The Importance of Critical Race Theory

Critical race theory has become a highly debated topic in the last few years. It has been especially prevalent in K-12, where many state legislatures are debating bills to ban its use in the classroom. However, critical race theory is not as bad as many of these states are making it out to be.

What is Critical Race Theory?

Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old and was first developed by legal scholars in the 1970s and 1980s following the Civil Rights Movement. The core idea is that race is a social construct and racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice but also embedded in legal systems and policies. The basic tenets of CRT emerged from 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.

The American Bar Association defines critical race theory as the practice of interrogating the role of race and racism in society that emerged in the legal academy and spread to other fields of scholarship. It critiques how the social construction of race and institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers. CRT also recognizes that race intersects with other identities, including sexuality, gender identity, and others. CRT acknowledges that the legacy of slavery, segregation, and the imposition of second-class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue to permeate this nation.

Some believe CRT reprimands all white people for being oppressors and classifying all black people as oppressed victims. They say critical race theory seeks to blame white students for people’s actions in the past and teach that “the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist,” according to a 2020 executive order from former President Donald Trump. These fears have spurred school boards and state legislatures from Tennessee to Idaho to ban teachings about racism in classrooms. Critical race theory states that U.S. social institutions (e.g., the criminal justice system, education system, labor market, housing market, and healthcare system) are laced with racism embedded in laws, regulations, rules, and procedures that lead to differential outcomes by race. The theory states that racism is part of life and people who don’t intend to be racist can make choices that fuel racism.

Many educators support culturally relevant teaching and other strategies to make schools feel safe and supportive for black students and other underserved populations since students of color make up most school-aged children. However, they don’t necessarily identify these activities as CRT-related. Some critics believe that curricular excellence can’t coexist with culturally responsive teaching or anti-racist work and efforts to change grading practices or make the curriculum less Eurocentric will ultimately harm black students or hold them to a less high standard.

Critical race theorists, educators, and some parents say that some opponents are actively distorting what the theory is to reverse progress made in diversity and racial equity and rile up voters in a collective fight against perceived reverse discrimination. As a result, attempts to teach race, diversity, and systemic racism are being villainized in public schools. They also state that vague language in recent legislative efforts, including those that punish teachers or expressly forbid some subjects, could infringe on educators’ ability to teach students basic U.S. history.

The Rise of Debates on Critical Race Theory

The term "critical race theory" has been appointed by opponents as a catch-all to silence discussions about systemic racism and ban the truthful teaching of American history. The term has been used to include all diversity and inclusion efforts, race-conscious policies, and education about racism, regardless of if they derive from CRT. Critical race theory debates began coming to light in 2020 after months of protests and rallies for racial equality and anti-racism efforts. Many industries complied by implementing lessons on diversity and oppression to improve equity in the workplace and schools. School districts added anti-racism trainings, promised to review curriculum materials, or hosted class conversations about discrimination and justice.

Some people felt schools were exaggerating the importance of race and racism in lessons, distorting American history, requiring unproven or divisive training sessions, and making white students feel uncomfortable. That September, then President Donald Trump banned any diversity training for federal workers that included lessons on "white privilege" or "critical race theory" and directed federal agencies to "cease and desist" funding for race and diversity training, according to an Office of Management and Budget memo. In an interview, he told ABC News that "all children should be protected by civil rights laws and if teachers are using their power to scapegoat, stereotype, demean or abuse them, that should stop" regarding critical race theory.

What Trump failed to note was that critical race theory in its complete form was only being taught only in law schools, colleges, and universities. Generalized versions of some of its claims appeared in the curriculum of some public schools. In March 2021, Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist and reporter, tweeted, "We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category. The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think 'critical race theory.'" This effort to attack education on race and diversity has succeeded through the waves of legislation and debate.

"This was an event that was manufactured," said Gloria Ladson-Billings, a critical race theorist, former professor and former president of the American Educational Research Association. "Any discussion of race, racism, diversity, equity, inclusion, whiteness, social-emotional learning, slavery, school segregation any of that is now called critical race theory."

Bans on Critical Race Theory

Critical race theory seeks to understand how racism has shaped U.S. laws and how those laws have continued to impact people of color. CRT has been used for all lessons that aim to discuss issues of racism and inequality at a time when institutions have begun to address it. Several states utilized former President Trump’s Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping to formulate vague bans on these “divisive concepts.” As of February 2022, at least 35 states have introduced anti-critical race theory legislation. Many state laws include provisions that establish financial penalties for noncompliance and threaten to cut state funding to schools that disobey the bans. Rashawn Ray and Alexandra Gibbons found the following data in an assessment of anti-CRT state legislation.

• Nine states (Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Arizona, and North Dakota) have passed legislation. Arizona’s legislation was overturned in November by the Arizona Supreme Court.

• None of the state bills that have passed mention the words “critical race theory” explicitly, with the exception of Idaho and North Dakota.

• The legislations mostly ban the discussion, training, and/or orientation that the U.S. is inherently racist and any discussions about conscious and unconscious bias, privilege, discrimination, and oppression. These parameters also extend beyond race to include gender lectures and discussions.

• State actors in Montana and South Dakota have denounced teaching concepts associated with CRT. The state school boards in Florida, Georgia, Utah, and Alabama introduced new guidelines barring CRT-related discussions. Local school boards in Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia also criticized CRT.

• Nearly 20 additional states have introduced or plan to introduce similar legislation.

These bans discourage any teaching, especially at the middle- and high-school levels, that present nonstandard histories of racism in the United States or explore its real-world effects. They also provide educators with little to no information about how the laws apply to specific teaching situations, leaving their careers hanging in the balance. Tennessee officials have issued no written guidance about what is and isn’t allowed in class beyond the law’s list of banned concepts. Iowa officials did issue guidance, but it left educators with enough questions that the state’s largest teachers union has hosted several trainings to fill in the gaps.

Critical Race Theory in the Classroom

Laws that remove the discussion of racism stop important classroom conversations and learning experiences for students and only benefit people who are not comfortable listening to the true history and state of race relations in the United States. Ironically, “making laws outlawing critical race theory confirms the point that racism is embedded in the law,” as sociologist Victor Ray tweeted. These bans on critical race theory influence educators’ small but focal decisions like how to answer a student’s question or which lessons to prepare. Many teachers haven’t changed from the new bans, and there is little evidence that these laws have led to curriculum overhauls. However, teachers say the ambiguity of the laws and new scrutiny from parents and administrators are minimizing discussions of racism and inequality. Whether these new bills are constitutional or restrict free speech is also unclear.

As English teacher Mike Stein told Chalkbeat Tennessee about the new law: “History teachers can not adequately teach about the Trail of Tears, the Civil War, and the civil rights movement. English teachers will have to avoid teaching almost any text by an African American author because many of them mention racism to various extents.”

Joanna Estrada, a library assistant in Donna, Texas, recently had to think about the ban on CRT in her state while tutoring three elementary school students. They were reading a book about the women’s suffrage movement, and the two girls were disturbed to learn that women were not always allowed to vote. The boy in the group, who is Hispanic, remarked that he would have been allowed to vote, and Estrada pointed out that at one time, the vote was only granted to white men. The students wanted to know more details, but Estrada was scared to tell too much information. Then they turned to the next story, which was about placing Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. The students wanted to know more about slavery and the Underground Railroad, but Estrada could not deliver the information for fear of getting in trouble.

Talking about slavery is not prohibited by the Texas law and lawmakers have insisted that the new laws its discussions. “I defy anyone to find one word of this bill that says we don’t teach the ugly parts of our history,” Texas Senator Bryan Hughes said in August. However, the bill does ban teaching that “slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the authentic founding principles of the United States.” That and the vague requirement for objectivity have stopped teachers from having honest discussions about the past in ways lawmakers claimed would not happen.

Brooking’s Rashawn Ray notes that “as a college professor who does teach CRT as one of the many theoretical frameworks that I bring into the classroom, students are alarmed by how little they have learned about inequality. They are upset at their schools, teachers, and even their parents. So, this is the conundrum: teachers in K-12 schools are not actually teaching CRT. But teachers are trying to respond to students asking them why people are protesting and why Black people are more likely to be killed by the police.”

Why Critical Race Theory is Important

The new CRT laws have encouraged parents to complain to school boards about conversations in their children’s classrooms. School libraries are receiving more book challenges this year, especially around texts written by authors of color or that deal with themes of race and identity. This tense climate has made some teachers of color vulnerable because they are frequently chosen to lead conversations about race and racism. They often refer to their own life experiences to help students make connections.

Ultimately, everyone knows that everyone has a different race which shapes their life experiences. Whether they acknowledge it consciously or not, systemic racism can explain racial disparities in police killings, COVID-19, and the devaluing of homes in black neighborhoods. The only way to truly work through these issues is to address them. If we don’t call these big issues by their names, we lose the impact of being able to pinpoint and challenge the structures that reinforce systemic racism directly.