Republican anti-intellectuals call it “anti-CRT,” however, their plight is rooted in plain old-fashioned white supremacy.
Governor Greg Abbott has officially started his campaign and has spoken with crowds across the state with hate and vitriol. His events, filled with white crowds, are reminiscent of a bygone era, as he uses code-words and language based on racism and fear.
At one of Abbott’s first campaign stops, he spoke at the Fort Worth Zoo, vowed to destroy 411,000 Tarrant County residents, and spent the rest of his speech talking about standing up against Critical Race Theory. Abbott claims he already banned Critical Race Theory from Texas schools.
Unsurprisingly, his all-white crowd ate it up; they cheered and hollered every time Abbott said, “ban Critical Race Theory.”
It’s important, at this point to truly understand It’s essential, at this point, to truly understand what this so-called anti-CRT propaganda is about and what Texas has done.
Critical Race Theory is the new boogie man for people who refuse to acknowledge America’s racist history.
While I’m sure that Living Blue in Texas readers already knows what Critical Race Theory is, let’s go over it again for those new here. Critical Race Theory is a legal theory taught in law schools since the 1970s. According to the American Bar Association, Critical Race Theory is the recognition that race is not biologically real but is socially constructed and socially significant, the acknowledgement that racism is a normal feature of society and is embedded within systems and institutions, like the legal system, that replicate racial inequality, and the rejection of popular understandings about racism, such as arguments that confine racism to a few “bad apples.”
Diversity and inclusion training is NOT Critical Race Theory.
- CRT does not imply that one race is superior or inferior to another.
- CRT does not posit that all white individuals are racist and all racially minoritized individuals are oppressed.
- It is not a way to enact racism and discrimination against white individuals.
- CRT is not the same as social-emotional learning (SEL).
- CRT is not an attempt to make people feel bad about their race.
- It is not a tool to divide students or school staff and teach them to hate others.
- CRT does not promote or condone a specific political ideology (e.g., socialism, Marxism, anti-capitalism).
- CRT is not a means of judging another person based on race or making assumptions based on race.
- It is not the same as teaching U.S. history’s good and bad parts.
- CRT is not the 1619 Project.
Yet, Republicans like Greg Abbott or Tucker Carlson claim that Critical Race Theory is all of those things and is being pushed on children in public schools.
In a recent article in the Atlantic, Ibram X. Kendi wrote about what Martin Luther King once called the “white backlash.” And how Tucker Carlson’s claims that attacks on racism are attacks on white people are a white supremacist mantra that has been circulated in America many times throughout history.
Unfortunately, Republicans have been unable to separate their individual identities as Americans from the institutions that govern us. So, calling the justice system or the housing system racist, they interpret as a personal attack on them.
To add to this equation, many Republicans in the South were indoctrinated by Lost Cause Mythology and often still believe it to this day. Baby Boomers and older Gen X Republicans see any attempt at diversity and inclusion in our public schools as an attack on white people (although it is not). And they’ve lashed out with anti-CRT.
[mepr-hide] https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [/mepr-hide]Anti-CRT is the new label for white supremacy.
White supremacists don’t want school children learning about America’s racist past. That’s why the Lost Cause was invented and continues for over a century, and why so many Republicans are trying to keep it intact. Look no further than Texas’ anti-CRT bill to see how the label of “anti-CRT” has absolutely nothing to do with actual Critical Race Theory and is more about what history can be taught in the classrooms.
So, that takes us back to Greg Abbott and his white supremacist propaganda tour.
At each of his campaign stops, he’s making anti-CRT the focal point of each of his speeches.
After his hate-fueled rhetoric at the Fort Worth Zoo, he went to Beaumont, then Keller, and a few days ago at Founders Classical Academy in Lewisville. Each time, speaking to rooms full of white people, Abbott has shouted about how Texas banned CRT, and he’ll never let CRT in Texas schools.
Greg Abbott wants voting Republicans to know Texas will enshrine specific stories about American history, where white supremacy is valorized as the highest good.
Anti-CRT propaganda is white supremacist propaganda, full stop.
Critical Race Theory has never been taught in public schools. Anti-CRT is an extension of the Lost Cause. And the push against Critical Race Theory is based on white fear and ignorance regarding diversity and inclusion in a state where white school children are now a minority.
Greg Abbott wants to make his entire campaign about anti-CRT, but what he’s doing is trying to appeal to white fear, much like he does with his “invasion” rhetoric regarding the border. It’s white supremacist propaganda, and it’s what he’s decided he’s running his campaign on.
In November, we have to vote him out, once and for all.
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