This is an opinion cartoon.
From what I gather about critical race theory, it serves to tell the inner truth about race in our country’s history. This obscure academic concept is more complicated than that, but conservatives are turning the perceived threat of CRT into the next boogeyman to thwart any discussion of American racial history in schools.
Related: What is critical race theory and how could banning it impact Alabama? We asked an expert
Never mind for now the confusion of CRT (read more about it on above link and at the end of this post.)
The bigger question: Why shouldn’t we tell the truth about American history? Don’t sugarcoat it. Don’t whitewash the elephant in the room. Give it to us straight.
Who can’t handle the truth?
Alabama lawmakers, of course. No surprise. Many of the same still think Trump won the election.
State Rep. Chris Pringle (R-Mobile), was in such a hurry to ban CRT he pre-filed the bill before he even knew what it was.
Related: Whitmire: Alabama lawmaker wants to ban critical race theory. So I asked him what it is.
Read more: Johnson: Ivey needs to go back to school.
Read more: Alabama state school board: Keep critical race theory out of classrooms.
Related: Tuberville joins efforts to oppose schools ‘1619 Project’ on teaching racism in American history
Doesn’t matter that CRT is nowhere to be seen in Alabama schools. It’s not being taught in K-12 anywhere. It’s time to nip it in the bud! Right now! Before the unvarnished truth about our history slithers into our kids’ brains and turns them all into America-hating zombies.
Our goober lawmakers may not be able to handle the truth. But our future leaders deserve to know the truth. And our educators should be allowed to teach the truth.
“Nothing but the truth can cure racism.” - Rev. Robert Turner
Roy S. Johnson: The true legacy of Black Wall Street? I lived it; my father, a massacre witness, embodied it
Just what is critical race theory anyway?
Excerpts from Edweek.org:
Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.
The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.
A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas.
This academic understanding of critical race theory differs from representation in recent popular books and, especially, from its portrayal by critics—often, though not exclusively, conservative Republicans. Critics charge that the theory leads to negative dynamics, such as a focus on group identity over universal, shared traits; divides people into “oppressed” and “oppressor” groups; and urges intolerance.
Thus, there is a good deal of confusion over what CRT means, as well as its relationship to other terms, like “anti-racism” and “social justice,” with which it is often conflated.
To an extent, the term “critical race theory” is now cited as the basis of all diversity and inclusion efforts regardless of how much it’s actually informed those programs.
(A good parallel here is how popular ideas of the common core learning standards grew to encompass far more than what those standards said on paper.)
Read the CRT report in its entirety here
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JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com and 2020 RFK Human Rights Award winner for Editorial Cartoons. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix.
