We can sort the people who make up a society in many different ways. Not just by race, but also by gender identity, by wealth or income, by education, even--dare I say it?--by political affiliation. And more. A theme can unite us and bring us together across those differences. That same theme can also divide us and drive us farther apart. All depends on how it is discussed and taught and applied.
My experience with CRT--much like with BLM and the 1619 Project--is that they are being discussed and taught and applied in ways that divide us, not ways that unite us. It does not have to be this way. My concern is that those who seek now to divide us have an agenda and will, like Caesar, seek next to conquer us. Let's not make that easy for them.
One very important core psychological phenomenon to keep in mind: From the beginning of our emergence as humans, our minds desire, first, to divide the field. Who is like me, and who is not? Who is safe, and who is dangerous? Who will be my ally, and who will be my enemy? Who is for me, and who is against me? This seems to be where we all start. I suppose this is a survival mechanism. We all have to learn how to move beyond our inclination to first divide, and to move toward the more basic core reality that we are all connected, and that our real safety and strength is in belonging. Unity in the midst of diversity.
Great post, Isaac, I appreciate you going out of your way to incorporate feedback and put a finer point on it, though I certainly think your first post was “close enough” as it was. You can only fit so much in an email. I agree CRT is much better talked about than not, and I do think that includes in schools. I also think divisions in America are going to get worse before they get better, but we’ve always been a divided country. As much as we hate each other, it’s always been more advantageous to remain a nation, and I think we will continue to do that. But, of course, nothing lasts forever.
I can't add much to what the previous commenters have expressed. The one extra thing I will add, though, is how much I appreciate your effort to evaluate your past conclusions based on feedback and new information and then publishing the new conclusions. It helps all of us thresh out our own thoughts and get clearer on the multiple facets that constitute any important issue.
Thank you Isaac! That was beautifully handled. As I said in my comment on the last post I agree that CRT should be discussed as one lens among many - but in reading your update I'm reminded too that I would add a caveat to that: Because it places all its focus on power, CRT has a flavour that is both addictive and dehumanizing in a way not shared by other "lenses". McGilchrist's work on hemispheric differences is important here - it seems to me that CRT engages all the worst qualities of the hemisphere that deals in lifeless abstraction and self-serving manipulation and fails to engage the hemisphere that sees connectivities, humanity, and nuance. We need to keep CRT's ideas on the table all the more so that we can dissolve the more damaging elements of the theory. So matter how skillfully it gets applied and practiced, we can't escape that power narrative at its core. And that focus on power eclipses so much of what is beautiful and difficult about the complexity of human interaction.
I think most people have zero idea what CRT is and object to simply teaching the actual history of United States, which is steeped in racism. There's a reason HBO had to teach everyone about the Tulsa massacre, which was only one of many. America's textbooks are full of fuzzy, half-truths, and deliberate omissions about slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. There's your "critical race theory" right there, on the pages of every textbook, thanks to the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Teaching what really happening is "divisive." Black people have to understand white people, but white people being taught what black Americans actually experienced, how their current existence is the result of 200 years of systemic racism, is "divisive." "The truth will set you free", but only if it doesn't make anyone feel bad, and heaven forbid it make anyone see our current situation any differently.
I'm a white woman born in 1962. Our rival in high school football was South Garland, whose mascot was a Colonel in a Confederate uniform, their fight song was Dixie, their drill team was the Southern Belles and the Confederate flag was flown at all games. They had a freaking plantation on the wall of their cafeteria, complete with slaves in the field.
And every time we played, all I could think was what a great motif they had for their school, so cohesive. Never once did the suffering and death and grief suffered by the enslaved cross my mind. We all *knew* there were slaves and slavery was *wrong* but we couldn't connect the reality of what happened to this obvious celebration of slavery because we were never taught the truth. We were taught the Lost Cause mythology. We never read the Articles of Secession (Texas' is pretty brutal.) Had read them, the whole "state's rights" thing might have played a little differently.
We can sort the people who make up a society in many different ways. Not just by race, but also by gender identity, by wealth or income, by education, even--dare I say it?--by political affiliation. And more. A theme can unite us and bring us together across those differences. That same theme can also divide us and drive us farther apart. All depends on how it is discussed and taught and applied.
My experience with CRT--much like with BLM and the 1619 Project--is that they are being discussed and taught and applied in ways that divide us, not ways that unite us. It does not have to be this way. My concern is that those who seek now to divide us have an agenda and will, like Caesar, seek next to conquer us. Let's not make that easy for them.
One very important core psychological phenomenon to keep in mind: From the beginning of our emergence as humans, our minds desire, first, to divide the field. Who is like me, and who is not? Who is safe, and who is dangerous? Who will be my ally, and who will be my enemy? Who is for me, and who is against me? This seems to be where we all start. I suppose this is a survival mechanism. We all have to learn how to move beyond our inclination to first divide, and to move toward the more basic core reality that we are all connected, and that our real safety and strength is in belonging. Unity in the midst of diversity.
Great post, Isaac, I appreciate you going out of your way to incorporate feedback and put a finer point on it, though I certainly think your first post was “close enough” as it was. You can only fit so much in an email. I agree CRT is much better talked about than not, and I do think that includes in schools. I also think divisions in America are going to get worse before they get better, but we’ve always been a divided country. As much as we hate each other, it’s always been more advantageous to remain a nation, and I think we will continue to do that. But, of course, nothing lasts forever.
I can't add much to what the previous commenters have expressed. The one extra thing I will add, though, is how much I appreciate your effort to evaluate your past conclusions based on feedback and new information and then publishing the new conclusions. It helps all of us thresh out our own thoughts and get clearer on the multiple facets that constitute any important issue.
Thank you Isaac! That was beautifully handled. As I said in my comment on the last post I agree that CRT should be discussed as one lens among many - but in reading your update I'm reminded too that I would add a caveat to that: Because it places all its focus on power, CRT has a flavour that is both addictive and dehumanizing in a way not shared by other "lenses". McGilchrist's work on hemispheric differences is important here - it seems to me that CRT engages all the worst qualities of the hemisphere that deals in lifeless abstraction and self-serving manipulation and fails to engage the hemisphere that sees connectivities, humanity, and nuance. We need to keep CRT's ideas on the table all the more so that we can dissolve the more damaging elements of the theory. So matter how skillfully it gets applied and practiced, we can't escape that power narrative at its core. And that focus on power eclipses so much of what is beautiful and difficult about the complexity of human interaction.
I think most people have zero idea what CRT is and object to simply teaching the actual history of United States, which is steeped in racism. There's a reason HBO had to teach everyone about the Tulsa massacre, which was only one of many. America's textbooks are full of fuzzy, half-truths, and deliberate omissions about slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. There's your "critical race theory" right there, on the pages of every textbook, thanks to the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Teaching what really happening is "divisive." Black people have to understand white people, but white people being taught what black Americans actually experienced, how their current existence is the result of 200 years of systemic racism, is "divisive." "The truth will set you free", but only if it doesn't make anyone feel bad, and heaven forbid it make anyone see our current situation any differently.
I'm a white woman born in 1962. Our rival in high school football was South Garland, whose mascot was a Colonel in a Confederate uniform, their fight song was Dixie, their drill team was the Southern Belles and the Confederate flag was flown at all games. They had a freaking plantation on the wall of their cafeteria, complete with slaves in the field.
And every time we played, all I could think was what a great motif they had for their school, so cohesive. Never once did the suffering and death and grief suffered by the enslaved cross my mind. We all *knew* there were slaves and slavery was *wrong* but we couldn't connect the reality of what happened to this obvious celebration of slavery because we were never taught the truth. We were taught the Lost Cause mythology. We never read the Articles of Secession (Texas' is pretty brutal.) Had read them, the whole "state's rights" thing might have played a little differently.
CRT is the new sharia law.