For decades now, left-wing activists have used their power in academia and public education to change fundamentally how people understand their nation’s past, present, and future. Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s gubernatorial election was the first battle in an effort to take that narrative back.
Americans have long understood their nation is imperfect, born into a world where slavery and racism were endemic. But they also know their republic has a unique commitment to the truth that all men are created equal with unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The road to honoring that truth hasn’t always been smooth. There were some very ugly turns along the way. But over time, the union has become “more perfect,” and more or less everyone was unified in wanting a society where, one day, everyone will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Then, along came academics Derrick Bell and Kimberle Crenshaw. They had a very different story to tell about America.
According to Crenshaw’s book Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, the story of America is really the story of “how a regime of white supremacy and its subordination of people of color have been created and maintained.” In direct contradiction to the color-blind tradition, critical race theory seeks to “recover and revitalize the radical tradition of race-consciousness among African Americans and other people of color.” Just as Marxists pushed people to identify themselves primarily by class, critical race theorists want people to identify themselves primarily by race.
Critical race theory is not taught directly to K-12 students, but its principles are being taught to K-12 teachers, who are then expected to infuse this new narrative into all of their classes. In Virginia, for example, the Department of Education’s website recommends “Critical Race Theory in Education” as a “best practice,” and the state’s superintendent of public instruction sent a memo to schools identifying “Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education” as an “important analytic tool” for teachers.
Parents have begun to see the results of this new narrative in action. Their children are sometimes forced to identify which aspects of their identities give them “privilege,” and then they are told to rank themselves and their other classmates based not on the content of their character but instead on how much “privilege” each of them has.
Parents do not like this new narrative. As one stepfather who voted for Youngkin said as he left the polls, “I kind of like the old style of school. I still believe in the American flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, and God.”
Democrats can’t seem to decide whether to deny that critical race theory is being taught in schools or to admit that it is happening but call any opposition to it racist. McAuliffe tried both. First, he denied critical race theory was being taught in schools, and then, he called the issue “a racist dog whistle.” Neither message resonated with voters, because neither is true.
The fight over critical race theory is not a fight over whether America’s history of slavery or segregation should be taught in schools. Of course they should — the abolition of those deplorable institutions shows how far this nation has come. The fight over critical race theory is a fight over national identity. Is America a collection of distinct races, locked in a zero-sum fight for power and domination? Or is it a nation of immigrants striving to see past their differences and create communities where everyone can flourish together?
It has taken parents a long time to realize what critical race theorists were up to and how deeply they penetrated the nation’s educational institutions. Now, they face a long fight ahead in setting the story straight.
