Censorship in The States: Critical race theory shouldn’t be banned, and East can do more to implement it

“Today’s Agenda: The Civil Rights Movement.”

The second I saw that title in history class, I instantly knew we would be learning about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. — important figures, nonetheless, but the same stories I’ve learned about since third grade. 

Because I’ve never learned critical race theory (CRT) — the academic framework centered around the idea that racism is systemic — I believed everything that I was taught. I believed that after Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream Speech,” racism ceased. I believed that racism was individual prejudice, not something rooted in the depths of our government. 

As a white person mostly surrounded by other white people, I never truly noticed my privilege — it never phased me. Though I’ve always had friends from different backgrounds, my lack of education caused me to be oblivious to the hardships that they and their relatives faced due to systemic oppression.

That is, until George Floyd was intentionally murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the summer of 2020 — an event with consequences so widespread that I won’t go far into detail. Only when this sparked an array of protests across the world did I finally notice how the oppression I had been oblivious to is rooted in the way that our government is structured. Only then did I begin to notice. 

But upon reading articles and watching YouTube videos about what had happened to Floyd, another question remained unclear.

Why do Black people have to be harmed for me to learn about systemic oppression?

I wasn’t learning this in school. I wasn’t getting the full story on the news channels that were sympathetic toward the police officers violently dealing with people rallying for their lives. Even though I was able to research oppression on my own, had I learned CRT in school, I would’ve been able to get a more unbiased understanding about the subject.

Living in a city that’s so defined by redlining, CRT would inform students in the Prairie Village area as to why 95% of its residents are white, according to Mayor Erik Mikkelson. The curriculum can give an unbiased education to students about what redlining is and how it has deeply impacted our community. Let’s stop making Troost Ave. an area of caution and instead learn why it’s this way. 

These are the things we could be learning with CRT — implementing diversity and inclusion through clearing misconceptions of Black history and learning exactly why racism is a thing. Sounds like something that everyone should want to be educated about, right? Well, some disagree.

Opponents of the framework suggest that it’s an anti-government education rooted in Marxism and that it supports the idea that, “White people should feel guilty for their skin color,” according to the Washington Post. This is a truly vile accusation, which ignorantly claims that white people can experience racism. 

Republican Congress Members continue to argue that critical race theory provokes division and discrimination. But discrimination against who?

Six states have successfully banned and restricted CRT — Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, New Hamphsire, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Kansas has yet to take action either way on the issue, whether that be implementing or banning CRT. 

The concept of CRT has been distorted into the negative perception that it’s basically attacking the way that the government was constructed by the Founding Fathers. And it is, but to some that means a jab at patriotism. To others who want to make a change, CRT is taking steps toward a society where people of color are treated equally.

East specifically is 85% white, according to Mikkelson. At a school notorious for “The Confederate Flag Debate,” race theory is absolutely necessary. It’s almost a normal occurrence at our school for a white person to say the N-word with consequences as severe as a slap on the wrist from the administration. This must change before these racially-charged highschoolers are flung into the real world where their actions have real effect.

Teachers around the country have received anti-biased training that requires history classes to learn about the experiences of marginalized groups, according to the Washington Post. Even at East, teachers have gone through Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training to take baby steps toward making the school more inclusive.  

East has been addressing their curriculums in a new light to make classrooms more inclusive and to address systemic racism with DEI, by adding books by authors of different backgrounds to their reading list and placing an importance on each student’s identity. Though, after a lifelong education of reading novels written by old, white men, this recent change isn’t enough — a reconstruction of what students were once taught needs to occur. 

As a district that’s spending hundreds of thousands on new furniture, it’s well within SMSD’s budget to increase the resources for diversity training to add CRT to the curriculum.

With textbooks that talk about slavery through the capitalist viewpoint — such as with limiting the discussion of slavery to that in Triangular Trade — rather than the experience of slaves themselves, better education is necessary. 

Take the Black Panthers, an African-American revolutionary party founded to patrol and protect Black neighborhoods from police brutality during the Civil Rights Movement. If students learn about them at all, the focus is shoved onto their violence and controversy, rather than the reason the party was formed — to counter police brutality. 

The fact that most students’ minds would go to the Marvel movie upon hearing “Black Panthers” is a vast issue.

Though CRT isn’t banned by Kansas or the district, it’s certainly not implemented. These inaccuracies in our textbooks and our curriculum could be greatly cleared up with this form of unbiased education.  

The fact that people of color are discriminated against in work, school, the criminal justice system and just about all parts of life is a fact. Critical race theory is simply educating us, so this isn’t the future. 

This isn’t the 60’s anymore. SMSD needs to take action.