What is CRT???
What is the most divisive issue in the United States? There are many, but if I had to choose, I would definitively say it is Critical Race Theory. The passion, the vitriol and the determination around CRT is unlike anything else going on in America. We do not have to look far or wide to find a social media fight, a national media fight or even a local school board fight regarding CRT. People who have been on the fence about other social issues, have come out of the gates screaming, clawing and punching regarding CRT.
The mind blowing fact about this outrage is that most (if not nearly all) of these anti CRT fighters have never read any of the CRT writings, have done zero research on what it is, or have even taken the time to do an honest Google search to find out information about it! President Donald Trump poured gasoline over an entire segment of the United States and then lit a match when he declared CRT a national enemy that must be fought at all cost. People's news channel of choice have passionately and repeatedly "reported" on CRT and they have taken that fire and fanned it into a national fire of irrational fear and outrage.
This has led to many states banning Critical Race Theory curriculum in K-12 schools and even banning multiple math books under the guise of CRT. Let that sink in. States are banning a complex legal theory in elementary, middle and high schools. This is a ban, first of all, on something that was not even happening and secondarily, is a legal theory not designed to even be understood at those age levels.
So, what is CRT? I could give you the long legal definitions easily found online, but essentially Critical Race Theory is the idea that racism is not simply individual bias, but it is also baked into the American legal system. CRT claims that the American legal system does not operate with the same scales of fairness for everyone it is supposed to serve. CRT has 6 "basic tenets", and they are:
Race is socially constructed, not biologically natural.
Racism in the United States is normal, not aberrational: it is the ordinary experience of most people of color.
Legal advances, or setbacks, for people of color tend to serve the interests of dominant white groups.
Members of minority groups periodically undergo "differential racialization", or the attribution to them of varying sets of negative stereotypes, again depending on the needs or interests of whites.
No individual can be adequately identified by membership in a single group.
People of color are uniquely qualified to speak on behalf of other members of their group (or groups) regarding the forms and effects of racism.
If the idea that racism is simply an individual bias and not a systemic issue, then there will be facts that bear that out. In other words, if CRT is a legal theory that has no basis, that would be a matter of fact not opinion.
The facts regarding the legal disparagement of the majority versus the minority in this country are overwhelming. CRT acknowledges that legal advancements have been made, however the legal unbalances still occurring today are also forms of racism. For example:
According to a Pew Research article published in 2019, federal and state prisons in the U.S. held 475,900 inmates who were black, and 436,500 who were white. In 2017, black people represented 12% of the adult U.S. population and 33% of the sentenced prison population. White people accounted for 64% of the adults and 30% of the prisoners. Hispanic people accounted for 16% of the adult population and 23% of the inmates.
According to a June 2020 Fortune article, "Black men are paid 13% less than white men; black women are paid 39% less than white men and 21% less than white women. They ask for promotions and raises at about the same rate as white women, but get worse results."
According to a 2018 US Government Accountability Office report, K-12 Black students are 3.2 times more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled from school.
This is just a tiny sample of the data that shows the legal disparagement of the majority over the minority in the United States. In the big picture, the basis of CRT is clearly accurate. That may upset you or hurt your feelings, but the results are the results.
The tenets of CRT can understandably be controversial and are even meant to be discussed, debated, researched and even amended over time. However, too many people take issue with one aspect or portion of one tenet and attempt to "throw the baby out with the bath water." Actually, they don't just throw out CRT, they seek to destroy the idea all together. So many seek to destroy it, not because they have researched it and disagree with the tenets, but because their source of "news" condemns it.
Proverbs chapter 16, verse 11, says, "A just balance and scales are the Lord's; all the weights in the bag are his work." The danger surrounding CRT is not a danger about the theory itself, the danger lies in the unbalance and tilted scales that are being presented to so many Christians as gospel. It is an unjust balance and a faulty scale to scream about the future implications of CRT, while choosing to not weigh the implications of past and current racial disparagements. To have the foresight to see the damage (real or perceived) that CRT could do to white children, but fail to have the foresight to see the real damage of pretending like racial problems are a thing of the past and have no bearing on our children is dishonest at best, and at worst it is outright evil. Either way it fails to be a just balance and an accurate scale.
It would benefit us all to do our own research and place that research on a just and honest scale before solidifying our position on CRT.