I must admit to being shocked when I heard the term critical race theory spewed by American Conservatives. I scoffed at the idea that they could know anything about the movement, to tell the truth about the ideological underpinnings supporting white privilege. My initial reaction to bemusement was swiftly replaced by concern when I realized that something was amiss because not only do White Conservatives not have any interest in racial matters, but they also have less concern in achieving racial equality. The skeptic in me hurried to the forefront of my mind and guided my settling on the fact that this engagement with critical race theory was yet another trick by White powerbrokers to rally their naïve brethren around a concept that they know nothing about.
So that we are all on the same page, I will preface this discussion of critical race theory with the following working definition.
Critical race theory is a movement generated by civil-rights scholars and activists seeking to critically examine U.S. law as it intersects with race issues and challenges mainstream approaches to racial justice.
Please do not be unduly swayed by loudmouthed conservatives seeking to persuade others that critical race theory is new or even more laughable, linked to a larger Marxist conspiracy to destroy the nation. I am quite sure that the acceptance of such idiocy would cause Derrick Bell and Kimberle Crenshaw, two of the pioneers of critical race theory, to rise out of their graves and slap any White in site who ain’t right.
Let’s be absolutely clear, those criticizing critical race theory most grandly under the brightest media lights are benefiting from politico-economic monopolies that are the bedrock of white privilege. It is not an exaggeration to say that the use of critical race theory as the latest rallying call for economically impoverished and educationally deficient non-elite Whites was inevitable. Racial matters have always sat at the center of this nation’s discord.
We must never forget the reverberating prediction of W.E.B. DuBois that “the problem of the twentieth century will be the color line.” If there can be any legitimate criticism hurled at DuBois’s intellectual legacy, he did not extend his cryptic prediction into the new millennium. Let’s be clear on this matter, White America has been and probably always will be obsessed with Race; one needs to look no further than Whites consensual agreement that they are “White” despite the undeniable ethnic diversity that exists under such a broad social construct. Black folks are reacting to Whites’ Frankenstein-like assembly on this side of the Atlantic, a construction that would never be approved in Europe.
In the end, one is faced with a basic question of what do these recent public attacks on what is an undefined critical race theory really mean? When broken down to its very last compound, these attacks amount to little more than a desperate attempt by White America and a few misguided Black Conservatives to prolong their privileged status by controlling school curriculums and monopolizing political power and financial resources throughout the nation.
As an educator of Black collegians, this public debate matters not to me as it will not deter me or the droves of other Black Professors I know who have dedicated their lives to the uplifting of young Black minds via the pen and a lectern, not to mention a robust Zoom session, we will continue to do what we always have done. We will continue to use whatever means are available to fight back against racial injustice whenever and wherever it appears.
I would be remiss if I did not highlight that my K-12 brethren do not have as smooth of a path. In fact, it is not a stretch to say that they have been handcuffed by imposed curriculums and end-of-the-road tests that serve as a significant factor in employment and pay raises. It is this population that needs our assistance in removing the roadblocks mentioned above. The only way that we can offer such assistance is by becoming more politically engaged and demanding that relevant Black voices be included in creating curriculums and standardized tests.
Whether Black America wants to accept it, the recent attack on critical race theory is little more than another way to guarantee that the intellectual diet given to Black children remains bland, non-representative, and of little utility to their lives. If we continue to be so scatterbrained and disorganized regarding such substantive matters, we will have no one to blame when our children learn about Anne Frank and not Assata Shakur, Susan B. Anthony and not Ida B. Wells or Anna Julia Cooper, well, you get my point.
We must become active, or the critical race theory Bell and Crenshaw intended to aid Black America will be used by our opponents to set Black America back more than we could have imagined.
Dr. James Thomas Jones III
© Manhood, Race, and Culture 2021.
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