Proponents of critical race theory continue to frame resistance to it in the classroom as racist. In an interview with Education Week, Margaret Thornton, an assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia, characterized opposition to critical race theory as a “whitelash” and a “racist attempt to silence educators.” She insists that in spite of these attacks, she’ll keep teaching the “truth about oppression” in the United States.
The problem with this sort of attack is that there’s a lot more to critical race theory than just teaching historical oppression such as slavery or Jim Crow. It’s this “more” that should worry parents of any race, especially parents of aspiring entrepreneurs.
CANCER OF CRT, GENDER IDEOLOGY SPREADING IN WOKE US MILITARY
Of particular concern: Critical race theory activists often reject the idea of individuality. In her blockbuster critical race theory book White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo rejects the “ideolog[y] of individualism.” What does she mean by individualism? “Briefly, individualism holds that we are each unique and stand apart from others, even those within our social groups.”
The problem is that an individualistic streak is essential to being an entrepreneur. In “Individualism: A Deeply American Philosophy,” Patrick Carroll and Dan Sanchez pointed out that the greatest entrepreneurs in U.S. history were deeply individualistic. They were “mold-breakers.”
This individualistic mindset was perfectly captured by Steve Jobs with Apple’s 1997-2002 “Think Different” ad campaign. But if you’re told that it’s wrong to see yourself as “unique” or “standing apart” from your social group, what are the odds that you’re going to grow up to think differently?
The odds get even lower when you factor in how critical race theory is actually taught. If the essence of entrepreneurship is “think different,” the core of critical race theory might be described as “make sure you think like us.”
Prominent critical race theory advocates explicitly reject the notion of critical thinking — that is, developing the intellectual toolkit to think for yourself. Why? Dr. Alison Bailey, the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Illinois State University, explained the logic:
“The tools of the critical thinking tradition (for example, validity, soundness, conceptual clarity) … fail because the critical thinker’s toolkit is commonly invoked in particular settings, at particular times to reassert power: Those adept with the tools often use them to restore an order that assures their comfort.”
Essentially, Bailey argued that some people in power might outthink critical race theory advocates, and therefore, we need to reject critical thinking completely.
If you reject critical thinking in your students, what are you left with? Indoctrination. According to an article in the prestigious UCLA Law Review, critical race theory “engages students in social activism to defy majoritarian supremacy.”
Education has traditionally taught students how to think, but critical race theory advocates such as Bailey seem to envision something different: a way to create activists who all see the world a certain way and will fight for the causes their teachers care about. It’s hard to imagine a pedagogy less conducive to molding and encouraging young entrepreneurs.
The tragedy of all this is that it’s coming at a time when young people are already struggling and the U.S. is in dire need of innovators. Due to a variety of factors, Generation Z is one of the least entrepreneurial in American history. According to a survey of a half million high school seniors, only 31% said they would like to be self-employed. That’s down from 46% in 1985.
If we want to regain our status as a nation of entrepreneurs, we need to start teaching young people the same rugged individualism that Jobs and Andrew Carnegie embodied. Teaching them to eschew critical thinking, reject individualism, and never step outside of the bounds of approved thought isn’t going to get us anywhere.
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Julian Adorney is a writer and marketing consultant with the Foundation for Economic Education.
