What is Critical Race Theory?
- Alicia Bervine
- Jun 30, 2021
- 5 min read
State legislators are up in arms passing bill after bill to ban critical race theory but why? Critical Race theory is not new, it is an academic concept that is over 40 years old created by scholars like Derrick Bell, Kimberly Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado.
The core idea of CRT is racism is a social construct and not an individual prejudice, racism is part of everyday life and people white and nonwhite, some who do not intend to be racist, still can make decisions fueled by racism.
Simply put it is a framework of understanding how American racism has shaped public policy.
On April 20 Senator Tim Scott (r) from South Carolina famously claimed that America is not racist, but the refusal to acknowledge how racism is integrated into systems keeps us from fixing the issue.
Let’s start with a definition:
Systemic: fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice
Now Let me point out just a few ways racism is systemic in America.
Education:
Curricula that vastly ignores the lived experiences of Americans of color are the norm. (decisions that were made that that shape policy fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice)
Republicans actively fighting to ensure it stays this way. (decisions that were made that that shape policy fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice)
Medicine:
J. Marion Sims, credited for the invention of the vaginal speculum and repair of vesico-vaginal fistula, is referred to as the “father of gynecology.” Sims experimented on Black women who were enslaved, performing surgical techniques without the use of anesthesia because there is a mythology that black skin is stronger, black people don’t feel pain in the same way. This is deeply layered.
Even today doctors tend not to prescribe pain medicines to minorities as often. In one study of emergency rooms, Black patients were 40% less likely and Hispanic patients were 25% less likely to get drugs for acute pain.
According to the CDC, Black, Native American, and Alaska Native women are dying from pregnancy-related causes at two to three times the rate of white women.
Housing:
Zoning laws in the U.S. originated in the early 20th century, and for many cities, these zoned areas were specifically segregated by race.
When Black war veterans returned from World War II, the Federal Housing Administration did not allow them to obtain mortgages. Despite fighting — and in many cases, dying — to support the U.S. mission, Black soldiers were explicitly discriminated against.
When the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation and the still operational Federal Housing Administration (FHA), were created during the great depression they had a “two-tier approach” to housing which promoted residential segregation by shunning investments in city areas where people of color lived and by placing so-called restrictive covenants to keep middle-class neighborhoods white. The FEDERAL HOUSING ADMINISTRATION (decisions that were made that that shape policy fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice)
Let me bring this to 2020
A mixed-race couple in Florida whose home in Jacksonville had initially been valued by an appraiser at $330,000 back in June of 2020 said the same residence was valued at more than 40 percent higher at a second appraisal after they removed images of their Black family members.
The same thing happened to a woman in Indiana.
This economically impacts families of color
Employment:
School and work policies that discriminate against loc’s, cornrows, or the natural hairstyles of black people are still prevalent. So much so that the FIRST legislation passed to prohibit discrimination passed California legislature on June 27, 2019, that is 2019, at the time of my writing it hasn’t been two full years. (decisions that were made that that shape policy fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice)
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research Black Americans with 'white' names receive 50% more callbacks for job applications, (decisions that were made that that shape policy fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice)
Prison Sentencing
According to the ACLU, Black Americans are 3.6x more likely to be arrested for marijuana usage, despite virtually equal usage rates, systemic. (decisions that were made that that shape policy fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice)
I am not going to get into policing but we all saw the George Floyd video.
Although many people hope ignoring inequality will make it go away, that’s not how it works.
Critical Race theory isn’t a class or a curriculum, it is a lens through which you examine the history of racism in America and let's be real, it was NEVER taught in K-12 education. So why is it such a big deal now?
I can say that republicans don’t have policy so they create an public enemy and run against it. Simply speaking that is the truth, in 2016 it was immigrants and build a wall, today it is Critical Race Theory.
But let’s did deeper.
It started with the 1619 project which pulled the impact of enslavement out of the shadows into the forefront, and people are shook. I will say this in defense of people, it is a history they were never taught. History for black people goes something like this:
You were slaves, Harriet Tubman helped some slaves escape, Lincoln freed the rest, Martin Luther King marched, Rosa Parks sat on a bus, Oprah is a millionaire, you had Barack Obama.
Because of the 1619 project this piss poor slice of black history taught only between February 1st and 28th became glaringly obvious.
Some white people became uncomfortable, not the students, the parents. The students came home and asked about the Trail of Tears and their parents stammered at a loss for words, truthfully they weren’t taught.
The children came home and said mom did you know the American economy was built on slavery, and their parents didn’t know what to say, so they did what Karen’s and whatever the male version of Karen's do and they marched up to the school and demanded the curricula continue to omit the lived experiences of Americans of color.
The language in some of these laws actually says “a course can’t include the idea that any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or an other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.”
They fear exposing students to these “concepts” also know as the truth about America’s flawed founding is somehow damaging or demoralizing. I have a question is it demoralizing to think your entire race is insignificant?
With these new bills History teachers can’t teach about the Trail of Tears or Slavery, or any of the many race massacres that occurred such as
Colfax, La., 1873
Wilmington, N.C., 1898
Washington, D.C., 1919
Tulsa, 1921
Rosewood, Fla., 1923
These true events in history ARE uncomfortable, they SHOULD BE uncomfortable. However from a little discomfort a lot of growth can occur.
Critical Race Theory is not the problem, the problem is discomfort.
Learning the horrific truth about slavery is uncomfortable, that is why history books tell a story of happy slaves who were fed and clothed.
The 1619 project was a flashlight on undeniable truths and now a party all about small government is trying to legislate comfort.
America is not what it was, but it will never be great until we can deal with a little discomfort.
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