The Real Dangers Of The Right-Wing Attacks On Anti-Racist Education

Even this week, educators in states with critical race theory bans must now grapple with how to even talk about the massacre in Buffalo.Elizabeth Close, a high school teacher in Texas, told NBC News that she was struggling with how to speak about the killings with her students because state law requires that she teach different perspectives.One viewpoint is that Gendron was motivated by racism. “If you guys want to know why I’m thinking about quitting at the end of the year, it’s because of these types of policies — the fact that I have to have this conversation with you.”Proponents of such critical race theory bans have argued that these laws are intended to keep racism out of the classroom. But really, these laws are forcing teachers to lend credence to dangerous ideologies.Actual critical race theory is an important part of understanding racism’s role in American society.“We need to pay attention to what has happened in this country and how what has happened is continuing to create differential outcomes, so that we can become the democratic republic we say we are,” Columbia University professor and leading critical race theory scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw explained last year.