LETTER: Angry white people and Critical Race Theory

Aggrieved white people are going nuts about “critical race theory” and the role that slavery played in the founding of our country. They argue that teaching this theory will lead white children to hate themselves, hate this country and ultimately lead to racism. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is a sad fact that the history of America has always been written from a white perspective. White men wrote the Constitution, they developed the early political institutions and they crafted the worldview and political narrative from which America was understood. Now, more and more voices from an increasingly diverse society are challenging the existing power structure. And that is ultimately what the battle over critical race theory is all about.

The people who have always had the power to define us as a country feel threatened. They are now losing the power to shape that narrative, and the people gaining it are people of color. This has led Republican state legislators across the country to introduce bills prohibiting teaching CRT in schools. That legislation is effectively meant to stifle any discussions of race and its impact on the history of the United States.

Stories such as the Tulsa race massacre, or how Native Americans were slaughtered in the name of civilization have been covered up for years. The history of the United States has been whitewashed for generations. In revisionist history, minority groups barely exist. But the genie is out of the bottle. It is well past time to accept the true history of our country, and to teach that history in classrooms.