Re: 'Critical Race Theory – What's the big deal' [Village News, Editorial, 6/10/21]

Here is Critical Race Theory in a nutshell: “The core idea of Critical Race Theory is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.” In other words, CRT ferrets out systemic problems. It does not, and cannot, deal with individual bias. There are other programs that purport to do so, but that’s a different discussion.

If you’ve been following the news regarding our schools, you’ve seen and heard a lot of misinformation about CRT. The prime purveyor of such misinformation is Christopher F. Rufo of the Discovery Institute. The Discovery Institute is paid to produce “sciencey” sounding articles disputing climate change, the validity of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, and lauding our untrammeled capitalism and our unblemished record of equality. Recently they have taken on the task of demonizing CRT.

In the subject editorial I’m rebutting, you were presented with Rufo's purported exposé of the now infamous Cupertino Elementary School where a third grade class was subjected to the horrors of CRT. Except they weren’t. I don’t know what the teacher thought he was teaching, but it certainly wasn’t CRT. Anyone who knows CRT knows that third graders are not who you go to to address systemic problems. Also the subject class presentation was not authorized by the school itself. Of course, Rufo knows this, but his fervent hope is that you don’t.

Rufo wants not only to demonize CRT, he also wants to convince you that any program that has to do with racial bias is CRT. Here is his plan in his own words: "The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think 'critical race theory.’ We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans." (NBC News, June 15, 2021)

Meanwhile, legislators in several conservative states are developing bills to outlaw any discussion, in public schools, of racial bias. The technical term for that is prior restraint, a violation of our First Amendment Freedom of Speech, or colloquially; it’s called canceling.

I believe the findings from CRT – that is, that there is systemic bias in our laws and education codes – should be dealt with by the agencies that generate such laws: our state and federal legislators, in concert with the educators who educate our teachers. I don’t see a place in our public schools for teaching CRT itself, but I do believe American history teaching should be informed by CRT findings, and thus present a more truthful account: age appropriately, of course.

John H. Terrell