Typical of the culture wars
“Folks, we’re in a cultural warfare today,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said at a news conference alongside six other members of the all-Republican House Freedom Caucus. “Critical race theory asserts that people with white skin are inherently racist, not because of their actions, words or what they actually believe in their heart — but by virtue of the color of their skin.”
No, it doesn’t. That’s not what it is. That’s not what it is. I’m not saying there’s no one who thinks that or says that, I’m saying it’s not what Critical Race Theory is.
Andrew Hartman, a history professor at Illinois State University, described the battle over critical race theory as typical of the culture wars, where “the issue itself is not always the thing driving the controversy.”
“I’m not really sure that the conservatives right now know what it is or know its history,” said Hartman, author of A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars.
He said critical race theory posits that racism is endemic to American society through history and that, consequently, Americans have to think about institutions like the justice system or schools through the perspective of race and racism.
It’s so tempting to say “duhhhhhh” like a child. Of course the justice system and the schools are not untouched by endemic racism, how could they be?
However, he said, “conservatives, since the 1960s, have increasingly defined American society as a colorblind society, in the sense that maybe there were some problems in the past but American society corrected itself and now we have these laws and institutions that are meritocratic and anybody, regardless of race, can achieve the American dream.”
Which is unthinking, uninformed, naïve, unreasonable.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has introduced the Combating Racist Training in the Military Act, a bill that would prohibit the armed forces and academics at the Defense Department from promoting “anti-American and racist theories,” which, according to the bill’s text, includes critical race theory.
So, anything that doesn’t stop at the I have a dream speech and the instant move to total meritocracy and color-blindness. Brilliant.
I can’t wait until the hearings on the Senate Anti-Racist UnAmeican Training Committee if the Republicans take back the Senate in 2022:
Senator Cotton: It’s a simple question, General. Do you now, or have you ever seen Color?
Good one!
I think there is a strange parallel between people saying “I don’t see color” and people saying “I see trans women as women”. In both cases people claim not to be influenced at all by the way they have been socialized and that they have somehow reprogrammed their brain to agree with what they consciously believe (or claim to believe) to be an un-bigoted point of view.
People on the left vehemently (and IMHO correctly) reject any claim of being “color-blind” because you cannot escape the way you have been socialized and the racist society you live in. But somehow, claims of “of course I see trans women as women” are accepted despite our socialization (and perhaps even genetic disposition) that enables (and forces) us to instantly recognize the sex of people.
Maybe there’s a disconnect in how we understand what it means that x is y, when x is an idea and y is a system of ideas. Because in my view, yes, it is. It’s not a fringe idea within critical race theory, any more than TWAW is a fringe notion in gender ideology. Rather, it is a necessary consequence of fundamental principles of the conceptually framework that is critical race theory and is widely influential. Perhaps your understanding of “x is y” requires more of x than mine. What makes my eyebrow rise is wondering how much more and whether that would allow one to say things like, “Christians believe that Jesus Christ was fully Man and fully God.”
Sonderval – interesting parallel. I think you’re right.