Attacks on Critical Race Theory Blemish Era of Race Consciousness
Last year, after the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and many others, people seemed to be opening their eyes to the everyday reality and fears of Black America. But just one year later, pundits and some state lawmakers have delared war on so-called Critical Race Theory, even proposing bans on teaching history as it is commonly accepted and known to be true.
Many have used the term “divisive teaching” to disparage teaching from a culturally relevant and historically accurate account of race and racism in the U.S. in favor of the inherently white-centric teachings that have been established as the common educational standard.
“We cannot deny that woven into the narrative of U.S history is the history of systemic racism and other oppressions,” writes Sara Jean-Francois, assistant director of NEBHE’s Tuition Break program, who has researched race-conscious campuses and recently earned her master’s degree from Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
“If states are allowed to ban an entire body of research, theories and the models and pedagogy that come from this work (already left out of everyday teachings), how,” she asks, “can the U.S. claim we learned anything about ‘antiracism’ in the past year?”