Does teaching CRT (Critical race theory) make you Un-American??
In the past several months there’s been a controversy about teaching CRT in American schools. It has been such a hot topic of debate whereas teachers and school leaders can be terminated for teaching it. Why is there so much concern and debate on the topic? And if you do teach it or believe in it, does that make one Un-American?
For starters CRT, Critical race theory is in nutshell, a concept or idea that race is an issue seen in policies and legal systems in the United States. It’s over 40 years old and many scholars such as Derrick bell and Richard Delgado have wrote on it. If we look at the American legal systems and policies, it’s evidently clear that race has been an issue for a long time. For example, the Supreme Court case of Plessy vs Ferguson of 1896 made segregation legal in public places in our country. The Jim crow system of segregation in America systematically took away civil rights from most Black Americans in our country at this time. Many were killed just because they tried to vote or fought for equality.
We can look at Levittown New York, a suburban area built after World war II as another example. William Levitt built affordable homes for veterans in 1947 and it was stated in the lease that Blacks couldn’t live there. Even after the clause was dropped in 1948, they systematically stopped Blacks from moving in the neighborhood. So Black veterans who defended our country couldn’t live there. I remember in 1984, when my dad who was a veteran, tried to buy a house in Levittown. The realtor told him he couldn’t and came up with every excuse for him not to move there. The realtor asked him to look somewhere else and said he didn’t want to get in trouble. In another twisted irony, the US military was segregated up to 1946. Think of the fact that the US fought against Nazi Germany with a segregated army! We condemned the Germans for their treatment of Jewish, Gypsies Russians etc, yet Blacks were relegated to 2nd class citizenship!!!
There are other examples I can also include such as the 3/5 Compromise (Blacks were considered 3/5 when it came to representation) that was in our Constitution, or that interracial marriage was illegal in most states until the Supreme Court case Loving vs Virginia 1967. I can even mention the race riots and massacres that plagued our nation for years such as the ones in Tulsa Oklahoma and Rosewood Florida. In these massacres, Black upper class communities were burned to the ground. All the businesses they owned such as banks and hospitals were destroyed. Many times we try to ignore the past and many will say it’s Un-American when we bring up the past, but I totally disagree with that. It makes us better when we can admit to our mistakes!
Learning and discussing the flaws our country makes us better. We as a nation should understand this! Sweeping it under the rug as if it never happened makes it worse. I can still love my country despite our checkered past, and that is what concerns many. Many feel that we won’t be “patriotic" if we learn about the pain from the past. However, when one tries to ban certain facts from being taught, it just makes the situation worse! I know that opening up the past can be painful, but it helps in the mending process.
Despite all the evidence on how race has affected our nation, I still care for my country. I just feel we must teach the good with the negative as no nation is perfect. There was a time when Americans did not buy from South Africa due to its racist system of apartheid. We had a similar system in place so we must look in the mirror and see ourselves. Knowing our past helps us move forward. Think about it, nations such as Germany and South Africa had to see the mistakes they made before they moved forward. We must do the same!
