Max Eden: Stop Gaslighting [All Of Us] On CRT

I took justified liberty with the title--it's not just parents that are being gaslit.

   Other than that, this piece is pretty much right on target.

   CRT is sometimes described as having clearly-defined boundaries--sometimes not. Those boundaries are sometimes located in one place, other times elsewhere. Eden wisely quotes Stefancic and Delgado...who give a list of four tenets of CRT...and then proceed to describe the theory in a way that makes it clear that it includes much more than those four tenets--and that also makes it clear that those boundaries are fuzzy.

Several points here deserve restatement: CRT defines itself in opposition to traditional civil rights and even Enlightenment rationalism. It defines itself not simply as a “Theory,” but also as movement of activists who seek to transform society. Many educators consider themselves to by Critical Race Theorists, and CRT ideology has had a profound impact on a wide range of education policy and pedagogical issues.
   Anybody who tries to peddle the line that CRT is just “talking about racism” is either gaslighting or being gaslit themselves. And anyone who maintains that CRT is simply an academic theory discussed in law school, at best, is ignorant of what CRT really is.
   By contrast, parent intuitions about CRT are spot on. Given that CRT informs so many aspects of education policy and pedagogy, the real crux of the issue for parents is, as Andrew Sullivan adroitly put it, “not teaching about critical race theory; it is teaching in critical race theory.” (Emphases in original.)
   Public schools may [not] be commonly assigning Critical Race Theorists like Kimberlé Crenshaw. But they have embraced a host of policies and practices that are rooted in Critical Race Theory. When parents hear terms like: “Equity,” “Anti-Racism,” “Cultural Competence,” “Culturally Responsive Education,” “Restorative Justice,” “Ethnic Studies,” “Equitable Math,” “Whiteness,” they would be fundamentally correct to go to a school board meeting and complain about Critical Race Theory. All of these practices are influenced by and have the same politicized purpose as CRT, which – to reiterate – defines itself not merely as a “theory” but also as an activist practice.
   School boards that are implementing CRT-infused programming should not follow the media’s lead and gaslight parents by claiming that they are “not teaching CRT” on the grounds that they are not assigning academic journal articles by self-avowed Critical Race Theorists. Because the more parents look into it, the more may realize that although their schools might not assign canonical CRT academic journal article, they are teaching “in” CRT.

   Though Eden is right about "parental intuitions," lots of parents (and other CRT opponents) aren't perfectly clear on what CRT is, nor on what the overarching problem is. But they aren't responsible for being perfectly clear on those things. The responsibility lies with teachers and other CRT proponents. And the problem is that they don't understand the view they're foisting onto children--and the rest of the country. They're intentionally transmitting a mind-virus that they themselves barely understand--in fact, a mind-virus that they clearly do not understand. They don't understand what it is and isn't. They have little conception even of its intended consequences. And, as is so often the case on the left: no conception whatsoever of its likely unintended consequences. This intellectual rot has been festering in academia--especially ed schools--for decades. And teachers have been indoctrinating students with it for God knows how long. And yet, even now, as they resist any pushback from parents, they obviously don't understand what it is that they're teaching. Parents and other opponents of CRT--like, e.g., Chris Rufo--already, in less than a year, have brought themselves up to a much better understanding of the view than  most of its proponents have generally managed in decades. Compare, e.g., Rufo's degree of  understanding to that of the execrable Joy Reid...who brought Rufo onto her show in order to talk over him while she held forth about a view she clearly doesn't understand. Progressives are despicable. Check out some of the videos in which teachers condescendingly try to explain what CRT is and why they must be allowed to indoctrinate children with it--they're generally woefully ignorant of and inarticulate about it. And infecting children with an abstruse, radical view that you yourself don't understand is pedagogical malpractice. Teachers should be fired for such a thing.