Republican Cancel Culture Wants to Erase Critical Race Theory
By: Walter Rhein
Tags: Republicans, Racsim, Trump, Politics, Black Lives Mater

Republican Cancel Culture Wants to Erase Critical Race Theory

American Anti-Slavery Almanac, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

You can always depend on Republicans to do exactly the opposite of what they claim to believe. When a racist is blocked from social media, they scream, “Cancel culture!” When a statue of a man who tortured slaves is toppled they scream, “Erasing history!”

But the second something emerges that Republicans don’t like, they instantly deploy the kind of brutal tactics that no decent person would ever even consider.

The latest target of Republican annihilation is Critical Race Theory. Republicans don’t know what it is, but they don’t want it taught. They don’t want kids to hear about it. They’re like abusers who attack children at night and in the morning say, “That was yesterday, why can’t we heal and move on? Why do you have to keep bringing up the past?”

The concept of using the legal system to ban a topic of study comes from the first paragraph of the authoritarian playbook. Leveraging our legal system to cultivate a systemic denial of reality is their objective. If history is any indication, the strategy has worked alarmingly well in the United States for decades.

What is critical race theory?

Sometimes it’s disgusting to observe just how completely Americans are controlled. These days, it’s rare to have a conversation with someone where they don’t parrot some idiotic talking point as if it was their own idea.

“Criminals by their very nature don’t obey laws.”

“Sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”

These fraudulent soundbites form the foundation of half the country’s thought process. These same people, who consider themselves intelligent and free, instantly turn to right wing media to tell them what any new idea represents. In other words, they seek out people who will lie to them and incite hysteria even when the facts are harmless.

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 — Stephen Sawchuk, What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?

Essentially, critical race theory explains why so many of us have never heard of critical race theory. It’s also why we’ve never heard of the Tulsa massacre, or the way plantation owners sexually violated both male and female slaves. Instead, we get rosy lectures about the Wright brothers and lies about opportunity and fairness.

Teaching lies about American exceptionalism

Republicans insist they want children to “feel good good about themselves.” They always invoke their love of children when it’s convenient. Never mind that they slash educational funding, and they don’t do anything to help children get medical care. But when it comes to imagined psychological trauma about learning historical facts, Republicans are right there.

Trump decried what he said was a “twisted web of lies” being taught in U.S. classrooms about systemic racism in America, calling it “a form of child abuse.” He reprised themes from a speech he gave in July at Mount Rushmore. “Teaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse, the truest sense,” Trump said. “For many years now, the radicals have mistaken Americans’ silence for weakness. They’re wrong. There is no more powerful force than a parent’s love for their children. And patriotic moms and dads are going to demand that their children are no longer fed hateful lies about this country.” — Alana Wise, Trump Announces ‘Patriotic Education’ Commission, A Largely Political Move

Republicans consider it “child abuse” to instruct children about the truth of American history because it might make them feel ashamed to be from this country. Yet Republicans also encourage parents to send their kids to church where they’re told they’re “sinners” and that they will “burn in Hell for all eternity.”

We’re all so thoroughly brainwashed in this country that these massive contradictions often pass right under our noses. By social convention, if you make an objection, the offending party feels entitled to throw themselves into a hysteria because “their religion is under attack!”

There’s a web of lies alright, but it’s coming from the political right.

Banning Critical Race Theory is a ban on free speech

The Republican war on education continues. It’s stunning to see the efforts that are made to handcuff teachers and stop them from providing useful information to students. Don’t think for one second that student’s don’t recognize that this is going on. That’s why they hate school so much. Who wants to sit around being indoctrinated?

The Florida State Board of Education unanimously voted to ban teaching ideas related to critical race theory Thursday, making it one of the largest public school systems to fall in line with conservative efforts across the country to regulate certain classroom instruction of American history. The rule says in part: “Instruction on the required topics must be factual and objective and may not suppress or distort significant historical events, such as the Holocaust, and may not define American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” — Safia Samee Ali and The Associated Press, Florida Board of Education passes rule banning critical race theory in classrooms

The infuriating part is that banning Critical Race Theory represents an intentional distortion of facts. What are teachers supposed to do when students ask how the United States could be based on the principle that “all men are created equal,” when the man who wrote that himself owned human beings as property?

Will a teacher go to jail if they have an honest conversation about this blatant and obvious contradiction that’s going to be obvious to every single student in the classroom? Failure to speak honestly about this kind of thing is brainwashing, not education. It’s impossible to comply with this law as written.

DeSantis’s bizarre comments

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis went on record with a litany of bizarre claims that any reasonable person would be embarrassed to have attributed to their name.

Appearing virtually before the vote, DeSantis also called it “outrageous” that teaches [sic] would want to incorporate the theory in their classrooms. “Some of this stuff is, I think, really toxic,” he said. “I think it’s going to cause a lot of divisions. I think it’ll cause people to think of themselves more as a member of a particular race based on skin color, rather than based on the content of their character and based on their hard work and what they’re trying to accomplish in life.” — Victoria Moorwood, Florida bans critical race theory in schools

First of all, it should be noted that these comments represent DeSantis’s unsubstantiated theory on the effects of teaching Critical Race Theory. He has no basis for believing the things he claims. He has no scientific evidence that this is what will happen. Yet, he confidently stands in public to make these unfounded comments.

Also, if he’s going to quote Martin Luther King Jr. in his comments, he should at least properly attribute the quote.

Again, what are teachers supposed to do about all the historical injustices? How are they supposed to explain the fact that when a black man and a white man are caught doing an equivalent action, the black man is sentenced to death and the white man isn’t even detained?

Is the solution just to erase all the evidence that supports Critical Race Theory? Our history text books are going to be reduced to the size of an advertising flyer.

This ban isn’t going to work

Lawmakers in 16 states have introduced or passed legislation this year seeking to limit the teaching of critical race theory within public institutions. These bills all resemble former President Trump’s now-defunct executive order prohibiting federally funded institutions from teaching “divisive concepts” about race and gender. But whereas Trump’s order was widely interpreted to apply to diversity training, and lacked serious bite with the 2020 election fast approaching, these new state-level bills are already impacting the college curriculum. Many faculty members see this as censorship, by design — Colleen Flaherty, Legislating Against Critical Race Theory

The purpose to this kind of abuse of legislative power is simply to slow the progress of our nation. It’s Republican censorship, it’s Republican cancel culture, it’s a Republican effort to erase history.

Our children deserve to know the truth about our country. They see the truth outside their window and on the television every day. They know they’re being lied to and it makes them confused and angry.

We have to demand, not request, but demand that Critical Race Theory is taught as a fundamental component of American history. Leaving it out would be the same as a math teacher who refused to recognize the existence of odd numbers. It’s simply not possible to equip our children to achieve a better future if we are not honest about the crimes of our nation’s past.