Conservatism in America loves to address problems that do not exist and want to purge the truth. Red Hats rail against masks wearing, telling the rest of us they will not live in fear—yet arm themselves to the teeth in fear of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters. Texas Governor Greg Abbott wants to raise 250 million dollars to resume Trump’s Wall. Meanwhile, the Texas legislature which meets every two years, for 140 days, “grappled” with so-called “widespread” voter fraud while failing to comprehensively fix the energy grid that led to the deaths of citizens who froze to death last winter. Conservative school boards and local officials are passing laws and restrictions against the teaching of an uncomfortable history. Critical Race Theory is not taught in any K-12 public school curriculums. It is a part of law school curriculums because it relates to laws that affect both discrimination and economics. In an opinion by Ariela Gross Ph.D., of Southern California Gould School of Law;
“Teaching the history of race, racism, and law is not about blaming white individuals today for the actions of white individuals in the past. It is we as a nation that must be held collectively accountable for the role of the legal system in creating and upholding racial hierarchies — and we as citizens and lawyers who can help dismantle them. We are giving students the knowledge and tools to do that,” she wrote.
Asking the question of how Columbus discovered an occupied land is not a denunciation it is truth. Pointing out that indigenous people were slaughtered and robbed of their land is not condemnation it is truth. The country just made into law its twelfth federal holiday, commemorating the elimination of legal enslavement, not a rebuke but American history.
The majority of America knows these are just another made-up cultural meme for Republicans to run on in 2022.
After their past cultural failures of Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss, and the current Big Lie, the continued stoking of anger to a dwindling constituency is their last gasp. Members of the GOP have even taken the tact of “defunding” the police and implicating the F.B.I in the Capitol insurrection; could it be that blue lives only matter when they are pawns? Trolling and anger are not a policy they are a strategic ploy.
It is not certain segments of America realize how hurtful it is to be told, as a black American, that your ancestors and our pain are not meaningful. ‘Just get over it’ is a phrase indelibly etched in the brains of PoC. A big part of healing is the acknowledgment of the pain. No one enters an emergency room with a broken leg and is told if you just get over it, things will heal just fine. Sure, eventually the intense pain will lessen over time but the damage lingers. One may not walk with the same vigor or run and dance through life with the same enthusiasm. At some point, that unattended leg makes one slow down and some are crippled. Teaching the truth is enlightening and liberating, so that begs the question; why are CRT opponents so angry about the truth?
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