By: Mairen Brown
Critical Race Theory. The dictionary defines Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) as, “A framework of analysis and an academic movement of civil-rights scholars and activists who seek to examine the intersection of race and law in the United States and to challenge mainstream American liberal approaches to racial justice.” Now because this is a “dictionary definition” it is very wordy, let me simplify it. CRT is the acknowledgement and teaching of the enslavement of Black people in America, and further, how slavery has impacted and continues to impact Black Americans today. CRT is a topic that has been debated for quite some time, but recently it has grown a lot of political attention all over the nation, even here, in Georgia. Although CRT is “banned” in Georgia, it has not been implemented nor banned in Fulton County Schools curriculum. It is important to note that CRT has historically been taught at the college level, and not in grades K-12. The current attention to CRT speaks to the state of race relations in our schools.
Whether or not it is taught is the decision of the school board and the families that influence the school. Although North Springs cannot ban or implement CRT, they can overlook it and not acknowledge it. I am a first-year student at North Springs, and I have not had enough time to really see where North Springs may lie in the line of teaching or not teaching CRT, but based on experiences in other Fulton County Schools, I cannot imagine they are choosing to teach CRT.
It is extremely necessary that CRT be taught in school. It is the teaching of the history and ongoing everyday battles of Black students that attend North Springs and make up over 50% of the North Springs population. “Traditional” American history leaves out so much of the truth. It is easier than facing facts because white Americans do not like to view themselves, or past decisions of America to be displayed in a negative light. Even though CRT shares the stories about the oppressed, it shares the stories of the oppressors as well, which in the real American history, the history you cannot find in the school library – is the white man. It is the history of the white students, who make up 25% of North Springs population as well. Opponents of CRT argue that CRT will only make white children “feel badly.” This is exactly why we need CRT – the feelings of white students are put above teaching the truth of their Black counterparts’ history. This minimizes Black people and their experiences, and yes – their feelings. Something many fail to remember. Black children have feelings too.
To not teach CRT is as dangerous as bullet to the chest. Although that is a metaphor, in many situations where CRT has not been taught, it truly is not. CRT instructs students about the effects that slavery and Jim Crow laws have in our present society, and how to live a life aware of these very real and prevalent issues in American society. The way these events are taught in school is like they are being explained to kindergarteners. Slavery happened. Segregation and Jim Crow happened. It was sad and bad. But it is okay now, because Harriett Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. saved the day. And they lived happily ever after. First off, the fact that this is what students are taught to believe is not only a gross failure at explaining the dark truths of these moments in history, but an intensely whitewashed version of horrific events in American history. The history and current day struggles of Black people is taught to be so digestible for students, but the fact of the matter is there is absolutely nothing about slavery or the Jim Crow era, or the everyday challenges that should be digestible, understandable, or comprehensible. Yet somehow, it has become this way.
This is the part where I get a little more personal. I am a student, a Black student to be more specific, and I am fourteen years old. Every day I learn something new. I do not have all the answers, or know everything yet, but I do know this; living in a country where we cannot admit and acknowledge our faults is not a place, I feel safe in. Not just because it shows an enormous inability to self-reflect, and improve, but it shows that part of that inability, the failure to acknowledge my entire existence as a living and breathing product of slavery and Jim Crow. I fear for my life every day. The entire 86,400 seconds (about 1 day). I am scared to play with toys, in fear of becoming Tamir Rice. To run with my dad in our neighborhood, in fear of becoming Ahmaud Arberry. In my home, the place where I should be able to feel safe, in fear of becoming Breonna Taylor. There is not a point in my day where I do not know I am Black. But the students around me get to go through their entire lives without having to sit down and listen to a teacher attempt to explain my daily fear, and that is unacceptable. The way I look at it is if you are never taught that something exists, how can you believe it is real? Overall, I would say, it is crucial to teach Critical Race Theory to students so that they can have a realistic idea of what the world around them looks like, has looked like, and what it can look like.
