Letters to the editor: Critical race theory, social justice teaching, higher education, lies

Critical race theory

Idaho Republican legislators have recently cited “critical race theory” and “social justice indoctrination” as their rationale for failing to pass several education bills.

Critical race theory is not “teaching kids to hate their country” nor is it teaching that “white people are inherently racist,” as alleged by Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin. Critical race theory examines how historical laws and policies lead to invisible inequity today. So critical race theory would examine the current racial wealth gap by analyzing how historical laws that limited black and brown people from owning homes contribute to contemporary disparities.

Moreover, critical race theory is only one of dozens of theories that we teach. College students are required to take courses from a variety of disciplines. In an economics course they would learn about race relations from a number of economic theories. In a biology course, they would learn about race through this lens. In a history course, they would look at historical understandings of race. In sociology they would learn several theories on how race operates at a societal level.

There is no indoctrination happening in schools. We do the opposite: We teach students a variety of ways of understanding issues so that they will become strong leaders and innovators for Idaho.

Kristin Haltinner, Moscow

Social justice teaching

Complaints about social justice teaching go back a ways. Family lore has one of my Czech ancestors accompanying early Protestant reformer Jan Hus to Rome in 1415, when Hus and his entourage were guaranteed safe passage and then burned at the stake. Hus, Martin Luther, and other reformers presumed to teach their fellow Christians the radical idea that they could read the Bible and engage in moral reasoning for themselves. Importantly, they also taught that religion can be hijacked and used to mask corruption, bigotry, and inequality.

Now some well-funded people with odd ideas about what constitutes justice at this point in our nation’s history are making wild claims about indoctrination of the intelligent, ambitious, and hard-working young adults attending our public universities and colleges. Worth recalling the original sin of social justice teaching in the U.S. dates to the abolitionists, who risked imprisonment and lynching for teaching enslaved Africans to read.

What better expression of genuine social justice than helping uplift Idaho college students of all races, genders, and ethnicities into their chosen professions and productive roles within our society? I’d say a few questions about ethics and right and wrong seem a fitting supplement to that education.

Chris Norden, Moscow

Higher education

How ignorant Idaho and other legislators are, trying to censor higher education teaching social justice. First, stop interfering in our lives with your censorship. Second, you don’t even understand what social justice is. Social justice is understanding and working for equity for all. In my field, special education, social justice means working for equity for students with disabilities. The bible is based on social justice. Christians preach social justice. Most religions are based on social justice principles. What will you legislate against next? Food for puppies? Water for babies?

Darcy Miller, Pullman

Lies

We are being lied to from the top down.

The President says Georgia’s new election law is “Jim Crow on steroids” when it is reportedly less restrictive than the law in his home state of Delaware or that of New York, where the Major League Baseball commissioner lives and who moved the All-Star game in protest. These actions are apparently designed to promote HR1, which seeks to nationalize election law. We understand HR1 provides for universal mail-in ballots, without proper identification, allows up to ten days for ballots to be received and permits ballot harvesting. This would nullify state control over election law, which has always been the state’s responsibility.

The proposed $2.3 trillion spending bill is called Infrastructure when by the broadest definition 30% is infrastructure and the rest is mostly Green New Deal and social programs.

The mainstream media is giving us left wing propaganda, perhaps the most disturbing is the false narrative that we are a systemically racist nation. This justifies a lot of misguided policies in education, policing, etc.

We are losing the country we have known. Do what you can to resist. Stand up for traditional values and truth.

Dean Haagenson, Hayden