Les Kampen
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
I was at the Jefferson City School Board meeting on July 13. It was apparent very few at the meeting including the board and Superintendent Larry Linthicum knew the difference between critical thinking and critical race theory (CRT).
Somehow the meanings of each were getting mixed up with the definition of the other; in reality, they are two separate concepts headed in opposite directions.
Critical thinking is important in education because you need to examine the facts to form a judgment. CRT starts with the premise the U.S. is a systematically racist country. Systematically defined by Webster's dictionary is "what is related to or affects the entire system." In other words, it is the entire body or population. If you want to be a victim, this is your easy way out. If you want the truth, read books by Shelby Steele, Robert Woodson, Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell, all senior PhDs, to name a few. These gentlemen are all senior Black scholars, they lived through the turmoil and they debunk CRT and the idea the U.S. is a systemically racist country. They do agree this country had numerous problems in the past, but we have made great progress and are ahead of all other countries that have had similar problems.
The idea of CRT was started by Chairman Mao of the Peoples Republic of China, who saw it as an opportunity to tear this country down, while ignoring their problems. CRT is a Marxist ideology that teaches our children to hate their country and to hate each other based on the color of their skin (all white people are oppressors and all Black people are oppressed). We should probably learn from one of our own that said "we should judge someone by the content of their character not by the color of their skin."
If you would really like to understand CRT, take in a lecture by Mary Byrne. She has spent years studying all of its machinations.
As a closing thought perhaps, you should understand it before you decide to teach it or tolerate it.