During the Obama administration, right-wing leaders worked insistently to convince us that Obama was really a Muslim born in another country; later Donald Trump worked hard to convince his followers that the 2020 election was stolen.
Many Democrats were initially bemused by these tactics, certain that sensible, thinking voters would see though such outrageous statements.
They were wrong. These statements were not silly distractions. These lies convinced millions.
And Democrats will be wrong again if they do not strongly and repeatedly condemn these lies about racism in America.
These tactics by the Republican right-wing are distortions of both history and the truth; they could pave the way for authoritarian rule—beware!