The Truth about CRT/SEL/DEIJ/Sex-Ed

CRT: The lies and the truth.

Lie 1: CRT Is Widely Taught in K-12 Schools

Lie 2: CRT Is Anti-White

Lie 3: CRT Makes White Students Feel Guilty and Ashamed to be White.

Lie 4: Small Children Are Too Young For These Concepts

What is Critical Race Theory, really?
Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is an academic and legal framework taught at the Graduate University Level and in Law School that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society — from education and housing to employment and healthcare. Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. It is embedded in laws, policies, and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities. According to CRT, societal issues like Black Americans’ higher mortality rate, outsized exposure to police violence, the school-to-prison pipeline, denial of affordable housing, and the rates of the death of Black women in childbirth are not unrelated anomalies.

Truth 1: CRT is not taught in K-12. It never has been.
It is not. An Ipsos/Reuters poll, for example, showed 22% of those who said they were familiar with Critical Race Theory, also think it is taught in most public high schools, which is not remotely the case. The truth is that CRT is an academic discipline mostly taught in colleges and law schools. It is also not something that teachers sneak into the classroom under another name. Truthful American History includes the entire American experience. It presents students with our background, “warts and all.” It includes the study of slavery, the decimation of Native Americans, World War II Japanese internment camps, and all of the mistakes of our forefathers. The objections to CRT are widely made by people who do not want to talk about racism in any way. They want to view America as perfect, but they’re hurting their children. When these children get to college, these students are angry with their parents for not giving them an accurate view of the world they grew up in. People need to take a step back from making it an attack on their individual identities when people are assessing America.

Truth 2: CRT and curriculums that are inclusive of the experience of “people of color” are NOT Anti-White.
Now that we have shown that CRT is not taught in K-12, even if it were, it is not “Anti-White.” Nor are our curriculums that are inclusive of the experience of “people of color.” CRT is a way to make space for the experiences of students of color in a system that has often whitewashed history and ignored the Black experience. It in no way eliminates space for the “white experience” in school curriculums. Aspects of racism are scary things for any child to learn about, but a more nuanced understanding of the harm it causes is actually empowering. For a child to learn that it is the systems that are in place that perpetuate these problems is freeing. They can learn that the enemy is not white people; it is the systems that were built before any of us were born and therefore, we are not responsible for the errors of our ancestors.

Truth 3:  CRT and curriculums that are inclusive of the experience of “people of color” do not make white students feel guilty and ashamed to be white.
Parents and politicians have claimed that teaching CRT or curriculums that are inclusive of the experience of “people of color” will make white students feel guilty and ashamed to be white. But in actually, the exact opposite happens. The history curriculum in schools it’s not designed to make children uncomfortable or feel ashamed of being white. The history curriculum is designed to teach our children what our ancestors did to people of color and Native Americans during checkered portions of American history. It is necessary to teach our children these things so we can learn from the mistakes of the past and not repeat them. That is why we teach about things like the holocaust as well.

Truth 4: Small Children Are Not Too Young For These Concepts.
Experts from Yale University have stated that it is “imperative that parents recognize and talk about racial differences with kids from an early age to prevent racism from taking root” (https://news.yale.edu/2020/06/15/its-never-too-early-talk-children-about-race). Surprisingly, “infants as young as six months old can recognize differences in skin color. By age two and a half, research has shown, children prefer playmates who are similar in race and gender. And as early as age three, they are forming judgments about people based on racial differences.”
Children “identify all kinds of differences quite readily,” says Yarrow Dunham, assistant professor of psychology at Yale and director of the Social Cognitive Development Lab. “The critical question is: Which of those differences do they come to think of as important determinants of social identity and social outcomes? They make those decisions by observing the world around them. And here — unfortunately — the world presents them with abundant evidence that race matters.”
“Many white parents are very uncomfortable talking about race,” Dunham says, “As a consequence, they do not put in the work to support the emergence of a structural or justice-minded understanding of racial disparities and of racism more generally. As white parents, we have an obligation to put in this work.”
It is imperative that our schools become an extension of the education about race that our children get, or should get at home. In the absence of these conversations, silence is powerful: “If they hear nothing about race, they figure out that there’s something different about that topic. And that difference can become imbued with negativity.”

DEI, THE NEW CRT ARGUMENT - SAME OLD NONSENSE IN A BRAND NEW BOX.

Now that the radical right’s CRT argument has been discredited as never being taught in K-12 classroom and only in Graduate and Law School, their force needs to find a new “acronym” to ply on the unsuspected. Their newest target – DEI which stands for “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.”

The same opposition players have now jumped on the DEI bus to try and vilify a training program “for teachers.” For example, groups like the "Center for Garden State Families” and "Moms for Liberty" are already touring the State plying the latest nonsense. 

The groups are using the same old tricks, cashing in on hatred and homophobia as they vilify members of the LGBTQIA+ community and anyone who supports LGBTQIA+ rights.

DEI is a professional education program for teachers designed to enlighten teachers to avoid inherent biases and to sensitize them so they do not succumb to biases in the classroom. Like unintentionally treating students of color as less intelligent than white students.

DEI is also extended into the curriculum as a way of thinking and being designed to help students respect and transcend our differences. To understand that while we all experience the world differently, it is important to honor our shared humanity. One way this is accomplished is by the inclusion of books representative of the diversity of our cultures. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a term used to describe programs and policies that encourage representation and participation of diverse groups of people, including people of different genders, races and ethnicities, abilities and disabilities, religions, cultures, ages, sexual orientations and people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, skills and expertise. It is an expansion of the term “diversity and inclusion” (D&I) to reflect the growing focus on equity in organizations. DEI is not just a “feel-good” initiative.

Research shows that training teachers in DEI and including it in the K-12 curriculum works to improve sensitivity to issues affecting the diverse groups of students in the classroom.

But the radical right is using DEI as they used CRT in the last election cycle. Conservative politicians have been attacking K-12 DEI teacher professional development program for the past year. They argue that the training is ineffective, divisive, and meant to "shame white people for something they are not responsible for."

Does that “shaming” statement sound familiar? It’s the same specious claim they made about CRT. It is an offshoot of the "Replacement Theory" being pushed by white supremacists and white nationalist throughout our country. 

So in order to be prepared for the “new acronym,” do your research. There are tons of reputable sources online to provide the actual facts about DEI and the great benefits that are derived by teachers who participate in these training programs and by students who learn in a district that has adopted an inclusionary curriculum. These programs and curriculums do not “indoctrinate” teachers and students with a “liberal conspiracy.” However, they do better prepare students for the time when they finish school and must experience a ‘diverse” world and workplace. 

But first, you must be willing and open-minded enough to consider the fact that preparing teachers for the sensibilities that may occur in a classroom is diverse and is a good thing.

The DEI attacks are the same “house of cards” that was built using CRT. The slightest bit of wind or counterpoint will cause this house to collapse under its own ridiculous weight as well.

Michael A. Gottesman, Attorney (Retired)

Founder, New Jersey Coalition for Protection of Public Education