{"id":3624,"date":"2020-10-15T11:49:14","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T11:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3624"},"modified":"2020-10-15T11:49:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T11:49:14","slug":"critical-race-theory-and-trumps-war-on-it-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3624","title":{"rendered":"Critical race theory, and Trump\u2019s war on it, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“As to why the Trump administration is suddenly up in arms about racial bias training and critical race theory \u2014 a framework that\u2019s existed for about 40 years \u2014 the OMB memo cites press reports as factors in Trump\u2019s decision. In July, Fox News began airing segments featuring conservative activist Christopher F. Rufo, who in mid-August told Tucker Carlson<\/a> that he was \u201cdeclaring a one-man war against critical race theory in the federal government, and I\u2019m not going to stop these investigations until we can abolish it within our public institutions.\u201d He tweeted<\/a> on August 20, \u201cMy goal is simple: to persuade the President of the United States to issue an executive order abolishing critical race theory in the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rufo appeared on Carlson\u2019s show once more on September 2, just two days before the memo\u2019s release. Conservative media celebrated the document as a win; in response to a Breitbart article about the memo, Trump tweeted<\/a> on September 5: \u201cThis is a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue. Please report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish!\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“critical race theory rejects the belief that \u201cwhat\u2019s in the past is in the past\u201d and that the best way to get beyond race is to stop talking about it. Instead, America must reckon with how its values and institutions feed into racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critical race theory was also a lens through which these legal scholars could analyze policies and the law,accepting that \u201cracism has contributed to all contemporary manifestations of group advantage and disadvantage along racial lines,\u201d like differences in income, incarceration rates, health outcomes, housing, educational opportunities, political representation, and military service. The ultimate goal was to eliminate racial oppression as part of the broader mission of ending all kinds of oppression \u2014 including that based on class or sexual orientation. According to the authors, it\u2019s not enough to just make adjustments within established hierarchies; it\u2019s necessary to challenge the hierarchies themselves.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“According to Crenshaw, at the foundation of many of these theories is a psychological insecurity on the part of white people who fear their racial status is being threatened. Historically, the tendency has been for white people to align with whiteness, even across class lines, Crenshaw noted. \u201cWhat remains to be seen is whether the resistance to it is nearly as powerful as the tendency toward it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump drove the tendency home in his address at the White House Conference on American History, acknowledging that he plans to take this fight beyond federal contractors and into America\u2019s schools with an executive order that bolsters \u201cpatriotic education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCritical race theory is being forced into our children\u2019s schools, it\u2019s being imposed into workplace trainings, and it\u2019s being deployed to rip apart friends, neighbors, and families,\u201d Trump said. \u201cTeaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse in the truest sense of those words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump wants his critics to accept the status quo \u2014that we already live in a fair and just America\u2014Crenshaw said. Yet critical race theory remains relevant as people in cities and small towns across the country lead ongoing protests for Black lives following the death of George Floyd in late May. Americans and organizations have pledged to become anti-racist, to actively recognize how silence or inaction amounts to complicity.\u00a0Activists are also pushing for anti-racist education in schools<\/a>\u00a0and anti-racism trainings in workplaces”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/9\/24\/21451220\/critical-race-theory-diversity-training-trump<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“As to why the Trump administration is suddenly up in arms about racial bias training and critical race theory \u2014 a framework that\u2019s existed for about 40 years \u2014 the OMB memo cites press reports as factors in Trump\u2019s decision. In July, Fox News began airing segments featuring conservative activist Christopher F. Rufo, who in mid-August told Tucker Carlson that he was \u201cdeclaring a one-man war against critical race theory in the federal government, and I\u2019m not going to stop these investigations until we can abolish it within our public institutions.\u201d He tweeted on August 20, \u201cMy goal is simple: to persuade the President of the United States to issue an executive order abolishing critical race theory in the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rufo appeared on Carlson\u2019s show once more on September 2, just two days before the memo\u2019s release. Conservative media celebrated the document as a win; in response to a Breitbart article about the memo, Trump tweeted on September 5: \u201cThis is a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue. Please report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish!\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“critical race theory rejects the belief that \u201cwhat\u2019s in the past is in the past\u201d and that the best way to get beyond race is to stop talking about it. Instead, America must reckon with how its values and institutions feed into racism.<\/p>\n

Critical race theory was also a lens through which these legal scholars could analyze policies and the law, accepting that \u201cracism has contributed to all contemporary manifestations of group advantage and disadvantage along racial lines,\u201d like differences in income, incarceration rates, health outcomes, housing, educational opportunities, political representation, and military service. The ultimate goal was to eliminate racial oppression as part of the broader mission of ending all kinds of oppression \u2014 including that based on class or sexual orientation. According to the authors, it\u2019s not enough to just make adjustments within established hierarchies; it\u2019s necessary to challenge the hierarchies themselves.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“According to Crenshaw, at the foundation of many of these theories is a psychological insecurity on the part of white people who fear their racial status is being threatened. Historically, the tendency has been for white people to align with whiteness, even across class lines, Crenshaw noted. \u201cWhat remains to be seen is whether the resistance to it is nearly as powerful as the tendency toward it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump drove the tendency home in his address at the White House Conference on American History, acknowledging that he plans to take this fight beyond federal contractors and into America\u2019s schools with an executive order that bolsters \u201cpatriotic education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCritical race theory is being forced into our children\u2019s schools, it\u2019s being imposed into workplace trainings, and it\u2019s being deployed to rip apart friends, neighbors, and families,\u201d Trump said. \u201cTeaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse in the truest sense of those words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump wants his critics to accept the status quo \u2014 that we already live in a fair and just America \u2014 Crenshaw said. Yet critical race theory remains relevant as people in cities and small towns across the country lead ongoing protests for Black lives following the death of George Floyd in late May. Americans and organizations have pledged to become anti-racist, to actively recognize how silence or inaction amounts to complicity. Activists are also pushing for anti-racist education in schools and anti-racism trainings in workplaces”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[221,642,170],"class_list":["post-3624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-donald-trump","tag-race","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3625,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624\/revisions\/3625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}