The Dangers of Opposing Critical Race Theory and Wokeness

It has become acceptable within the Republican establishment to speak out against the “woke” culture of the left and against the teaching of “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) within K-12 schools and in the military. Recently, Texas and other states have even passed laws “banning” the teaching.

The problem is that CRT is not something that can be definitively boxed in. There are no clear boundary lines between what is and is not CRT. In fact, legislation to address the subject rarely uses that terminology and instead outlaws the teaching that “one race is better or worse than others” or that “one race is to be blamed” for any ills of the past. Often, the legislation and the politicians passing it will assert that school districts should stick to “teaching the truth” instead of veering into racial divides.

There are many problems with this thinking and the legislation that it spawns.

What is happening in US schools today is not the broad corruption of truth. It is not the case that there are multiple school districts teaching multiple distinct and equally incorrect versions of history and social studies. There is no variation in the target nor in its goal.

The only proper term that can be used to classify the ideology being taught today is “anti-White.” White people and especially Christians are the only villains identified within the various teachings and while some may portray Asians, Latinos, African Americans, or others in a more or less favorable light, every incarnation of the teaching frames a historically illegitimate White population against a more deserving and less powerful group composed of everyone else.

The introduction of terms such as “critical race theory” is not merely intended to give a veneer of science or legitimacy to this hatred. It is intended to give politicians something to publicly oppose and still avoid coming to the defense of the one indefensible and often unspeakable people group.

Legislation that calls for the teaching of “truth” is not sufficient because to those pushing this ideology, this bigotry IS their truth. Legislation calling for fairness and equality is meaningless to a group or people whose core ideology is that the system making that demand is inherently unjust and unequal and that equality comes only from legal and economic preferences and punishment. That is how they define “equality”.

The GOP must begin to understand the tools being used against them and fight these battles head on. What is being taught today under the guise of “critical race theory” or “wokeness” is simple racial bigotry. We cannot allow those with such hatred to define the parameters and the language of that debate. We are not opposing CRT, we are opposing the anti-White hatred that no longer hides beneath the surface. If we are too afraid to say that out loud, we certainly don’t have the backbone to stop those who are pushing it.

One example of this failure was a May 26 letter signed by 30 GOP congressmen in response to the termination of Space Force officer, Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, who spoke out against the racial bigotry within that department. That letter denotes this firing and other examples of the racial bigotry going on within the military. However, it uses the terms “critical race theory” and “marxism” and asks the Secretary of Defense to “take action.” However, it gives no example of what action should be taken, gives no explanation as to what is being done, who it is being done to, why it is wrong, or what the Congressmen will do if nothing is done to correct the matter.

The sole purpose of this letter is to provide something for these GOP congressmen to point to and claim that they are doing “something.”

While the left is targeting people based on race and religion, the GOP is writing letters asking them to stop. Nothing could signal weakness more brightly than these GOP congressmen’s unwillingness to defend the groups being attacked as then groups that they are - Whites and Christians. If they cannot bring themselves to even say the words, why would anyone believe that they would actually stand up and stop the injustices taking place?