On Jan. 21, Sinclair hosted an introductory discussion on a topic that has been in the news a lot lately: critical race theory. The event was hosted by Michael Carter, Sinclair’s Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Advisor to the President, and Jared Cutler, Assistant Provost of Accreditation and Assessment. Critical race theory (CRT) studies racism as a social construct and the historical impact it’s had on housing, education, jobs, and the justice system.
“Proponents say learning the history of racism is crucial to addressing inequities,” said Carter. “Critics say the theory teaches that the U.S. is fundamentally racist… Most people who don’t want critical race theory taught can’t really define it.”
Teaching CRT has been banned or restricted in 15 states including Florida, Montana, New Hampshire, and Idaho. There are also possible bans happening in over a dozen other states, including Ohio. Carter reiterated that CRT is never taught in K-12 education, but mostly in grad school and law school.
“Here’s the slippery slope of this: when we say you can’t teach things that are ‘anti-American,’ you run into these issues where we’ve got book-banning going on all across the country,” said Carter. “We’re letting parents define what should be taught in schools.”
Books about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement have been banned from schools, including a children’s book about Ruby Bridges, the first child to integrate a segregated New Orleans school in 1960. The ban was because the white people in the story–who screamed slurs at the 6-year-old, withdrew their children from the school and refused to teach or have classes with her– did not have “enough redemption” in the book.
At the same time, critics of CRT have nothing to say about Alabama and Mississippi still celebrating Robert E. Lee Day, Tennessee having a state park named after the founder of the KKK, and Mississippi declaring April Confederate History Month.
“Understand this fight against the teaching of critical race theory isn’t about what’s divisive at all,” said Carter. “It’s about what makes certain people uncomfortable and [they] don’t want to teach it.”
Carter described banning books and CRT as dangerous.
“When you talk about not being able to teach anything divisive, now you can’t teach about the Holocaust, can you? Because there are going to be some people who may feel bad,” Carter said. “If you’ve got German ancestry, we have to not teach about the Holocaust because that may make you feel bad or guilty.”
“Maus,” a graphic novel about the Holocaust, was recently banned in a county in Tennessee.
“To shield people from feeling discomfort over historic actions by their race, nationality or gender,” Cutler said. “Keep in mind that they have already outlawed CRT being taught in schools, so this is above and beyond the whole CRT discussion even. How in the world do you teach about slavery? How in the world do you teach about Jim Crow without people feeling some discomfort? They should feel uncomfortable about those things.”
Carter took some time to explain the context of the extremely divided time we are living in, as far as the social and political climate. He quoted Thomas Friedman, author of “The World is Flat” who said: “People aren’t afraid of change they’re afraid of loss.”
“People feel that if someone else is getting something that they’re losing something,” Carter went on to explain. “And to be honest, that’s what a lot of people are afraid of.”
The demographics of America are becoming less white, which is scary to some people.
“We’re more segregated today than we were 30-years-ago in this country,” Carter said. “When that happens you live in these echo chambers. There’s this group-speak and group-think, and you’re not challenging your ideas and thoughts when you don’t come in contact with other folks.”
Carter pointed out how people of color (POC) don’t have a choice on whether or not they interact with white people, especially in the Midwest.
“White people in this country, if they don’t desire to interact with people of different races, they don’t have to for the most part,” he said. “Unless you live in a large urban environment.”
People of different races have a different memory of America’s past. Not everyone knows about the Tulsa Race Massacre or that the prison system was expanded because the unpaid labor of slavery needed to be recreated, especially in the South.
People are more aware of acts of racism today because they are filmed on a regular basis.
“Think of where we would be if George Floyd’s murder had not been filmed,” said Carter. “It would have been a debate about what happened, but you could not debate [the video]. You couldn’t change the narrative.”
Another factor of today’s societal divide is social media, which has normalized conspiracy theories, rejecting facts and accepting lies as the truth.
“The truth doesn’t matter anymore,” Carter said. “Now we can’t even decide what the truth is.”
Cutler also spoke about the importance of equity over equality. Everyone in society has different needs, so it doesn’t make sense to give everyone the same thing.
“Personally, I don’t understand all the pushback that we’re seeing against equity,” he said. “It seems to me that it makes all the sense in the world that people have different needs and should be provided with what their circumstances require in order for them to succeed.” Cutler continued by saying, “There are things we have to talk about. There are things we have to deal with if we’re going to make progress.”
Sinclair is committed to holding discussions like these about difficult topics such as the history of racism in America. To see what other discussion events are coming up at Sinclair, view the events calendar online.
Rachel Rosen
Associate Editor