Editor’s note: We endeavor to bring you the top voices on current events representing a range of perspectives. Below is a column arguing that critical race theory (CRT) should be banned in schools. You can find a counterpoint here, where Director of Outreach for Parents Defending Education Erika Sanzi argues that CRT should be confronted and exposed, but not banned, in schools.
Outraged parents across America are standing up against the state-sanctioned racism of critical race theory (CRT).
Instead of learning, schools have made race reeducation and indoctrinating children to hate each other based on the color of their skin a top priority. Parents are fed up with leftist elite’s attempts to establish systemic racism in our schools through CRT — the racist anti-American program that teaches children they are defined by their race, and not as individuals. CRT must be banned from being taught in schools so that America’s children are not indoctrinated with racist hate.
Critical race theory is a race-based Marxist ideology that believes the United States is inherently racist and teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Critical race theory is therefore directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a colorblind America in which all citizens are “not judged by the color of their skin but by the contact of their character.” In fact, CRT considers King’s dream a tool of white supremacy. CRT has infested school systems, where together with the fake history of the debunked “1619 Project,” it will brainwash a generation of American children — unless we stop it now.
CRT states that not only is America inherently racist in its founding, but racism is also present in all interactions. CRT theorist Richard Delgado said, “Racism is normal. The usual way society does business,” and Barack Obama claimed racism is “part of our DNA.” If America is inherently racist and irredeemable, it cannot be cured without destroying the entire system. To achieve this, CRT calls for a return of racial discrimination. Ibram Kendi proclaimed, “… The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
Critical race theory proclaims that all white people, even children, are racist by virtue of the color of their skin, and this trait is immutable. Apparently, as Kendi observes, this disease starts at a very early age: “We know that by two years old, children are already consuming racist ideas.” And to separate from whites, CRT endorses a return to racial segregation with separate graduation ceremonies and dormitories for blacks and whites.
One of the most basic American values is equality, but CRT substitutes it with equity. The difference is crucial. Equality means equal protection and opportunity under the law for all Americans as individuals — allowing for success based on merit. Equity is the exact opposite — separating Americans into racial groups and then ensuring equal results based on race, using racial engineering, discrimination and coercion to achieve them.
In truth, critical race theory is racism against whites and blacks. The racism is open against whites but insidious — and perhaps more damaging, to blacks. CRT is rooted in an assumption of black inferiority. This works in two ways. First, it teaches black children that they are born victims, the system is rigged and they lack the individual agency or ability to excel, achieve or compete equally with whites. To ingrain this self-image of inferiority, standards and expectations of behavior, conduct, grades and test scores for black students have been lowered or eliminated.
Second, CRT steals the tools of success from black children so those who want to achieve can’t. CRT theorists view the concept of meritocracy as a tool of white supremacy. Consequently, the values that maximize success for anyone, hard work, planning ahead, being on time, objective and rational thinking, are vilified as examples of “whiteness.” This way, CRT encourages failure, which reinforces victimhood, resulting in more failure — a perpetual cycle of failure, despair, dependency and resentment. We should note that the term “achieving black excellence” appears nowhere in CRT writings.
Hundreds of thousands of American patriots fought and died to create a nation in which it is not the color of our skin, but indeed, the content of our character that defines us. But powerful forces driven by the leftist elites want to drag us back to where skin color determines everything — and critical race theory is their vehicle to do it.
CRT is too dangerous to the fabric of our country to merely expose its falsehoods — it needs to be banned in schools. All Americans must stand together against racism and prevent critical race theory from being taught to children. The future of our nation and our children are at stake.
Maurice Richards is the former Chief of the Martinsburg Police Department in West Virginia. He served as Chief from 2015 to 2020 after 24 years as an officer and lieutenant in the Chicago Police Department. Richards holds a doctorate in Adult Education from Northern Illinois University.