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