The battle over critical race theory (at its core, a “different” way of looking at race relations in the United States) continues to heat up. As a community organizer in a very divided Orange County, I am witnessing top-down efforts to implement and fund critical race theory curriculum in our local schools. I am also of Asian descent and ready to lead pushback from those who see critical race theory for what it really is.
Critical race theory is, in a word, racist. While supposedly honoring the minority experience, it is condescending and hateful toward the dominant culture experience, calling anything “white” racist, ugly, and guilty. Anyone who conforms is “white adjacent” and therefore also guilty. The entire premise of the theory is rooted in disdain and rejection.
That doesn’t mean that many of the bigger and finer points concerning race are not worth exploring. That doesn’t mean that minorities don’t have a different and often alienated experience in every facet of American life. But I believe that approaching race as the overriding issue and giving a CRT curriculum fundamentally rooted in division and victim mentality offer no positive way forward.
When critical race theory was developing in legal circles in the 1970s, the idea was that certain groups, such as Asians, were so foreign that the dominant white culture, with all its assumptions, would be difficult for an Asian person to understand. As an example, a math test might reference a NASCAR race, asking students to compare the speeds and arrival times of two vehicles. Now, for an Asian student who was never exposed to NASCAR, this would be completely foreign and thus possibly add some extra mental stress to solving that math problem. Yet, I managed to excel in math, and many others of every race and background did and continue to do so. As Lindsay Lohan said in the movie Mean Girls, “I like math because it’s the same in every country.”
Why are we removing a necessary part of the learning experience (the struggle) and shielding our students from the uncomfortable growing pains and feelings that come along with it? Ultimately, minority students will suffer more by remaining in their own box. I speak as someone who understands the feelings of being an outsider all too well. If I had wallowed in those feelings, I would be unproductive and bitter and would not have achieved much in life.
Critical race theory is particularly galling to Asians, the so-called “model minority.” Its tenets are doubly racist — first stripping us of “minority” status because of our success and successful integration into the American fabric of business, homeownership, and the scientific and academic professions (and making inroads into every other field!). More insidiously, critical race theory limits the major vehicle for upward mobility in our communities: academic success. These days, the California Department of Education is considering removing Honors and Advanced Placement Math in high schools. How, exactly, will destroying meritocracy benefit our society?
The focus in our schools needs to go back to the individual, not subgroup solidarity. Yet, this is exactly what the theory attacks. Its fundamental premise is to say that, as part of a group, you are forever chained to the insecurities and trappings of that particular subgroup. If you are Hispanic or Asian, you are chained to the immigrant experience and will always be seen as “foreign.” If you are black, you are oppressed by the white man who continues to keep you down. If you are white, you bear a legacy of racism and must forever manage your white guilt and make amends and reparations.
My own experience is a better barometer than academics trying to condescend to me with theories. I am not just an Asian American, but a collection and summation of my many experiences in life and the roles I play — from my work to my community activism to my love for music and my collection of animals. I am an individual with interests, experiences, and passions that are uniquely me. I have chosen to not let my race define me or prevent me from accomplishing everything I want to in my limited time here. Isn’t that what critical race theory should really be about?
Break free of those chains, whatever color you are. Do not let the double-talk of the ideology kill your valuable spirit by trapping you into being defined by your skin color and their definition of what it means to be white, black, Latino, or Asian. You are so much more than that.
Marc Ang ([email protected]) is the president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance in Orange County, a community organizer in Southern California, and the founder of AsianIndustryB2B. His book Minority Retort will be released in late 2021.
