Critical Race Theory or “CRT is a graduate-level framework examining how the legacy of slavery & segregation in America is embedded in its legal systems & policies; it has become the source of a political flashpoint across the country. The debate over its potential role in school-curricula has roiled school districts & state legislatures nationwide”, reported Amna Nawaz from PBS, “Why Americans are so divided over teaching CRT”. It’s a legal-construct, taught in law school, NOT high school! Diversity-training is NOT teaching CRT! That said, progressives want to learn & explore our nation’s real history, and desire that factual history be taught to our offspring, which has me pondering history lessons I learned: Christopher Columbus, the daring Italian explorer, who discovered the Americas, (funded by Spain’s royalty to find new lands to plunder & colonize) was NOT was the first to discover the Americas. Then we were taught feel-good stories of how the Native Americans helped pilgrims survive starving during their first few winters; we were mainly spared the harsh realities of learning the full-truth about the Indian-holocaust (even in high school). ‘How the West was Won’, the varnished-version was excused by the ‘necessity’ of Manifest Destiny. “Remember the Alamo”, those ‘brave-fighters’ were presented as heroes, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, etc, when in reality they were essentially duped into fighting/dying for monied-interests, pushing the expansion of slavery into the ‘free’ Texas territory, which belonged to Mexico.
We were taught in the North who the real heroes of the Civil War were, but decades after that war, the South erected statues of Confederate icons & even slavers, and enacted laws, structures, systems to keep Blacks oppressed, poor & at the mercy of Whites’ legislation & ‘compassion’. Fast-forward to 2021. None are alive today that were responsible for the horrors of slavery. Let’s face it, everyone had to be somewhere, and our ancestors were influenced by the people & events that surrounded them. Washington & Jefferson were born into wealthy, slave-owning families; that’s the realities they were raised in, yet they sought to create a better America. They evolved, for the good, in their lifetime. How much are we willing to evolve on racial-issues?
Progressive proponents seek justice, equity & truth in America & want our youth taught these values; opponents say, “Don’t teach our kids guilt” over their ancestors’ actions! Our children learn about the Jewish-Holocaust in middle-school, and some of those children are of German-descent. We must face many hard truths on our life-journeys.
Trish Forsyth Voss
Jul 10 2021
Critical Race Theory
Critical Race Theory or “CRT is a graduate-level framework examining how the legacy of slavery & segregation in America is embedded in its legal systems & policies; it has become the source of a political flashpoint across the country. The debate over its potential role in school-curricula has roiled school districts & state legislatures nationwide”, reported Amna Nawaz from PBS, “Why Americans are so divided over teaching CRT”. It’s a legal-construct, taught in law school, NOT high school! Diversity-training is NOT teaching CRT! That said, progressives want to learn & explore our nation’s real history, and desire that factual history be taught to our offspring, which has me pondering history lessons I learned: Christopher Columbus, the daring Italian explorer, who discovered the Americas, (funded by Spain’s royalty to find new lands to plunder & colonize) was NOT was the first to discover the Americas. Then we were taught feel-good stories of how the Native Americans helped pilgrims survive starving during their first few winters; we were mainly spared the harsh realities of learning the full-truth about the Indian-holocaust (even in high school). ‘How the West was Won’, the varnished-version was excused by the ‘necessity’ of Manifest Destiny. “Remember the Alamo”, those ‘brave-fighters’ were presented as heroes, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, etc, when in reality they were essentially duped into fighting/dying for monied-interests, pushing the expansion of slavery into the ‘free’ Texas territory, which belonged to Mexico.
We were taught in the North who the real heroes of the Civil War were, but decades after that war, the South erected statues of Confederate icons & even slavers, and enacted laws, structures, systems to keep Blacks oppressed, poor & at the mercy of Whites’ legislation & ‘compassion’. Fast-forward to 2021. None are alive today that were responsible for the horrors of slavery. Let’s face it, everyone had to be somewhere, and our ancestors were influenced by the people & events that surrounded them. Washington & Jefferson were born into wealthy, slave-owning families; that’s the realities they were raised in, yet they sought to create a better America. They evolved, for the good, in their lifetime. How much are we willing to evolve on racial-issues?
Progressive proponents seek justice, equity & truth in America & want our youth taught these values; opponents say, “Don’t teach our kids guilt” over their ancestors’ actions! Our children learn about the Jewish-Holocaust in middle-school, and some of those children are of German-descent. We must face many hard truths on our life-journeys.
Trish Forsyth Voss
By spiritspeak • Uncategorized 0