We have an update or continuation of my discussion about Critical Race Theory.This was prompted by the fact that Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg recently gave a good example of the kinds of things CRT examines when he noted that systemic racism in the design and location of highways in American cities and suburbs continues to adversely affect low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.
As a specific example, he pointed to underpasses along the parkways in the Long Island suburbs of New York City that were deliberately designed to be too low for buses for the specific purpose of keeping buses from bringing low-income - mostly non-white - city residents to Jones Beach.
Right-wingers first denied that was true and after having to admit it was, dismissed it as irrelevant because those underpasses were built 92 years ago.
But they're still there! That's the point: The racism of 92 years ago is still impacting people today.
They don't get it - and the truth is, they don't want to.
It's already become clear that the MAGA meatheads who rant and rave about CRT have no notion what it is, they can't explain it or describe it, they just know it's being taught in public schools and they are flat out against it, dagnabit - whatever the heck it is.
What's also becoming clearer is what the actual objection is. And it's not to CRT.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll a couple of weeks ago asked respondents: “How much do you think public schools should teach about how the history of racism affects America today?” Some 70% of the public said "a great deal" or "a good amount" while a majority of Republicans - 53% - said it should be taught "not so much" or "not at all."
As Laura Clawson of DailyKos putit, "That’s not an objection to critical race theory" but "an objection to kids learning that definitely within their grandparents’ lifetimes, the US had explicitly racist laws that have continuing effects today."
Hell, you don't even have to refer to continuing effects. A Monmouth University poll that came out a bit before the Washington Post/ABC News poll asked a slightly different question: "Should public schools teach the history of racism?" 43% of GOPpers disapproved - 34% disapproved strongly. Of just teaching historical reality.
And really, you can't even call it history not just because of the continuing effects of past racism but the reality of present-day racism as a fact of our society. Even leaving that aside, even if you leave immediate present-day considerations aside, it barely constitutes history rather than current events.
I'm going to use my life as a timeline.
- I was 12 when federal marshals had to escort a 6-year-old black child past screaming racist mobs so she could go to a newly-integrated school.
- I was 14 when Medgar Evers was assassinated.
- I was 15 when Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were murdered in Mississippi for trying to help black people register to vote.
- I was 15 when the Civil Rights Act was passed.
- I was 14 when MLK gave his "I have a dream" speech; 19 when he was murdered.
These events and others, were part of my growing up, they are part of my living memory. I know I'm old, but it still means that in an historical context, in a societal context, they are not that long ago.
And the fact is, at the very least a significant number among those who call themselves GOPpers don't want their kids to know about any of it. They don't want them to know about the segregated lunch counters and restaurants, the segregated waiting rooms, the segregated bus seating, the segregated schools, the segregated neighborhoods, the segregated drinking fountains, for pity's sake. They don't want them to know that as recently as 1967, 16 US states still had laws banning interracial marriage.
Because knowing would hinder their ability to continue to maintain their bigoted fantasy that they are the real victims, they are the truly oppressed, and racism longer exists - except, that is, for the "real" racism, which is directed against them.
It is depressing. And it is frightening.
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