Public Schooling, Not Just Opportunist Right ‐​Wingers, Fuels the Critical Race Theory Fire

Neal McCluskeyOn Tuesday, NBC News ran along piece essentially declaring that there is little legitimate reason for people to be worried about critical race theory (CRT) in public schools. The debate is largely the creation of right-wing political opportunism and astroturfing, the reporters suggested. TheWashington Post ’sPhilip Bump soonjoined in. And these arenot theonly pieces that have made the “Republicans pounce” assertion.There are likely some Republicans seizing on CRT for political gain. But that is probably a small part of what is happening, even if many reporters and commentators fixate on it. Much more likely is that many people honestly have differing opinions about how best to deal with race and racial issues, and do not want other people ’s views imposed on children.If you examine the facts of the CRT-and-schooling debate, and do so without assuming the worst motives of people you may already dislike, you will see at least three things:People can oppose CRT from good motivesThere are clearly efforts to inject ideas integral to CRT, if not CRT by name, into public schoolsThe debate may well be especially heated because public schooling forces diverse people into high-stakes, zero-sum conflictsAsI have written before, there are decent reasons to favor or dislike CRT; I am neither an ardent supporter nor opponent, and I wantmaximum space to freely debate. What follows is not advocacy of the anti-CRT position, but a defense of the anti-CRT side in large par...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs