I’ve been celebrating Juneteenth in Oxnard, California for many years. It is a recognition of the end of slavery for those slaves in Texas who didn’t hear about the Emancipation Proclamation until 2 1/2 years later. Flash forward to Thursday, June 17, 2021 when, amid much fanfare, President Biden signs the bill proclaiming the date June 19th a federal holiday. Of course, more than a few Republican lawmakers opposed the bill, but thankfully they are in the minority. The same minority that promotes the big lie about a stolen 2020 election and the same folks who now want to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT). I doubt that they’ve taken the time to understand what it is and even if they did, I believe they aren’t genuine in their opposition to it. But enough white moms are crying that their children are feeling guilty about being white after learning that in this country people who look like them have been afforded some advantages because of their white skin that others did not get because of their darker skin color. The truth is threatening.
I first encountered CRT when I was doing the literature review for my doctoral dissertation at UCLA. It was rooted in legal studies and analyzed the role race played in the policies and practices of American society as it related to the opportunities of racial minorities, in particular black people in the U.S. That said, we all know that the only way to fix a problem is to acknowledge that there is a problem. However, systemic racism is not a problem many on the right want to fix for selfish reasons.
If white Americans are honest with themselves, they will acknowledge that the system of slavery followed by Jim Crow, segregation, housing red lining, and desperate treatment of blacks in education, healthcare, banking, and the criminal justice system have hindered the progress of the majority of black Americans while at the same time benefiting white Americans. The system works well for people who believe in a zero-sum socio-economic game. It goes like this: If I give you fewer opportunities to succeed, then that gives me more. But for that system to continue operating, it must remain hidden because most humans also recognize and truly hate unfairness.
This racist system is a deluded way to think. Instead of wanting to support and utilize the gifts, talents, and ingenuity of the entire populace to benefit the nation, fragile white supremacist are fearful of being exposed as being on the same human level as blacks. For years, white people were brainwashed to believe in their inherent superiority based solely on the color of their skin. And now, they are witnessing the truth with their own eyes. This fear has always lead to violence. We saw it in the lynching of Blacks who dared to display their equality and we saw it in the burning of Black Wall Street. We saw it in the death threats to Jackie Robinson, Tiger Woods, and every other black American who succeeded in ways that threatened the notion of white superiority. And having the first Black president who excluded grace and intelligence seemed to drive the point home.
I’ve said it many times: humans are tribal at our core. I admit to feeling proud when I see a black person excel. But I am also thrilled on an intellectual level because I understand the additional obstacles that person had to overcome to succeed. For example, for all of post-slavery history, blacks were systematically denied the benefit of accumulating generational wealth through unfair housing, banking, job, and even insurance practices. Despite serving in wars, for many years they were often denied access to veteran benefits like the GI Bill that provided jobs, education grants to college, and housing loans. These benefits were conferred easily on white male veterans, giving them a huge head start while leaving black veterans behind to struggle.
Structural systems like that added roadblocks to black Americans but gave easy access to whites in almost every facet of American life. This is what Critical Race Theory addresses. It is evident that white politicians do not want to expose the hidden practices of discrimination that limit the upward mobility of black Americans. They prefer to keep them hidden to perpetuate the lie of a meritocracy that helps whites to succeed while continuing to believe in their superiority.
I encountered this myth with my white university students who honestly believed that black people in poverty only had themselves to blame for their poverty because they were too lazy to work. They believed everyone had been given the same opportunities as they had growing up. They believed so many blacks were in jail because they committed crimes and deserved to be there. They were unaware of the disparities in K-12 education, in targeted policing, in inequitable judicial sentencing, in housing, in job choices, and in access to capital to build businesses. Exposure to the reality of American’s racist and discriminatory history changed their viewpoint and they in turn became advocates for change. It was helpful to show them undercover news reporting that exposed how blacks even paid more for the same cars than whites. It took them seeing that the schools in black neighborhoods had far fewer basic resources than they took for granted for them to appreciate the reality of inequity.
It is important to note that I always assured my white students that while they benefited from this system, they were not to blame for it, and most importantly, they could be part of building a more inclusive and equitable country moving forward.
Critical Race Theory exposes the myth of the level playing field and that is why white Republicans want so desperately to outlaw it. They want to preserve the past in present discrimination that hampers the progress of blacks. And to do this, they understand that they must suppress their vote and the votes of educated young people who want a more just and fair society. Republicans want to continue to claim that everyone has an equal opportunity, while hiding the decades of obstacles that hinder blacks from taking advantage of opportunities. They point to the few exceptional blacks who have made it as an excuse to proclaim that America is indeed the land of opportunity if people are willing to work hard enough. Of course, they leave out the part where some people have to work exceptionally harder than others and be exceptionally more talented, creative, intelligent or lucky.
This is how past in present discrimination looks. An employer sets a minimum standard that applicants must type 50 words per minute to be eligible for the job. Sounds fair except for the fact that the blacks in the employment pool didn’t attend a school that had computers. In this country under-resourced schools in black areas is the norm. The school to prison pipeline is a very real reality because lawmakers do not want to acknowledge the underlying inequities that CRT exposes. The tragic disparities in COVID-19 deaths between blacks and whites is yet another example of how past disparities in diet, environmental pollution, and access to health care lead to pre-existing conditions among blacks that made them more likely to die from COVID-19. CRT exposes the history and current reality around these inequities.
I believe Jesus said it best, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. Juneteenth is a celebration of the truth reaching the slaves in Texas, freeing them. Critical Race Theory is just an attempt to expose the truth of our nation’s racist history so that people of goodwill can work to set things right. After all, our nation was founded on the principle that all men are created equal and should be afforded equal opportunities under the law. If we have lawmakers who oppose this basic value, they shouldn’t be lawmakers. Of course, this is why we must protect access to voting. If we lose the ability to vote, the lies will only continue and fewer of us will be free.