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Pritzker addresses “critical race theory” issue

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* I’ve kinda watched this “critical race theory” thing develop out of the corner of my eye, but it appears to have grown into our latest national outrage and the governor jumped into the fray yesterday. Before we get to that, here’s a primer from Education Week

In truth, the divides are not nearly as neat as they may seem. The events of the last decade have increased public awareness about things like housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy in the 1990s, and the legacy of enslavement on Black Americans. But there is much less consensus on what the government’s role should be in righting these past wrongs. Add children and schooling into the mix and the debate becomes especially volatile. […]

Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.

The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.

A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas.

Today, those same patterns of discrimination live on through facially race-blind policies, like single-family zoning that prevents the building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts.

* Wirepoints has been moving away from pandemic coverage to things like CRT…

* They Aren’t Telling The Truth About Illinois’ Pending ‘Culturally Responsive Teaching Standards’: The biggest tragedy, if the rule becomes effective, is that the actual result will be the same as we’ve seen everywhere from critical race theory and identity politics in general: more hostility and strife. Traditional goals of color blindness and the melting pot, which are expressly rejected by critical race theory, have given way to obsession over immutable differences.

* Chicago Public Schools going to the max with ‘culturally responsive teaching standards’: Suppose you wanted to draft the most comprehensive K-12 school policy you could for mandatory thought, speech and conduct that complies with Critical Race Theory or wokism, as it’s more often called. You probably couldn’t top the Chicago Public School district’s pending Culturally Responsive Education and Diversity Policy.

* More political indoctrination coming to Illinois classrooms as ‘media literacy’ mandate nears passage: The kicker is at the bottom of the bill, which calls for the Illinois State Board of Education to prepare instructional materials. Those are the folks that imposed Illinois’ infamous, new Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards, which they and its supporters lied brazenly about, and which call for teaching woke critical race theory as unassailable fact.

* University of Illinois poised to make woke ideology and conduct mandatory for faculty: Give them credit at least for being open about what they intend: no diversity of opinion about race. Wokeness shall be mandatory under pending directives for University of Illinois faculty. Take a look at the proposed standards on promotions and tenure provided in a Communication and FAQ, the product of three university “task forces.” They’ve been issued by the U of I’s provost and were recently reported by Campus Reform. The school’s term for it is DEI — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — the prime buzzwords for wokeness and critical race theory.

* As mentioned above, Gov. Pritzker was asked about the topic yesterday

The right wing has decided that they’re going to grab on to anything, that they can use a few words, put it together and make it sound like it’s an attack on white people, then they’re going to go make it an issue. That is not something that we believe in here in Illinois. What the right wing is doing around the country is not something that we’re going to do here.

* Related…

* Scholarly Groups Condemn Laws Limiting Teaching on Race - More than 20 states have introduced legislation restricting lessons on racism and other so-called “divisive concepts.”

* Critical race theory battle invades school boards — with help from conservative groups: In towns nationwide, well-connected conservative activists, and Fox News, have ramped up the tension in fights over race and equity in schools.

* Fox News: Illinois teacher defends pushing critical race theory on students, calls opponents racist

* How Education Has Changed In Illinois Since 2020 Racial Justice Protests: “Which by the way is not even a huge part of these standards,” he said. “But all of this idea of anti-critical race: everybody has a race theory. When you start critiquing the mainstream theory about race, that’s when people get upset.”

* Illinois lawmaker looking to “defeat ignorance” with the nation’s first mandate on AAPI history in schools

Take a very deep breath before commenting, folks. Thanks.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 5:15 am

Comments

  1. ………more culture war nonsense that amounts to “we don’t want people to be smarter”.

    Comment by dan l Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 6:41 am

  2. Woke up early today and saw this post. Then, following the excellent advice, I too a very deep breath and decided to leave the comments to those who are more knowledgeable about this topic. You’re welcome.

    Comment by Occasional Quipper Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 7:25 am

  3. Impressed once again at the success of the faux outrage machine, this time turning a 1980’s era theory into the cultural flashpoint du jour.

    Pritzker would be better off, in this instance, not engaging on the topic.

    Comment by The Doc Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 7:35 am

  4. The GOP knows that its base is motivated by culture wars, which is what the former president tapped into. This is the type of legislation that Republican state governments is enacting—banning CRT, mandating playing the national anthem at sporting events, teaching “patriotic education,” etc. And they say the left panders, virtue signals and plays identity politics. The GOP is like, hold my beer.

    Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 7:49 am

  5. I really wish we had these discussions when I was in school. I graduated from a “top high school” woefully naive about race and I still struggle to understand.

    Comment by Proud Papa Bear Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 8:25 am

  6. While I support the “critical race theory” being taught. There is one thing I would do differently. I would not call anything “racist.” There is such a knee jerk reaction among conservative white people when that term is used. There are other words and phrases that can be used. I know it sounds like I am tiptoeing around the issue to appease bigots. But I want the people that have the most to learn from the critical race theory to have an open mind, and to not hear the word “racist,” and tune everything out.

    Comment by Ducky LaMoore Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 8:41 am

  7. Let me get this straight… Opponents of CRT take the position that racism is in the past and talking about it will only make people angry. We should let bygones be bygones and work on moving forward.

    If they can acknowledge that racism happened, why can’t there be a discussion of how racism crept into areas of society that you don’t immediately realize? That sounds like something worth discussing and banning that discussion doesn’t change the past.

    As a sidenote; does anyone else cringe at the use of the word “woke”, especially the way Wiretap was tossing it around.

    Comment by SomeGuy Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 8:46 am

  8. =That is not something that we believe in here in Illinois. What the right wing is doing around the country is not something that we’re going to do here.=

    Sorry governor, it is already here. Ask Bloomington Dist 87, they had a bunch of goofs complaining about something that they do not teach.

    But the governor is right, this is another fake issue created by the far right to get people fired up. Stave Bannon and other want to get the school boards so THEY can try to indoctrinate kids.

    Racism is real and it still exists. To say otherwise is educational malpractice. But, until 6 months ago or so, I had never heard the term “critical race theory”. I am sure some schools teach something called CRT, but most do not so this is another made up issue to get white conservative/rural parents woken up. Pathetic.

    Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 9:01 am

  9. I think it’s important to note in any discussion about CRT that the right wing provocateurs have explicitly said they’re lumping any discussion of race together under the banner of CRT, a concept they’ve invested tons of time and money into poisoning. Chris Rufo and James Lindsay have said so explicitly and they’re behind much of the current astroturfed campaign to harass teachers and school boards. CRT is not being taught to elementary school kids. It isn’t being taught to high school kids. They know this. Their goal is to eliminate all discussion of race from the classroom.

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 9:05 am

  10. One way to think about it is that the same anti-CRT forces (who can’t even define what CRT is) would have you believe they will celebrate Juneteenth as a national or state holiday, but ban talking about why the celebration is necessary.

    Comment by Shield Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 9:11 am

  11. No one is teaching CRT below 500 level US history in the better graduate programs. People need to unclench, and we need to do a better job teaching IS history starting in elementary school.

    Comment by Cheryl44 Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 9:24 am

  12. Anyone here learn about the 1919 Chicago race riot or Illinois’ various sunshine cities in high school? Me neither. Learned about the riot when I read Royko’s “Boss”; learned about the rest along the way through adulthood.

    We have more to fear from ignorance than truth.

    Comment by Northsider Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 9:34 am

  13. I’m with Cheryl44. We need to do a better job of teaching history. CRT is part of that. So is tyranny.

    Comment by Pundent Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 9:57 am

  14. “Anyone here learn about the 1919 Chicago race riot”

    Correct, did not learn about this in high school. This scrubbing of the dreadful event was mentioned in a book I read about Chicago politics.

    Selective scrubbing of history and forced nationalism, such as mandating the national anthem is played in sports stadiums, “patriotic” education, demonizing those fighting for racial justice by calling them “woke mob” and other names designed to arouse hatred and fear, are dangerous anti-democratic traits. We see very clearly what can happen when leaders being this to a boil.

    Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 9:58 am

  15. These same people will wail and moan if a confederate monument is removed and claim they’re just protecting history. It’s so blatant and obvious at this point what’s really bothering them.

    Comment by Excitable Boy Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 10:03 am

  16. I shudder to imagine state curriculum that would be pushed under a Gov. Bailey…

    Comment by NIU Grad Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 10:08 am

  17. Maybe the Gov could support a federal wealth tax to fund reparations? FDR probably would have considered it.

    Comment by Harriett Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 10:12 am

  18. A+ for Gov. Pritzker’s statement.

    – MrJM

    Comment by @misterjayem Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 10:33 am

  19. Think of critical race theory as the CarFax report on America. What looks like a great auto has been wrecked, the frame isn’t straight, and the odometer has been rolled back. But the used car dealer doesn’t want you to know that.

    Comment by Rasselas Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 10:38 am

  20. It’s very annoying that they keep citing the 1619 Project’s creator as the poster child for CRT, when in fact she went to Notre Dame and received a classical, Catholic liberal arts education heavy on the traditional canon of Western theology and philosophy. Isn’t that what all the talking heads on Fox News claim to want?

    Comment by Suburban Mom Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 11:28 am

  21. == I would not call anything “racist. ==

    I do think this is tip toeing to appease racists, but forget that, the practical reality is that it doesn’t matter how we talk about it. The people leading this anti-intellectual charge want to make it toxic to have any discussion about race. You can be as polite as you want, it doesn’t matter

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 11:47 am

  22. Since Derrick Bell is mentioned (as one of the originators of CRT), let me just say that his unique genre, “legal dystopian science fiction,” is fantastic. HBO made a version of the story “The Space Traders” which is good, but the original is amazing and shouldn’t be missed.

    Comment by lake county democrat Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 11:49 am

  23. Well, I for one think it’s about time we stop teaching ‘poststructural theory’.

    I mean, come on, when Derrida back in the 70’s suggested that truth is elusive and there is “nothing outside of text” he set the stage for what’s now — essentially — ‘post-truths’ or ‘alternative sets of facts.’

    What the anti-CLT/CRT really is is anti-intellectualism/anti-historicism disguised as misguided kind of patriotism. Heaven forbid — academics — or anyone — is critical of contemporary culture. They should be ashamed of themselves.

    /s

    Comment by Mr K Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 11:55 am

  24. To say that history is more complicated than we were taught in high school is saying very little. So are science and math.

    Almost every American has ancestors who were slaves or serfs. America has done a better job than most nations at having people up and down in society and be subject to the same laws. Our reality has been and is short of our ideals. But I have traveled enough to have seen worse.

    When our country was founded Europe was finishing up centuries of religious strife. We moved religion out of government to reduce the chance of that evil spreading here. We did not provide religious quotas to promote equality. (That approach has not worked well in Lebanon or Iraq.)

    Now we are working through a history of different groups believing that they are genetically better than others. Science has pretty well disproved that belief. There remain cultural differences across groups that do make differences in family stability and economic and political success. With luck we can absorb cultural features that make us better and drop those that make us worse.

    I fear that the focus on past injustice will hurt our future. I am not saying ignore it. But overcome it.
    Some of my Protestant ancestors fled Catholic massacres. Knowing that history does not make me a victim of Catholic bigotry. It shaped my ancestors behavior but need not shape mine.

    Comment by Last Bull Moose Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 11:59 am

  25. Here’s Chris Rufo, organizer for the Discovery Institute network of attorneys whose “stated goal is to bring a complaint before the U.S. Supreme Court and “effectively abolish critical race theory programs from American life.”

    Rufo says “we have successfully frozen their brand - critical race theory” - into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category. The goal is to have somebody read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think “critical race theory.” We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.”

    This is all astroturf.

    Comment by SWIL_Votet Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 12:04 pm

  26. ===No one is teaching CRT below 500 level US history in the better graduate programs.

    It is taught at the higher level of undergraduate courses at some institutions now though it certainly isn’t universal and usually it’s taught as one form of historical/societal analysis. Your point that it isn’t a universal subject is spot on.

    Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 12:18 pm

  27. ===I would not call anything “racist.”

    Interesting in that some (not all) of those who developed CRT did it to take the focus on personal racism and instead on institutions and rules that have a negative impact on non-whites.

    I think it can be useful to avoid using ‘racist’ in certain contexts for the reasons you point out, but you cannot completely avoid it and while I’m critical of CRT for some fairly academic esoteric reasons, CRT is helpful in making the jump from thinking of racism as a personal trait and instead a societal one.

    Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 12:23 pm

  28. “like single-family zoning that prevents the building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts”

    Do Pritzker, Harmon, & Welch agree with this? If so, they could find common ground with free-marketers to advance racial desegregation by liberalizing land-use regulations statewide.

    Comment by Blake Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 12:28 pm

  29. == America has done a better job than most nations at having people up and down in society and be subject to the same laws.==

    We were later than our peers in abolishing slavery. We have the highest income inequality among almost all our peers. Our justice system absolutely targets the poor, especially non-whites. We have the highest incarceration rate on earth and 60% of our prison population is black. Wage theft is a statistically bigger problem than shoplifting, but one of our other current moral panics is that society is collapsing due to petty theft and vandalism. The last two Democratic Presidents have given “look forward not backwards” statements about the crimes of their predecessors. I just can’t imagine how somebody could think such a thing

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 12:40 pm

  30. == There remain cultural differences across groups that do make differences in family stability and economic and political success.==

    Please specify which aspects of culture lead to which specific different outcomes. Thank you

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 12:41 pm

  31. The discussion of racism in schools isn’t the problem in and of itself. The instruction which pits innocent little children as either oppressors or the oppressed who had nothing to do with the sins of their parents or grandparents or even great grandparents is what is firing up many parents in my area. Shaming of innocent children who may be naive to the issue isn’t instruction, it is a form of bullying.

    That being said, the instruction needs to be better structured so that racism can be discussed and examples taught. Without discussion, there will never be a resolution. From what I am hearing, a lot of CRT instruction is being rushed into classrooms in a ham-fisted manner, perhaps from a lack of adequate training. I think that is more of a problem that the promoters need to tackle right nw.

    I could argue for example that no member of my family ever owned a slave, with my earliest ancestors arriving on these shores post WWI. I do recall the serious controversies of the 1960’s and early 1970’s when interracial couples were served in my long closed family restaurant and even when a young black was first hired as a waitress, and was rudely rejected by customers. That was roughly 30 years into family ownership back then, so a lot of what happened back then was wrongly accepted behavior even by my family. My father stood his ground on both issues and it cost him some customers back then.

    In my old Budlong Woods neighborhood in the 1960’s when Dr. Martin Luther King briefly lived in Chicago and organized various marches in the city, a rumor ran wild for a few days and panicked many of the parents of my friends that he would be marching in our neighborhood. We kids back then were pretty stunned by those reactions and the adults teaching the kids why that would be a fearful event. The school administrators and teachers were even talking about shutting down Budlong School on the day of the march that never took place.

    Those types of topics are most worthy of discussion in schools and elsewhere for folks who feel racism is fading or an over-blown topic these days.

    Just my 2cents on this topic.

    Comment by Louis G Atsaves Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 12:50 pm

  32. CRT is a big topic and purposefully packaged as a good thing with surface layers meant to get reasonable people to let it slip by. I have hundreds of hours in research in this topic. Anyone who truly understands what CRT, right or left, black or white, would never let this in to our schools or workplaces unless they actively want to see destruction. It is meant to divide, it’s meant to demoralize people of all races. It teaches white kids they are inherently oppressive bad people and it teaches minorities that they are oppressed and can’t get a fair deal ever. CRT not based in the 80’s, Google critical theory, it’s meant to be a cancer, it is subversion at work. Watch Yuri Bezmenov on YouTube if you don’t understand the concept. If you do understand the concept and do understand the roots of CRT and still think it’s okay to teach to kids then you are a sadistic bad vengeful dangerous person. Most people for it just haven’t taken the time to understand or because they are naive, or don’t have time to research it, or are willfully ignorant, not bad actors, but the people that understand it know it has to be stopped and standing against it is a hill worth dying on.

    Comment by IgnoranceIsCurable Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 12:51 pm

  33. === It teaches white kids they are inherently oppressive bad people

    Again, this is wrong–it teaches that institutions reinforce racism and that individual racism is less important than those institutional effects.

    But go on…

    Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 12:53 pm

  34. ===I have hundreds of hours in research in this topic. Anyone who truly understands what CRT, right or left, black or white, would never let this in to our schools or workplaces unless they actively want to see destruction.===

    Have a link?

    Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:02 pm

  35. =I have hundreds of hours in research in this topic=
    From where? Trump University? You clearly have a very biased and incomplete understanding of CRT, yet you’re passing yourself off as a (very judgmental) expert. Let’s hope *your* ignorance is curable.

    Comment by LakeCo Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:08 pm

  36. ===Have a link?===

    So I’m crystal clear… watchin’ “YouTube” videos ain’t no research.

    That was my rhetorical point.

    Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:10 pm

  37. == I have hundreds of hours in research in this topic. ==

    == It teaches white kids they are inherently oppressive bad people ==

    == Google critical theory ==

    Quote 2 and 3 show quote 1 to be an obvious lie

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:14 pm

  38. “ We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.”

    == It is meant to divide, it’s meant to demoralize people of all races. It teaches white kids they are inherently oppressive bad people and it teaches minorities that they are oppressed and can’t get a fair deal ever.==

    In action

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:18 pm

  39. == then you are a sadistic bad vengeful dangerous person. ==
    My my. Don’t hold back.

    Comment by Fly like an eagle Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:18 pm

  40. ===Anyone here learn about the 1919 Chicago race riot or Illinois’ various sunshine cities in high school?===

    Learned about the 1919 Chicago race riot in high school … because my Civics teacher (a goo goo) made Royko’s book available.

    Comment by Anyone Remember Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:26 pm

  41. - ArchPundit
    Again, this is wrong–it teaches that institutions reinforce racism and that individual racism is less important than those institutional effects. -ArchPundit
    That’s a mutually exclusive destructive aspect taught under CRT. There is no way I can list all of the ways this theory aims to subvert society.
    I’m not sure if that was meant to be a positive point on the board for CRT but teaching that to little kids is not going to have a positive outcome
    And separating kids in classrooms into oppressed and oppressors based on skin color does teach white kids they are inherently racist, that’s what is happening and it’s separate from teaching them that all of the institutions that they cannot control or change are inherently racist.

    Comment by IgnoranceIsCurable Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:37 pm

  42. === I have hundreds of hours in research in this topic===

    You really need a new hobby. Also, get off Facebook.

    Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:47 pm

  43. ======Anyone here learn about the 1919 Chicago race riot or Illinois’ various sunshine cities in high school?

    I was from downstate and had a very good American History teacher who actually taught about Reconstruction and we never learned about it or similar riots in
    East Saint Louis
    Springfield
    West Frankfort (new one to me from a recent article I read and no I don’t remember where)
    Virdun

    A friend wrote a book that I’d recommend as an overview

    All Hell Broke Loose: American Race Riots from the Progressive Era through World War II by Ann Collins

    I went to grad school with Ann and she teaches at McKendree. It offers an overview of racial violence during the period including some case studies. It’s far broader than most of us understand (and yes, I’m including myself in this).

    I knew about Tulsa and Chicago from friends and reading and I knew a bit about East Saint Louis and vaguely Springfield. I keep learning more nearly every day.

    Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:54 pm

  44. Critical Race Theory and Critical Theory in general are types of analysis to look at varying disciplines and identify the power structures in society that create the outcomes we live with. They are generally critical of the power structures and dominance hierarchies that exist. There are some contentious assumptions in CRT- where every dynamic is oppressed and oppressor, everything has to do with race, etc. There is value in ending the whitewashing of the curriculum but CRT as it taught and debated in academia is beyond what K-12 students and honestly most undergraduate students are capable of understanding.

    FWIW CRT is rooted in the Marxist tradition and is catnip for the right. The left sees it as a panacea for all the wrong with America and the West due to the dominance of classical-liberal thought. Both are hysterical.

    A democracy is a war of ideas. This is just another battlefield of that.

    Comment by Peoples Republic of Oak Park Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 1:59 pm

  45. ===That’s a mutually exclusive destructive aspect taught under CRT.

    I’m sure this has some meaning, but it completely eludes me. That said, have you read Dereck Bell or one of his contemporaries? I mean, you have hundreds of hours of research, one might think you have read the people who actually were the originators of CRT.

    ===The instruction which pits innocent little children as either oppressors or the oppressed who had nothing to do with the sins of their parents or grandparents or even great grandparents

    Louis this misses the point of CRT–it isn’t about individual sins, it’s about institutional structure that enforce and reinforce racist outcomes. Talking about racism as a sin avoids the actual need to address institutional design and treats racism as some sort of personal trait only.

    Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:00 pm

  46. === “like single-family zoning that prevents the building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts” ===

    You can teach CRT all you want, but these folks are never going to want affordable housing in their communities.

    Comment by Hannibal Lecter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:13 pm

  47. == The left sees it as a panacea for all the wrong with America and the West due to the dominance of classical-liberal thought. ==

    If we’re correctly defining the left as anti-capitalists, you’re talking about a small minority of a super minority who could even tell you what it means. I promise you “the left” doesn’t see it as a panacea or whatever. The right wing is pushing all of this. Teaching kids that redlining is bad is not teaching them CRT any more than teaching them the definition of natural selection is genetics. People like Chris Rufo explicitly want you to think this though

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:14 pm

  48. Arch Pundit, thanks for the book recommendation. Another good one related to the topic is SUNDOWN TOWNS: A hidden dimension of American racism (2005) by James Loewen. Born and raised in Illinois, Loewen gives a lot of attention to Illinois towns and how they enforced racial exclusion.

    Comment by anon2 Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:15 pm

  49. == From what I am hearing, a lot of CRT instruction is being rushed into classrooms in a ham-fisted manner, perhaps from a lack of adequate training. I think that is more of a problem that the promoters need to tackle right nw. ==

    There are no “promoters,” nobody is even teaching CRT, let alone rushing it in to the classrooms

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:16 pm

  50. =The left sees it as a panacea for all the wrong with America and the West due to the dominance of classical-liberal thought.=

    Uhhh, what? Who said this was a cure-all for everything? It’s an acknowledgement that there is institutional racism. Sounds like there are several here who think we should only be teaching the Daughters of the Confederacy curriculum: that the Civil War was the War of Northern Aggression, all slaves were happy, state’s rights, and all that BS. And we all wonder why there is institutional racism. smh.

    Comment by Steve Rogers Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:21 pm

  51. == You can teach CRT all you want, but these folks are never going to want affordable housing in their communities.==
    That’s a shame because when they get older and no longer need 4 bedrooms and no longer can mow a lawn they will be forced to leave the community they lived in all their lives, instead of downsizing.

    Comment by Fly like an eagle Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:23 pm

  52. @ArchPundit, You cut off my sentence. I’m just reporting what many parents in my area are saying about what their kids are telling them.

    All that causes is a huge angry argument that solves nothing and waters down the CRT messages concerning institutional racism.

    Comment by Louis G Atsaves Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:25 pm

  53. anon2–excellent. I’ve read interviews with him and I am going to pick up the book. Thanks.

    Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:25 pm

  54. I’m going insane, guys, they literally aren’t teaching CRT in your kids schools. Louis, whatever parents you’re talking to are either lying or being lied to. I dont know what else to tell you

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:28 pm

  55. Anything with “theory” in the title should give one pause.
    Can I let the breath out now?

    Comment by Yep Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:41 pm

  56. I wonder to what extent people are just mixing up “Critical Race Theory” and “Culturally Relevant Teaching” standards. It’s impossible to even have a conversation because the right wing explicitly wants to muddy the waters of what it even is, and they’re sucking up all the oxygen doing it

    Comment by SWIL_Voter Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 2:42 pm

  57. ==Anything with “theory” in the title should give one pause.==
    Like Big Bang Theory?

    Comment by Fly like an eagle Thursday, Jun 17, 21 @ 3:32 pm

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