Tag Archives: Critical Race Theory

African-American History, CRITICAL RACE THEORY, RACE

Why Conservatives Obsession with Critical Race Theory Could Be Another Step Toward Making Abraham Lincoln’s Warning About the Fall of America Prophetic

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 There is no room to reasonably argue against the assertion that many of our countrymen have gone utterly insane regarding racial matters. At the present moment, it is impossible to engage local, state, or national news outlets and not encounter some half-witted conspiratorial scheme regarding the latest boogeyman whose supposed existence is a supreme threat to White America. Of course, I am alluding to that haunting and elusive specter called Critical Race Theory (CRT).

For a significant segment of American Conservatives, CRT has become for discussions of Race in American schools what Sharia Law was during the fury against Muslims.

The latest to enter into the foray against the elusive boogeyman whose penchant for ducking and dodging is heightened by his non-existence in this nation’s K-16 educational system is Sequoyah County lawmaker Rep. Jim Olsen (R). Olsen has issued a notable blow against CRT by authoring House Bill 2988 to outlaw the teaching of American chattel slavery from a historically grounded perspective.

Olsen and those who think like him want to place a revisionist history of the peculiar institution that does not depict white slaveholders as beneficiaries of the labor of stolen Africans and their descendants in front of America’s schoolchildren. House Bill 2988 forbids educators from teaching the following facts.

  • American chattel slavery victimized enslaved Africans/Blacks.
  • The peculiar institution, meaning slavery, was the central pillar in America’s creation.
  • The enslavement of stolen Africans and their descendants occurred for an extended period, nearly 250 years, if we are counting.

Rep. Olsen offered the following commentary regarding his proposed legislative addendum.

It is important that it be taught that we had slavery as a nation and it was evil, but it would not be proper to teach it that we were the only ones that had it. It is the agenda of the far left, they want our young people to hate America.

A dimwitted portion of our populace has ascended beyond their level of ineptitude and understanding.

If American legislators are not careful, they will sanction the transitioning of America’s learning centers into Hitleresque indoctrination sites. The thin threadbare lies supporting this alteration to school curriculums are an unsophisticated attempt to extend politico-economic monopolies they have enjoyed for centuries. Unfortunately, droves of non-elites allow the foolishness mentioned above to be their sole source of information regarding CRT.

Let us be clear on this matter, CRT does not appear in America’s K-16 educational centers. Those local, state, and national level politicians who are speaking the loudest about CRT know nothing about the legal theory beyond its utility to frighten my white countrymen into following their lead. I would venture to guess that the vast majority of these so-called political leaders had never heard of Derrick Bell before the start of this entire charade and have certainly never read any of his books or other writings.

The truth of the matter is that this entire sordid falsity reveals the fact that many within our midst, regardless of their political leanings, are willing to follow political leaders who know no more than they do about racial matters.

Ultimately, the erasure of historical facts in favor of feel-good teachings weakens our nation in many ways, particularly as a false past prevents us from examining America’s creation. If Americans are not careful, they will eventually make Abraham Lincoln’s haunting prediction of America’s fall prophetic. President Lincoln said, “America will never fall from an external aggressor. She will fall from within.”

Trust me when I say to you that this path we are on will lead to all of our demises.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

EDUCATION, RACE

Truly A Frightening Time: What Texas Republicans Assault on US History Means for Our Right to Think

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I guess that the passage of House Bill 3979 in Texas offers yet another piece of support to the axiom that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The recent actions of Texas state senators seeking to expand restrictions on discussions on current events and racial matters in the Lonestar State’s classrooms should sound alarms for American educators seeking to illuminate the minds of our youth. Apparently, Texas Republicans believe that the introduction of substantive classroom discussions regarding America’s tumultuous racial past and present will lead to irreparable damage to the minds and self-esteem of White children.

I must give it to Texas Republicans that the intellectual sleight of hand that they are using to fortify historical politico-economic monopolies that were in place prior to John Hancock boldly signed the Declaration of Independence is an impressive charade. Consider the following steps that have propagated a grand educational lie to naïve Whites; a populace with a vested interest in participating in this intellectual injustice.

  1. All parties agree that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is taught at the collegiate level.
  2. Yet, CRT is a catchy and easy-to-remember slogan that must not be discarded as it has significant utility.
  3. The CRT slogan is an Excalibur that Republicans used to cancel all efforts to discuss racial inequities in America’s K-12 schools.
  4. Republicans used CRT to denounce any mention of past and present racial inequities.
  5. The CRT slogan has been used to further morph America’s contemptuous racial past in an unprecedented manner.
  6. Texas Republicans have taken issue with heretofore givens such as
    1. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s., March on Washington Address — an example of Critical Race Theory and must be banned.
    2. Caesar Chavez’s legacy — yet another example of trying to browbeat White children and must be banned.

I am sure that you get the picture. Anything that even threatens to turn a critical eye toward the methods that Whites have used in the past or are currently using to entrench themselves as powerbrokers is off-limits for classroom discussions.

Texas Republicans’ determination to dictate what is and is not permissible in K-12 schools reveals them as dictators seeking to brainwash citizens by crafting educational curriculums that paint them as superior to others. Any resistance to these Nazi-like plans occurs under the threat of economic devastation for already impoverished educators. This is what totalitarianism looks like in its early stages.

If only the verbiage found in House Bill 3979 that “diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective” were applied throughout the course of American education, opposition to the actions of Texas Republicans would be unnecessary.

If the above statement were adhered to, I would no longer encounter undergraduate students who have read The Diary of Anne Frank and not The Autobiography of Malcolm X. If educators were not forced to adhere to a curriculum created by self-promoting politicians with little knowledge of anything in the realm of education, my students would learn that Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is a man of flesh and bone and not see-through. Perhaps my students would realize that James Baldwin is the most significant social critic this nation has ever known and not the missing sibling of Alec, Daniel, Stephen, and William.

As a historian that has studied racial matters for decades, I understand the slick maneuverings of Texas Republicans seeking to extend the unjust reign of their ancestors and therefore have no expectation that they will give one inch to those opposing their tyranny. Their type prefers to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.

Rest assured that they are nowhere near finished with their drive to whitewash American history. If unchecked, these dastardly rascals will continue until American history is unrecognizable. Freedom-loving educators will no longer be a need to assert that figures such as David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Maria Stewart, Malcolm X, and Assata Shakur should be included in history/social studies curriculums because no one will know about their contributions to the world. This is a scary time, my friend, a frightening time for anyone who values their right to think for themselves.

James Thomas Jones III, Ph.D.

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021

 

 

Manhood, Race, and Culture Interactive, MRCi, RACE

Is the Spreading of Propaganda in American Classrooms this Nation’s Greatest Educational Tradition?: An Examination of Why Critical Race Theory Attacks are so Dangerous

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The problem of the 20th-Century will be that of the color line.

W.E.B. DuBois

Not even my earning of two degrees in African-American Studies from THE Ohio State University prepared me for the recent battle over Critical Race Theory (CRT). Now, I do not want you to conclude that I am in the dark regarding what CRT is. I thoroughly understand the concept. However, I admit to not understanding what those opposing the teaching of Race, one of the foundational pillars of this nation, in this nation’s Social Studies and History classrooms. Although I realize that this will upset many Whites, racial matters must be thoroughly addressed within our educational institutions.

I was pleased to learn that I was not alone in my concerns about a segment of our population advocating for the distortion of Americans; in the public arena nonetheless. The President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Randi Weingarten, has boldly stepped forward to address her intention to fight against the “culture warriors” attempting to sanction the teaching of a fallacious history under the guise of destroying CRT.

I applaud Weingarten for the following statement regarding the AFT commitment to protecting educators who occupy the front lines of this brewing battle.

Our union will defend any member who gets in trouble for teaching honest history. Teaching the truth is not radical or wrong. Distorting history and threatening educators for teaching the truth is what is truly radical and wrong.

As an educator with over two decades of experience teaching racial matters, I am bewildered by recent demands for American history to be discussed without the presence of W.E.B. DuBois’ color line. Despite opponents’ desperate attempt to deny both the presence and the centrality of Race as a cornerstone of this nation’s development, the historical record says otherwise.

If provided the opportunity, I would tell the self-proclaimed American Patriots issuing the aforementioned demands for the altering of an honest history into a false one that amounts to little more than the spreading of propaganda to explain historical racial inequities that their actions are Hitleresque.

There is not a single capable educator in the fields of Social Studies or History who can truthfully attest to discussing the founding and development of this nation without discussing Race. Put simply, the barring of any discussion of the haunting specter of Race in America’s development places educators in an impossible position. To understand this point, one needs to look no further than the rhetoric of aggrieved colonists seeking to free themselves from 18th Century British tyranny. Also called the Declaration of Independence to recognize the alluded to predicament.

Race was present when a roguish vagabond population of unruly colonists expressed their fervent desires with a Declaration of Independence. Ironically, the primary motivating factor behind their actions was “to not be the slaves of the British.” It would be Thomas Jefferson who best expressed those intentions with the following words.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Those seeking to sanitize US History because they ludicrously believe that the failure to do so will begin psychologically fragile White children down a path that ends with them being damaged for life are seeking to limit what can be discussed in our nation’s classroom by qualified educators. In the world they seek to create, it is fine to discuss Jefferson’s reverberating words found in the above document while omitting that he stands as one of this nation’s foremost hypocrites. Consider for a moment that while Jefferson was penning such beautiful, liberating prose, he simultaneously refused to vacate his status as a slaveholder who produced children with Sally Hemings, one of his possessions. All American children need to understand that this particular Founding Father was “owned” stolen Africans on Monticello, his plantation in Virginia. Additional classroom discussions could delve into Jefferson’s never-ending refusal to free enslaved Africans in the 18th Century and its relationship to the 20th Century refusal of his White descendants to allow any of his colored prodigy to be buried in the Jefferson family cemetery.

As a descendant of stolen Africans, I agree that American History can disturb one’s soul. However, that does not remove the fact that this rugged past of triumphs and failures is a reflective portrait of who we are as a nation. This portrait possesses the power to explain to every generation how we arrived at this moment. We can not expect any reasonable progress on the racial frontier if we cannot be truthful about our past. Regardless of race/ethnicity, all children deserve the opportunity to subdue the racial division that has dogged this nation for far too long. Hopefully, those seeking to silence educators regarding racial matters will understand that they are dooming this nation to unceasing racial discord. A wise man named William Peppers once told me, “If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got.”

Aren’t Whites tired of the disturbing specter of racial animosity?

Time will tell, I guess.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III
©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2021
#ManhoodRaceCulture

You are cordially invited to join MRCi (Manhood, Race, and Culture Interactive) tonight (July 8, 2021) @ 7:30 (EST) — 6:30 pm (CST) for a much-needed discussion titled A Discussion of Critical Race Theory: Why Are White Conservatives Speaking About Something that They Nothing About

Tonight’s discussion will be part 2 of our focus on discussions of critical race theory.

Join us as we discuss this pressing matter.

The program begins tonight (Thursday, July 8) @ 7:30 (EST) — 6:30 pm (CST). Click here to access the meeting or use the information listed below.

Meeting ID: 353 334 8869
Passcode: 1YF4BG

RACE

CRITICAL RACE THEORY: What Happens When White Conservatives Hear Something New

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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.