Memes that Suck: “Another name for “Critical Race Theory” is “Actual American History”
Critical Race Theory is about the past, present, and future
This meme sucks. But not for reasons one might think.
The image is verified as being in the public domain by “Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora,” which regards this as an artistic representation, rather than an eye witness observation.
It’s heart wrenching. It will always be heart wrenching.
Looking closely at such imagery is not ‘critical race theory.’ Not at all.
The proponents of a ‘color blind’ style of racism (heirs of segregationist George Wallace, who realized that one could be racist without saying the n-word) can look at this image of slavery, and shrug. “That was long ago. We fought a war. Those days are over now.” (“There were good people on both sides…”)
“Actual American History” undergoes persistent construction. A unit on the 1920s might discuss Prohibition, gangsters, the birth of jazz, radio, Henry Ford/industrialization, and maybe a footnote or two about corruption.
One did not learn about “race riots” (massacres) in Tulsa/Greenwood. One did not learn about the KKK revival after ‘Birth of a Nation’ (but is that taught to high school kids today?). One did not learn about the the start of a racist immigration system, and the beginnings of deportation processes…
All of the items taught in such a history course are likely to be “actual American history.”
But certain parts of the story get left out. Critical Race Theory strives to fill in those gaps.
CRT posits that ‘official stories’ about what happened (or what is happening) often overlook certain groups of people — particularly people who do not look like the people writing those official stories. Examining those stories of neglected people may yield insights.
Nothing threatening about looking into gaps and omissions: that’s what scholarship is supposed to do.
But it is a problem when people think that CRT is “actual American history” — as if what is being taught in schools was ‘fake history.’ Or as if CRT was about historical problems, rather than current struggles that arise from effects of racism that linger.
