Unpacking Critical Race Theory: Perspectives and Polarization
Alexandra Gore | February 15, 2024
In September 2023, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning funding for racial sensitivity training for federal agencies. In May 2021, three states passed divisive concept laws — laws that are designed to limit discussion about racism, sexism and discrimination in the classroom. In August 2021, educators who stood up against the bans began losing their jobs.
The foundation of these concerns lies in Critical Race Theory (CRT), which many Republican-controlled states have used as their driving force to determine how race and its history are taught in schools.
Soundbites of Fox News footage claim that CRT is “racist,” “not based in fact” and “abusive.” Many people, including Republican lawmakers and media outlets, claim that the theory is “unpatriotic” and paints white people as inherently racist. The governor of Floria and former 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has announced plans to block state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory, claiming that it is “state-sanctioned racism” and nicknaming it the “Stop Woke Act.”
In May 2021, Matthew Hawn was fired by his Tennessee school district for teaching using a Ta-Nehisi Coats essay called “The First White President” and asking his class to dissect a poem titled “White Privilege” by Kyla Jenée Lacey. Since then, over 160 educators have resigned or been fired from their jobs due to this “culture war.”
According to UCLA Law, “CRT interrogates the way that white supremacy and institutional racism are pervasive in our social structures and particularly the law. Through an examination of how legal institutions perpetuate the marginalization of communities of color and legitimate racialized forms of violence, CRT provides an analytic lens to identify and begin to dismantle systemic racism back-stopped by law.”
Professor of Law at UCLA and Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum, Kimberlé Crenshaw, as well as other academic experts, claim that the explicit teaching of CRT is rare in K-12 schools. and that the concepts and tenants do not become distinctly recognizable until higher education.
While the law is blocked from being extended to colleges and universities, it is still being battled in the courts.
While critics of the theory claim that it shames and guilts children based on their race, Crenshaw believes that the concept is being misrepresented and used as a political tool. In an interview with ABC News, she says she believes that the legislation on education and the teachings about racism are not about the material itself, but rather about the power that education about racism can have on fixing systems of oppression.
As part of his 2024 presidential campaign, former President Donald Trump promised to eliminate federal funding for any school that pushes race theory or “left-wing gender ideology.”
Warren Wilson College (WWC) offers a CRT course – SOC/PHI-2575 – for students who are interested in diving deeper into CRT and its history, tenants and more.