Education is such a huge part of life- no matter who you are or what you look like. With the world we live in today, understanding the differences in our diverse community is key. Acknowledging and learning about our differences helps keep a peaceful society. Why has the study of it begun to rise to the political level? 

The study of critical race theory is the examination of social, cultural, and legal issues as they go back to racism in the US. It acknowledges how subtly detrimental systems in our society can be to people of color and how racism is only a social construct.

Well, the argument could be made that it further segregates people of color, but history is full of racism and racist ideas. Not teaching that part of history is the blatant erasure of the suffering of these people. Ignoring race differences doesn’t help either. It only perpetuates racial injustice and racial cruelty. 

America itself was built on the backs of the Native and Black slave populations. Ignorance continues to kill as seen by the Black Lives Matter movement. The BLM movement and the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s have conveyed how past traumas have severely affected the black population. 

White conservatives, the primary group of people fighting against this study, seem to willingly turn a blind eye to the suffering of their fellow man and shun the observations of the crooked system that they thrive off of. They don’t accept the fact that America isn’t the amazing place that their patriotism makes it out to be. They then claim that the American Dream is then shattered by even the slightest notion of it being inaccessible due to race. 

After all, ignorance is the cause for racism. Ignorance is the lack of knowledge. Teaching race theory would prevent racist ideologies from spreading as well as create a generation that understands and learns from the atrocities that occurred in our past. For example, no one can deny the absolute horror of the Holocaust of the Jewish people in Germany, especially Germany themselves. They outlawed any display of the Nazi swastika in any context. They teach their students about how heavily destructive the Nazi party truly was to make sure that any fascist ideals are nipped at the bud. 

So why hasn’t the US banned showcases of the Confederate flag? The flag of the states that broke off and fought the US for the purpose of furthering the continuation of suffering of slaves? Why don’t we teach, in depth, about the horrible atrocities that we committed in the age of slavery? Why don’t we teach about how horrible the Trail of Tears was and how we killed and erased native people and their cultures? 

The political turmoil of racial subjects is certainly not new and will probably take many upon many years to develop to the point of agreement, but it’s certainly in reach. Something as complicated as race should not be a political subject. People are people, and we bleed the same blood no matter what race or ethnicity we are. 

Even if we are all the same deep down, the system does not view us all that way. White people walk through life with many opportunities handed to them because of their privilege, while people of color have to fight for those same opportunities and in less abundance. Dismantling white privilege and fragility is one of the biggest obstacles to face- is the reason there is so much backlash from the teaching of critical race theory in schools. Understanding, reviewing, and analyzing the system we have in place is crucial to creating a society of open, diverse, and welcoming people. 

In the end, we’re all different and we need to accept that we have privilege based on those differences. The key to ending that prejudice is to understand why we need to change it at all. Teaching critical race theory is the best way to integrate non-white students into an outwardly racist society, to get them ahead in life. After all, wouldn’t we want the best for any and all of our students?