Another whine of the right is about it being taught in schools. There is little to no evidence that critical race theory itself is being taught to K-12 public school students, though some ideas central to it, such as lingering consequences of slavery, have been.
Many Republicans view the concepts underlying critical race theory as an effort to rewrite American history (even though it's based in historical fact) and persuade white people that they are inherently racist (being a white man, I've never been made to feel that) and should feel guilty because of their advantages. Republicans often cite the 1619 Project as a cause for concern. The New York Times initiative, published in 2019, aimed to tell a fuller story of the country's history by putting slavery at the center of America's founding (nation would not have been built without it).
As of mid-May, legislation purporting to outlaw CRT in schools has passed in Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Tennessee and have been proposed in various other statehouses. The bills are so vaguely written that it's unclear what they will affirmatively cover. Could a teacher who wants to talk about a factual instance of state-sponsored racism-like the establishment of Jim Crow, the series of laws that prevented Black Americans from voting or holding office and separated them from white people in public spaces-be considered in violation of these laws? Rather convenient, isn't it?
So, we have the GOP lying about CRT, lying about American historical fact, and exploiting gullible people's kneejerk reactions of fear and ego. And most of the time, the people critical of CRT don't even know what it is to begin with. In other words, the current panic-stricken right-wing movement to condemn CRT is wildly off-target. And the proponents of this witch hunt generally are not bothering to supply any evidence of what they are attacking.
Like earlier and continuing attacks on "political correctness" and "woke corporations," the war on CRT takes an abstract white nationalist idea and makes it viscerally immediate for white middle-class voters who might not otherwise be too agitated about cultural changes. "PC" and "cancel culture" are thought to threaten everyday freedom of speech; "woke" businesses threaten the livelihoods; and CRT is treated as a threat to parental control of the world views of their own children as "brainwashing" or "indoctrination" rather than as simply encouragement to think critically and independently about one's inherited assumptions about America and its alleged greatness.
Self-identified Republicans already believe to an alarming extent that white Americans suffer discrimination as much as or more than their Black fellow citizens. Spreading that belief beyond the ranks of the already committed GOP partisan is, a logical if evil "outreach" strategy for those whose goal is to restore an American "greatness" closely associated with a time when women and minorities knew their place.
They are scared. Scared of loosing their jobs. Scared of not being the "dominant" race. Scared of not having the things that their whiteness has gotten them. The rest of us whites understand it, agree with it. But not them. Brian Kilmeade eluded on air that whites are being "marginalized", Tucker Carlson has been pushing the "white replacement" theory (popularized by white separatist neo-Nazi David Lane around 1995) " they are so frightened that they may lose their status and may even become a minority (like minorities are treated bad or something" huh")
It comes down to this, the GOP being against CRT is nothing more than a ploy to win votes, and the act of cowards. There is no legitimate reason for them to be against it. History is supposed to disturb you, make you angry, make you sick. If it does not, you're not reading history, you're reading propaganda.
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