The importance of critical race theory: what's so bad about equity?

Photo Credit: Erin Schaff/The New York Times

It's been just a little over six months since the storming of the U.S. Capitol and unsurprisingly, GOP officials have showed their opposition to critical race theory.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida tweeted that critical race theory "teaches kids to hate our country and to hate each other." 

The Florida State Board of Education unanimously passed an amendment banning the teaching of CRT.

It took me a while to wrap my head around this because arguments like the ones DeSantis make are absolutely unreasonable and given without context.

To ban CRT, appears to be an attempt to erase the history of our past and to deny systemic racism. 

CRT is a lens to analyze how racism shaped our world. How is that such a bad thing? How much more narrow-minded can people be?

One of my biggest concerns as a college student who is fascinated by this lens perspective are, how will these bans impact the next generation? Will children turn into narrow-minded minions of their predecessors who banned this in schools and/or whose parents are against it? We are products of our environment after all.

Barish Ali, who has a doctorate in comparative literature, finds it crucial to incorporate it in his lessons as an English professor at the State University Of New York Buffalo State College.

"People are saying, 'We need to acknowledge the past, we need to acknowledge racism existed then and exists now too. We need to know more about this.' Once we come to the point where we can talk about it, schools and beyond, then we are in a much better position to live in a country where there is justice and fairness," he said.

Coming to terms with our past does not, as DeSantis, other GOP officials and some parents put it: teach children to hate each other. Rather, it teaches the next generation to be better individuals than previous generations.

For parents who are against CRT, I would like to say, "Don't you want your children to better themselves as individuals? Don't you want them to be open-minded, a critical thinker, and be able to analyze the world from multiple perspectives?"

A specialist of postcolonial literature, literary theory, and popular culture, Ali describes CRT as useful.

"[CRT] provides us with the tools we can use to analyze the past, but more importantly, how we can shift policy to create equity and freedom for everyone in this country," he explained.

He said that the ban appears to be an attempt to stop social justice movements like Black Lives Matter and others that have started across the country and the world.

Perhaps the term itself is too harsh for some parents and the GOP to handle or accept? Ali suggests that "social justice" can act as a euphemism for "critical race theory."

When Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida addressed his concerns of a seminar given to students at United States Military Academy West Point that, according to him, was titled, "Understanding Whiteness and White Rage," Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, defended CRT saying that he "[wants] to understand white rage." He added that reading works written by authors such as Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, doesn't necessarily make one a communist.

Honestly, I myself have wondered, as a person of color, with all these book titles with the term, "white," such as "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism" written by Robin Diangelo or "Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race" written by Reni Eddo-Lodge just to name a couple, how do white people feel when they see books with their race used in an unpleasant context? 

I can definitely see where they're coming from, but when it comes to discussing politics and law and policies, there is no sugar-coating. To not address our differences in race, would be to deny white privilege and therefore, fail to acknowledge systemic racism. Despite what we call it, "CRT" or "social justice," it is crucial to have these racial adjectives.

Perhaps it is a fear of losing control of the decision-making process and who has the most power in running the United States. Liberals and Conservatives alike want the same thing: what's best for this country. It's obvious that we have our differences, but don't silence out other perspectives, especially one as important as CRT.

To those opposed to CRT, don't you want marginalized groups to succeed as well? Let's all be a part of the solution. What's so bad about equity?

Ali describes that there is a big distinction "between the academic concept of CRT and the way that Conservatives use the term when they critique it or try to ban it from conversations and school curricula."

"Their propaganda machine has unfortunately been very effective at creating negative perceptions around the term and making it seem like it’s something toxic or dangerous when, in reality, it’s simply an attempt to confront and understand our history and those laws that for centuries upheld white supremacy," he said.

If you enjoyed this read, I highly recommend that you read the book, How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.