There’s an ongoing debate happening around how the history of racism in America should be taught in schools, with critical race theory back at the centre of it all. But despite its recent politicization by conservatives, the theory has been around since the ’70s, as a means to critically examine and address structures of power, white supremacy, and its long-lasting impact on racism and inequality in the U.S.
“While conservatives have appropriated critical race theory as a catch-all scare term for basically any conversation about teaching the history of race in America, the actual concept of it has been around for decades and — big surprise! — it’s really not scandalous at all,” says Samantha Bee in a Full Front segment on the topic, aired Wednesday.
Bee shows a CNN clip of leading critical race theory legal scholar Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw explaining it plainly: “Critical race theory just says, ‘Let’s pay attention to what has happened in this country and how what has happened in this country is continuing to create differential outcomes so we can become that country that we say we are.'”
As Bee points out, the current “conservative handwringing” around critical race theory started in 2019, when the New York Times published the 1619 Project, “which aimed to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of our national narrative,” she explains. “Unfortunately, that Pulitzer-winning journalism failed to take into account the feelings of one truly oppressed group: racist dildos.” Cue a montage of rants by the likes of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
“All this nonsensical outrage does have real consequences,” Bee says. “Five Republican-led state legislatures have passed laws limiting discussion of race in schools, and conservatives in over a dozen other states are considering similar measure. But because Republicans don’t actually give a shit what critical race theory is, much of the legislation against it is so vague that teaching the Civil War, Trail of Tears, and even civil rights could be considered a violation.
“Naturally, none of this has anything to really do with education, history, or ‘saving the children’,” Bee adds. “Scare tactic wedge issues like these have been a political strategy since the birth of democracy. Republicans have spent decades turning fear-based politics into an art form.”
There’s a second part too, which you can watch on YouTube.