February 18, 2025 By Herb Booker
Critical Race Theory (CRT) was the first of a trilogy to include “Woke” and “DEI” that elicit intense passion both pro and con relative to historically disparaged groups in society. There are currently18 states in the US that have instituted bans on the teachings of Critical Race Theory, and there are several other states that are considering or currently have CRT bills moving through the legislature. The question is, why all of the CRT notoriety?
Critical race theory was developed in the 1970s as an effort by activists and legal scholars to understand why the U.S. civil rights movement had lost momentum and was in danger of being reversed. Additionally, CRT is an academic concept that says that race and racism are intertwined throughout American society. The theory was originally applied to law schools, and legal scholar Derrick Bell is often credited with coining the term and is widely considered the founder of CRT. In 1971, Derrick Bell became the first Black tenured professor at Harvard Law School.
To put CRT in layman’s terms, it is a concept that says racism is intrinsic or basically built into all systems and every aspect of society as a whole!
The big question is, where is CRT taught in schools? CRT historically has been a college level elective course and still is in states where the course has not been banned. Many on the right claim that CRT is being taught to children in K-12. This is where it gets murky.
Many on the far-right, especially parents of K-12 school children consider any discussions related Black to history to include any discussions relative to prominent Black historical figures, slavery, Jim Crow and related historical events, and Black contributions in science, medicine, engineering, inventorship and the arts as CRT. Essentially, any subjects considered Black related is oftentimes considered CRT by many. That couldn’t be further from the truth. There should be a clear distinction between CRT, which is essentially a theory, and Black history.
In September 2020, the former Trump administration issued a directive to federal agencies to stop all training related to CRT or White privilege. Many people consider the Trump directive a preemptive assault by the far-right to stymie meaningful discussions around racism, and of course, this assertion is also debatable.
There are quite a few anti-CRT bills that have sprung up around the country, and most of them have pretty much the same boiler plate verbiage. To be fair, the overwhelming majority of the provisions in most of the bills around the country actually promote race or sex neutrality and/or anti-discrimination based on race or sex. From my perspective, there is a relatively common provision among most of the bills, and I’ll use Oklahoma HB 1775 as an example: “(7) That any individual shall feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.
I agree with that provision to a degree, but no one wants any kids to experience psychological stress. Essentially, this was a provision that was put in Oklahoma HB 1775 and other anti-CRT bills around the country as a means to protect White children from any distress that might be incurred from teachings relative to slavery, any localized massacres perpetrated against people of color, and atrocities inflicted on Native Americans such as the Trail of Tears among many others. Albeit these incidents could garner an emotional response by some school age children, I generally feel that with most kids depending on age, it’s a non-issue.
I foresee a scenario where little Johnny comes home from school and says,” Mom, I’m home. Guess what, we learned about civil rights today. Can I go upstairs and play video games”? That’s about the emotional impact I expect on most kids. To them it’s just a subject taught in one of their classes, nothing more.
These kids now days are a lot smarter in general than us older grey heads at the same age, and they have a much more robust psyche. They will not lose any sleep over a class on civil rights or a discussion on slavery. The kids are fine. THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT HAVE ISSUES ARE THE PARENTS! Please don’t blame it on the kids.
I will close by saying that since CRT has been a highly debated topic of discussion for the last several years, I have never heard of an incident where a child stepped off of the bus and said that they were in tears because the CRT man was at school!
All opinions herein are solely the opinions of Herb Booker. Comments are welcome and can be sent to hbooker2@yahoo.com, or at the bottom of this page. Next week “7 Days A Slave in New York City”.