Republican resolution on critical race theory is nothing more than a racist dog whistle
Idaho’s Republicans in the state Legislature picked up on what has become their party’s favorite scapegoat in state legislative assemblies across the country when they passed a resolution against critical race theory. They warn us it is appearing in Idaho school curricula, despite volumes of testimony from teachers in Idaho classrooms that no such thing is occurring.
With CRT legislation passed in several red states, I guess we should be relieved that Idaho dodged a bullet in having this issue dealt with by resolution and not statute. However, it would be a mistake to assume it won’t come back in next year’s legislative session and important to talk about it now.
Critical race theory is a complex inter-disciplinary concept with roots in academia and taught most often in law school and law prep courses. It seeks to explain the variance in racial outcomes for incarceration and other social constructs with the understanding that racism is not only the product of individual prejudice, but also something that has been deeply and covertly embedded in public policy, business decisions and practices.
Republican attacks on CRT are a placeholder for what they really detest — what they consider the inordinate focus on racial issues such as Black Lives Matter. Or they fear there is a plan — replacement theory as they call it — to “replace them” with people of color. Brandishing CRT enables them to silence classroom discussions of racism, social justice and the history of race, without having to acknowledge that is their goal. CRT becomes the bogeyman to get it done.
Whether it’s from the classroom, the news or conversation at the local coffee shop, Republicans have apparently had their fill of race. Unable to look past the color of someone’s skin and accept them for who they are and what they have accomplished, Republicans found a tool in CRT that works perfectly in marshaling the support of a base that is anything but colorblind.
Their objective is clear. The less that can be said about the problem of race in America in the classroom, the better. Whether it’s the progress made in race relations or the history of sins of the past, attacks on critical race theory have the effect of intimidating teachers into avoiding topics that might be interpreted as falling within the definition of “CRT” since it is so complex and difficult to define.
A harbinger for Idaho and other states comes from Kentucky, where Republicans passed a bill to regulate what teachers can discuss regarding race. And just in case this Republican whitewash in the classroom can’t get any more bizarre, the legislation required teachers to incorporate certain political documents and speeches, including a political campaign speech Ronald Reagan gave in 1964. Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the bill.
The Idaho resolution itself is a confusing array of platitudes that seem to contradict each other. At one point, the resolution claims that “this divisive content seeks to disregard the history of the United States and the nation’s journey to becoming a pillar of freedom in the world.” But then the resolution ends on a surprising note when it concludes with the imperative that children be taught about the “mistakes” as well as “unprecedented accomplishments toward freedom and fairness for all.”
Which is it, teaching the “mistakes” of America or banning “critical race theory,” which the resolution calls an attempt “to re-educate children into the belief that they are to be ashamed of or limited by their race and ethnicity?” Are there really kids coming home from school in Idaho depressed over realizing they are personally responsible for the lynching of Black people in the South? I doubt it.
What is the point of a resolution with such confusing wording? If nothing else, it’s a racial dog whistle aimed at the Republican base. But it’s a resolution without the force of law, so Republican leadership can steer their party away from the most radical and racist impulses of the wackiest of colleagues who prefer a statute which could send some teachers to the pokey for teaching the history of racism out of an American history book.
In our world today, where too many people only read headlines and social media comments under 170 words, this is a very clever effort on the part of Republican leadership to throw a bone to the extremists in their party. While not passing a law to police the teaching of race in the classroom which other states have adopted, they use the resolution tactic. We hear you, they say, and we understand the peril before Idaho if we don’t say something about “critical race theory,” even if we don’t know what it is, and we certainly don’t know where to find it or what we would do with it if we did find it.
What Republican leadership really fears is what might happen next if a statute with enforcement powers was passed by Idaho. They came close enough to that with the bill to imprison librarians. We can only imagine the field day judges would have trying to fathom whether a teacher’s discussion of race was a violation of the law.
Corporate America doesn’t share the same antipathy toward race that those Republican minions and white supremacists on the right in Idaho do and there is no telling how tough it would be bringing new jobs to Idaho if the Legislature went down this dangerous path of indicting teachers for teaching American history. Corporate America that brings jobs to Idaho would check the box “don’t apply here, Idaho just left the 21st century and was last seen on its way to the 19th.”
To this day, too many Americans including a good number in Idaho buy into the belief that America has overreached in its protections of racial classes.
I saw it at the Idaho state Capitol when hundreds gathered in a vigil over the killing of George Floyd. A few armed white men showed up to intimidate peaceful gatherers there to mourn the unnecessary and violent death of a Black man in the 21st century. I saw it when pickup trucks waving Confederate flags drove through Boise downtown to send a much different message than those at the vigil.
For Idaho Republicans to maintain their grip on power, they cannot afford to lose that most significant crowd of right-wingers who are either racists or reasonable facsimiles thereof. What if they broke away and created their own party? That would surely weaken Republican strength in the general election. It might even elect a few more Democrats! Therefore, the most effective way to avoid a family feud in the party is to send out a racist dog whistle with no teeth in the form of a resolution. Imagine a dog with no teeth and you can only scorn a party so much in the grips of its right-wing that it needs a “critical race theory” resolution to keep everyone in place.