Education Requires Discomfort
By: Jeremy Zerby
Tags: Critical Race Theory, Education, Teaching And Learning

Education Requires Discomfort

Last time, I ended with the idea that we need to talk about racism in school, either as an informal class discussion or it needs to be built into the ciriculum already. This very idea is where people begin to butt heads when it comes to Critical Race Theory (CRT).

A fascinating thing to point out here is that, while CRT has existed since the 1970’s, most of us had likely never even heard of it until the past few weeks. And the reason many of us likely heard of it is because people were suddenly protesting and speaking out against it. What is fascinating here is that there was not some mass deliberate movement to start teaching CRT in school. Rather, the protests began in response to discussion of systemic racism coming up in school in the first place. CRT became a sort of buzzword and rallying cry for those on the right.

The mere mention of racism in a classroom setting has resulted in calls to have teachers fired and schools being vandalized.

Here’s the truth of the matter: if one is truly learning, they are going to be uncomfortable. They are going to come in contact with hard questions. When one reads their history books, they often come across parallels between what happened then and things that are happening now.

Which is the whole point of the old addage that “Those who forget the past are destined to repeat it”.

We are presented with those connections and we sometimes think to ourselves, “that was bad. I do not ever want anything like that to happen again”.

This is where I present to you the debate about CRT.

There are only two arguments brought against the teaching of CRT. They come down to 1) it is racist and 2) teaching it is equal to indoctrination. And both are easy arguments to dismantle.

Argument 1: CRT is racist

Simply put, there is nothing racist about saying that racism still exists and is an ingrained part of the system. It is not evan racist to say that, when looking at our nation’s history, that white people today should feel certain ways about actions and movements that their ancestors participated in. It is not racist to say that white people should feel some bit of guilt for the privilege that their skin color affords them. Privilege should bother you. It should make you feel guilty. And that guilt should translate into actions that acknowledge that privilege and use it for the benefit of those who do not share in it through no fault of their own.

The thing is, CRT does not even teach white guilt. It holds that white people built a system originally intended to keep black people down and that, even though the legal frameworks for that system have been largely written off the books, the results of those frameworks still exist today and the attitudes that led to their creation are still being propogated by people to this very day.

CRT is actually an anti-racist frame of thought. Therefore, to be opposed to those discussions is to be against discussing anti-racism, which puts you squarely on the side of defending racism.

Argument 2: teaching CRT = indoctrination

The second big argument against CRT is that teaching it is the same thing as indoctrinating children. This argument falls flat because one does not accuse the english teacher of indoctrination because of the class unit on the book 1984. And it is not stated by these same men and women that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before class every day is a form of indoctrination. Erego, a teacher stating that racism existed at one time, was written into our laws at one time, and the effects are still being felt today is not indoctrination. It is the presentation of an idea just like presenting the Pledge is the presentation of an idea just like the presentation of the surveilance state envisioned by George Orwell is the presentation of an idea.

Presenting truth is also not the same as indoctrination. Truth is simply the statement of fact. It is a fact that racism existed. It is a fact that Africans were kidnapped from their homes and brought here like animals by people who did not view them as being the same level of human as themselves. It is fact that their skin color was a part of that reason. It is a fact that they found ways to justify their racism using the Bible. It is a fact that religion was used to control these men and women when they were slaves here. It is a fact that they were given a Bible that had any of the stories of liberation from slavery cut out, in what has been dubbed the Slave’s Bible. It is a fact that after slaves were liberated that our nation’s founders came to a compromise that black men were only worth 3/5 of a person. Etc. Etc.

So I leave you with this final thought.

If you do not want your child learning about systemic racism in school, then you need to pull your kid from any school environment and home school them. And when the lessons on Civil Rights come up, skip them. Do not tell them about Frederick Douglas. Do not tell them about Martin Luther King. Do not tell them about slavery. Nothing. Just flat out ignore anything to do with black people whatsoever. Cover their eyes when a black person walks by. Completely isolate them.

If you read that statement above and think I am bring crazy, then you are not actually opposed to the teaching of systemic racism or even CRT. Rather, you are feeling your own inner tension as ideas you were raised with are being shown to be faulty. You are likely trying to protect your children from feeling the guilt that you are currently feeling. And that is perfectly understandable. But you also need to let your kids experience that guilt while they are young enough to to grow up and be the force for change that you were not given the opportunity to be.