Critical race theory (12 Viewers)

[DaveXA]

Frankly, I'm completely ignorant when it comes to the Critical Race Theory curriculum. What is it, where does it come from, and is it legitimate? Has anyone here read it and maybe give a quick summary?

If this has been covered in another thread, then I missed it.

 

[Farb]

Detroit superintendent says district was 'intentional' about 'embedding' CRT into schools

A Detroit Public Schools superintendent said the district would be “embedding critical race theory” into the curriculum because “students need to understand the truth of history. ”Dr. Nikolai Vitti, the superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District, said during a school board...

komonews.com

In this article it says

@Farb, so my question is, are they teaching it or are they gonna teach it? He comments are conflicting.

When in doubt, watch the video and hear his words. But language is fluid now and changes hourly so who know?

 

[cuddlemonkey]

I am so confused. Is it taught or not in K-12? I keep hearing it a racist 'dog whistle' for conservatives and not being taught, then I hear it is necessary and good thing because it is 'accurate history', then it isn't really being taught, just kind of wrapped in the misery of gender theory?

Here is my theory, it is being taught right along with the mentally challenged gender theory and the alt-left does not know how to react when it was put out in the open and parents, as they should, had a massive push back. Now the alt-left is still trying to figure out how to fight this for the mid-terms with many propaganda outlets of the Dems are kind of feeling their way to find a suitable hill to make a stand on. Honestly, I have not seen the alt-left so disorganized in their defense. You guys are usually spot on and able to regurgitate the talking points. It is like the curtain was pulled back on the wizard.

Try to do better. This is messed up.

 

[JRad]

There are 70 pages on this thread. Check out the article I posted yesterday that quoted an actual superintendent in a meeting discussing his oppisition to possible legislation being passed to stop CRT being taught. Then look back on the last 73 pages from anyone other than you guys posts. There are screen shots of district websites, links to companies that peddle the racist propaganda and their contracts to school districts.

Does it matter anyway? No matter what is posted, the goal posts will shift, as they are now. Unless you guys hear it on CNN directly from Lemons mouth, you all won't believe it.

I don't watch cable news. CNN being some bastion of information to anyone who challenges or disagrees with you is just more nonsense you are fed.

Again, that superintendent thing does not predate this thread. Where is the proof CRT was running rampant before it became a talking point?

 

[MT15]

There are 70 pages on this thread. Check out the article I posted yesterday that quoted an actual superintendent in a meeting discussing his oppisition to possible legislation being passed to stop CRT being taught. Then look back on the last 73 pages from anyone other than you guys posts. There are screen shots of district websites, links to companies that peddle the racist propaganda and their contracts to school districts.

Does it matter anyway? No matter what is posted, the goal posts will shift, as they are now. Unless you guys hear it on CNN directly from Lemons mouth, you all won't believe it.

You actually have a lot of nerve to complain about goalposts shifting. It’s your side that has shifted the meaning of CRT and even bragged about doing it. You have learned the art of projection very well, though, I have to give you that. Always accuse the other side of what you yourself are doing.

Oh, and I cannot remember the last time I watched CNN. I do watch some cable news, but I do it with a critical eye, and don’t generally believe what I hear without doing further reading.

 

[MT15]

It’s super frustrating to deal with the right’s gaslighting. They take terms or words that have actual meanings and then just start using them, incorrectly, to denote something else. And it’s not helpful when people who disagree start using the terms incorrectly also, just to try to communicate with them. I’m thinking of the word “socialist” and the term CRT.

CRT is and always has been a graduate school level theory that deals with race, law and society. It isn’t and never will be taught in primary or secondary schools. What is being done in primary and secondary schools is more likely to be diversity and inclusion activities. But it’s much easier to rail against something called critical race theory than to rail against diversity and inclusion. And when educators and so forth give in and start using CRT to describe diversity and inclusion, the right wins.

It’s exactly the same with the word socialism. The right is deliberately conflating socialism with a subset of democrats who identify as social democrats. They are all capitalists, just with more emphasis on the social safety net. And the Rs cynically label all democrats as socialists, knowing that is a false and bogus way to use the word. To the point where a major network anchor actually looked at Kamala Harris sternly and asked “are you a socialist?”. Harris did the correct thing and said “No!” while laughing in her face. To the point where a young service member in my extended family who was sent to one of the Scandinavian countries thought he was in a Socialist nation. To the point where Elizabeth Warren had to reiterate that she is a capitalist in a network interview.

I hate the way they cynically do this sort of propaganda. It’s evil and hurts our country.

 

[Farb]

Always accuse the other side of what you yourself are doing.

That is my line!

 

[insidejob]

Did I? Prove it.

Oh, but I do know what it is. My grandchildren will understand racism. They won't need a 'teacher' to indoctrinate them into the racist ideology.

 

[Optimus Prime]

North Dakota school district superintendent sent an email that says racial injustice is being pushed by a "political ideology," called for a "Christ centered Republic" and deemed critical race theory "bigotry cloaked in academic theory," according to InForum.

The news service, which obtained a copy of the email that was sent to a North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders-run listserv, reported that in Starkweather Public School District Superintendent Larry Volk's email, he said that it was "time to move away from godless corrupt woke, left-wing ideology and back to the devout Christ centered Republic the founders envisioned."

Volk also vowed in his email that critical race theory "will never be taught in our district. We will not teach institutionalized bigotry promoted by the left.".........

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[MT15]

Further examples of how racism has been perpetuated by systems through today. Assessors today, by treating black neighborhoods the same as white neighborhoods and ignoring the past effects of redlining, have ensured that black homeowners pay more than their share of property taxes. So for those who maintain that black people no longer suffer the effects of racism, and those who deny that systemic racism exists, this is complete refutation of your views.

‘The values of black-owned homes tend to grow more slowly than values of white-owned ones. The white people who make up the vast majority of home buyers tend to avoid black neighborhoods, which cuts black sellers off from many potential buyers. That can drive down the sale price of black-owned homes.

Given that difference in price appreciation, if an assessor assumes a black-owned home gains value as quickly as a white-owned home, the assessed value of the black-owned home will quickly outstrip its market value. Every year, the black family pays more in property taxes, even though the sales price of its home is not increasing as quickly. Nearby white families benefit from the opposite trend: Their homes increase in value more rapidly than their assessments, giving them an ever-growing tax break.’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/02/black-property-tax/

If you are a visual learner, these illustrations may help:

 

[MT15]

BTW: my post above is what CRT actually is talking about, at least partially. That the effects of racism, never eradicated after the civil war, have taken root in our society, and continue to affect black people today.

 

[Devildog]

The current GQP thinks that anything being taught about racism from slavery to the 1960s and beyond is CRT. They want to end all of it and whitewash (pun intended) everything bad that has happened since the founding of our country.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Article about a liberal teacher in a very conservative community
==========================================

KINGSPORT, Tenn. — Matthew Hawn checked his phone to see if the wait was finally over.

It had been five months since he was fired for teaching about White privilege at a high school in rural Tennessee. Two months since he had fought to regain his job at an emotional three-day hearing, becoming a symbol of the acrimonious debate over the way race, racism and history should be taught in America’s schools.

Now — nothing. No announcements from the school district about his appeal effort. No messages from his lawyer. No texts from the friends and former colleagues who had sustained him through a lonely half-year of jobless limbo.

Could he return to teaching in his hometown? Apparently no one knew, although an independent hearing officer was supposed to deliver a verdict by the end of the week.........

A lifelong resident of Kingsport, Hawn was well aware his liberal views made him an outlier in his overwhelmingly White, mostly conservative community. But that had never mattered before. He had taught in the Sullivan County school system for 16 years without any trouble. And he had taught the class that got him fired, “Contemporary Issues,” for nearly a decade without a single parent complaint.

Then at the start of last school year, he made a pronouncement during a discussion about police shootings that would derail his career. White privilege, he told his nearly all-White class, is “a fact.”

Hawn apologized after at least one parent objected. But a few months later, he assigned the Ta-Nehisi Coates essay “The First White President,” spurring more parent complaints. This time school officials issued a letter of reprimand to Hawn for one-sided teaching.

After that, Hawn promised to stay away from the topic. But in late April, a student mentioned White privilege during a class discussion about the trial of Derek Chauvin — the White Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd by kneeling on the Black man’s neck — and Hawn could not help himself. He navigated to YouTube and pulled up “White Privilege,” a scathing and profane four-minute poetry performance by Kyla Jenée Lacey.

“Oh, am I making you uncomfortable?” the Black writer demands at one point. “Try a cramped slave ship.”

“I will probably get fired for showing this,” Hawn joked before hitting play. Less than a month later, he was.

His firing comes amid a tsunami of conservative outrage about critical race theory, an academic framework for examining systemic racism in the United States that educators contend is rarely taught in public schools.

Hawn said he’d never heard of critical race theory until he was accused of teaching it......

The general hostility to liberal ideas did not bother Hawn. He loved teaching teens like Simcox and Thomas, or spending his free periods arguing with cocksure kids like Robinette. The students reminded him of himself.

Hawn had been a Young Republican as a teenager, so devoted he rose extra early each morning to watch Rush Limbaugh. He grew up believing that everybody has the same opportunity in the United States and that anyone who fails did not work hard enough.

His political transformation began during the Iraq War, shortly after he graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a degree in finance. Judging the conflict unnecessary, he started looking for other perspectives and wound up reading about everything from the Black Panther movement to universal health care. He thinks his Type I diabetes — he was diagnosed at age 13 — also contributed to his shift to liberalism, because it led him to empathize with other people’s pain..........

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[SamAndreas]

The CRT outrage reminds me of what they did to the word liberal when I was a kid. The word liberal did eventually recover it's original meaning and acceptability in everyday conversations, but it took a long time.

They did it to the word socialist too but I don't think that word has recovered, or ever will. I'm born and raised into the largest socialist movement in America. We are socialists, but we have enough sense to not call ourselves socialists.

This is our symbol and trademark, you've probably seen it before:

 

[Optimus Prime]

Hogan has his sights on the White House, we'll see how Maryland's campaign compares to Virginia's
==================================

John B. King Jr. released his first campaign ad in Maryland’s Democratic primary race for governor on Monday, addressing critical race theory and calling systemic racism “the truth.”

King’s ad highlights his family’s ascension from slavery to his post in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet and draws contrasts with conservative leaders who have decried critical race theory as bigoted.

“Some far-right politicians want to erase my story,” he says.

The 60-second Web ad, backed by what King’s campaign said was a “six-figure” media purchase, builds on his campaign theme of using education to bridge gaps in wealth, justice and health that put many of Maryland’s Black families at a disadvantage. In the ad, King says “the truth” is that those gaps “are tied to the history of slavery.”

“As a teacher, school principal, and President Obama’s secretary of education, I know that truth matters,” King says in the ad. “We’re strong enough to acknowledge injustice and see the power of progress.”

Conservatives have elevated critical race theory — an intellectual movement that examines the way policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism — into a flash point in the country’s culture wars. It has become a shorthand for teaching the legacy of systemic racism in schools and rallied voters to Republican candidates, notably with the election of Glenn Youngkin (R) as governor in Virginia............

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

good article
=============

During Virginia’s governor’s race this year, Rakelle Mullenix read and watched countless news stories about the fervor among parents over the teaching of critical race theory and about racism in local schools. “I was addicted to the coverage,” says the 46-year-old mother of two from Annandale, Va.


And there was so much of it, from the commercial featuring a mother saying that her son was brought to tears when he had to read a book (it’s not named in the ad, but she’s referencing “Beloved,” Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about formerly enslaved people), to footage of angry parents besieging Loudoun County School Board meetings over the theory’s alleged inclusion in curriculum, to debate on whether children are too young to learn about racism or discuss race at all.

Mullenix read and watched it all. But she says that in the media discussion of how Black parents and their stories fit into what children learn about American history, she didn’t see actual Black parents, like herself.

“It seems as though Black and Brown voices were ignored, and the voices were centered on White parents and their concerns,” Mullenix says. “I’m constantly hearing, ‘Oh, no, suburban women, suburban moms and their vote.' And when I look around me and see these suburban moms and housewives, a lot of them look like me. But when I hear the conversations on the news, it doesn’t sound like they’re talking about me.”

Excluding the opinions of families like Mullenix’s, who bear the effects of racial history and bias in a different way than most of those they saw interviewed, omits half the story, she and others say. Many feel left out of the conversation that is, essentially, about them and their children.

So how do they feel about the supposed teaching of CRT? The banning of books about slavery and race? The conversations about when and how to discuss race and slavery?

“They say, ‘Our children are too young to hear about racism.’ Who is ‘our’ children?” says Caron LeNoir, 48, a mother of three with an eighth-grader in Charlottesville public schools. “I don’t remember a day of my life when I wasn’t taught about racism, or learning about it through just existing. Our children, meaning Black children, have had to be taught different ways to stay safe to maneuver through the world.”

One of the things that LeNoir and other parents interviewed for this story are frustrated by is a sometimes deliberate misunderstanding of CRT, the study of how racism is a systemic part of the societal framework. It is mostly taught in graduate and law school.

“I had never heard of it because we don’t teach it in K-12,” says Woodbridge, Va., high school teacher and mother Tracey Hairston, 51. “I know for sure that in Virginia it isn’t taught.”

That critics could have looked up the curriculum their kids are taught on the state’s Department of Education site before protesting at school board meetings and giving impassioned interviews, but didn’t, is proof that “there was a fake fire that was set, a political ploy,” she says. “They’re crying wolf about something that’s not there. Why is there protection needed against something that doesn’t exist?”

“It’s a disinformation campaign,” offers Hairston’s husband, Brian, 48. “The first step is to make people distrust the government and real information. That allows the disinformation to seep in, to move toward a more authoritarian regime, and incur the angry White voter base.”............

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[MT15]

That is a good article, it’s just a bit late. Where was this coverage while the damage was being done? Better late than never though, I suppose.

 

[SamAndreas]

That is a good article, it’s just a bit late. Where was this coverage while the damage was being done? Better late than never though, I suppose.

It is a good article and hat tip to Optimus Prime for posting it. Quoting two statements from it to illustrate not a mistake in the fabric of the article, but a mistake in how we're attempting to oppose the misinformation campaign the conservative wing is pulling on us:

"So how do they feel about the supposed teaching of CRT?" and "One of the things that LeNoir and other parents interviewed for this story are frustrated by is a sometimes deliberate misunderstanding of CRT, the study of how racism is a systemic part of the societal framework. It is mostly taught in graduate and law school."​

It's a mistake to try to say it doesn't exist even if it's true, that approach feeds rather than starves a conspiracy theory. Life is terribly unfair.

What I propose instead is to substitute something we do want taught in grade schools, damn the torpedoes, proceed forward under full steam unabashed and unashamed.

All that leaves is deciding what we want taught to the grade schoolers, what we can go to school board meetings with to fight for. We got a fight on our hands, so lets fight for something instead of trying to explain to nutters that something doesn't exist. We can't win a fight explaining that something doesn't exist.

So I think what should fill in the blank for to stand in for CRT and be what we do want being taught in grade school is the 1619 project, if has the advantage of existing and it is readily available and accessible. It is something which can be explained to grade school kids.

Here's what I'm talking about teaching to grade school age kids at school:

The 1619 Project Curriculum

The 1619 Project Curriculum

The 1619 Project Curriculum in Lesson Plan Grouping - The 1619 Project, inaugurated with a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, challenges us to reframe U.S. history by marking the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as our nation's foundational date. Here you...

pulitzercenter.org

The 1619 Project, inaugurated with a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, challenges us to reframe U.S. history by marking the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as our nation's foundational date. Here you will find reading guides, activities, and other resources to bring The 1619 Project into your classroom. Wondering where to start? Dive into our Reading Guide.

 

[MT15]

I actually agree with you here. Going on offense is infinitely better.

I liked Max Rose’s recent comment when asked about what his opponent had done that he would disagree with, and he said “besides supporting an insurrection?”