When we were on the beach at Anna Maria Island last spring, we encountered a group of 30-somethings from Indiana with their young children. We learned that their kids all attended the same Catholic school back in Indiana. One of the parents said to me, “We don’t want our kids to go to a school where they will be taught critical race theory and all that stuff.”
Attend a right-wing political rally or tune in to media firebrands like Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity, and you might hear critical race theory (CRT) being described as a nefarious plot by liberals to bash America and make white kids feel bad. Sadly, fear sells.
Despite the fear mongering, “critical race theory” is not “being taught” at public schools in this country. Rather, critical race theory is merely a movement of civil rights scholars that critically examines laws and legislation and how they intersect with race issues. As one scholar noted, “It is no threat to democracy, but seeking its demise most certainly is. The suggestion that we should teach whitewashed history is an assault on America’s richest ideals.”
I’ve been reading “Battle Cry of Freedom,” the superb Pulitzer Prize winning book by James McPherson, a captivating portrayal of America in the years leading up to and during the Civil War. In those days, the Republican Party was, relatively speaking, the “progressive party,” at least when it came to the matters of race. The Democrat party, largely led by southern politicians, was hell-bent on preserving “states’ rights,” or let’s not mince words, the institution of slavery.
Republicans were trying to move towards racial egalitarianism, a prospect which horrified Democrats. As the book noted, “Republicans had increased their vulnerability on the issue by placing a constitutional amendment to enfranchise blacks on the ballot in New York state. ‘If you want to vote cheek by jowl with a large buck nigger,”
chanted Democratic orators and editors, ‘if you want to support a party that says a nigger is better than an Irishman, then vote for the Republican candidate’.” And on and on.
Germany has not whitewashed its past. Teaching the subject of the Holocaust and the Nazi era is mandatory in German schools, and almost all students have visited either a concentration camp or a Holocaust memorial or museum. Moreover, the “Hell Hitler” greeting is illegal in Germany.
It would be instructive for all Americans to visit or at least see a video of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The Museum is dedicated to the victims of American white supremacy. It demands a reckoning with the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades long campaign of racial turmoil.
People who believe we should squarely face up to our past do not “hate America,” as some firebrands on the right would have us believe. Rather, it is a way to learn about our history, so we do not repeat the same mistakes. That’s not a bad thing.
No individual is perfect just as no nation is perfect. After all, shouldn’t we as individuals acknowledge our own mistakes, at least to ourselves? That doesn’t mean we should beat ourselves up or wallow in the past. It means we should ever strive to become our best selves.
I do hope that we Americans, now so divided and so filled with rancor, can acknowledge how we got to this sad state, so we can move forward in a stronger, more perfect union. We can’t make America great again by making America hate again.
David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary and suggestions for future “Just a Little Old” columns. dtreadw575@aol.com.
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