Over the last several years, conservatives across the country have been shocked to discover that elements of Critical Race Theory (CRT) have been introduced into America’s K-12 classrooms. Unproven theories such as “systemic racism,” “white privilege,” “white fragility” and the predatory “white imagination” have been used to confuse and indoctrinate our children.
The core tenet of this worldview is that white people (even white children) are inherently and inescapably racist because racism is a ubiquitous and foundational component of American society. Black people are therefore relegated to the status of victims, never able to escape the oppression that is caused by white people’s mere existence.
These teachings are entirely antithetical to Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that our children “will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Within the framework of CRT, race — not character — is the defining element of American society. CRT teaches that white guilt and black victimhood are permanent because racism is not just a collection of misguided beliefs one can accept or reject, rather it is a fundamental element to being born white.
Contrary to claims by some on the left, opposing this type of indoctrination in our schools has nothing to do with advocating censorship or opposing teaching honest history. Rather, it is simply a demand that theories about inherent guilt and victimhood be replaced with a true accounting of historical facts.
We should be teaching an age-appropriate account of slavery throughout world history, how such systems came to be and how they were ended. We should likewise acknowledge the role that discriminatory beliefs held by some people have played in relevant policy decisions. We should not be teaching children to see themselves as oppressors or as oppressed, nor should we be teaching them to believe that America, as a country, is evil or systemically unjust.
On the contrary, our country was founded on the laudable principle “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
We must never lose sight of our founding principles and we must ensure that those principles are taught as the source of America’s greatness. Idaho has taken some tentative legislative steps toward eradicating the falsehoods of CRT from our state’s classrooms, but we must do more to protect our children from these lies.
As your State Senator, I look forward to working diligently on this issue and making meaningful strides toward safeguarding our children’s future from further indoctrination regarding race and history.
