Bill Gerling
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
The real reason critical race theory has become a hot-button issue has nothing to do with concern for what children are learning. It has everything to do with winning votes back for the Republicans in the next election. It is being used to flip the narrative from Black Lives Matter to white children being made to feel ashamed in discussions on race and racism. Critical race theory doesn't argue that anyone is inherently privileged, racist, sexist or oppressive, as a Tennessee law states. In fact, most of the states passing laws against CRT are not even stating the words in the laws. CRT theorists acknowledge race itself is a socially constructed concept irrespective of biological differences.
Christopher Rufo, of the right-wing Manhattan Institute, has promised to make CRT "toxic" in the mind of parents of school-age children. The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think 'critical race theory.' The goal is to make parents believe public schools are teaching that the United States is inherently a racist country to gain their votes. There are at least 165 local and national groups that are aiming to disrupt lessons on race and gender across the country. Groups attend school board meetings, flood districts with public requests, and file lawsuits alleging discrimination against white students according to NBC news. Political action committees have been set up to fund their cause.
Republican legislatures in 22 states have proposed legislation limiting the teaching of racial equity and white privilege. Missouri Republican Cindy O' Laughlin held a legislative hearing in which no Black perspectives were heard. Fox has mentioned "critical race theory" more than 1,900 times in the past 3.5 months. Ninety-four percent of its viewers are white, according to CNN.
According to a survey by the Association of American Educators a nonpartisan group of educators, of more than 1,100 teachers nationwide, they are not being encouraged to teach critical race theory. Republicans have adopted a three-way strategy to win more votes in 2022: maintain the allegiance of Trump, pass as many voter-suppression laws as possible, and to win back suburban voters by accusing school districts of teaching white privilege and guilt. Those are so-called toxic concepts seized upon by Rufo and his followers to poison relationships between parents, teachers, administrators and school boards.