The Washington Post published a column Monday by Ohioan Gary Abernathy, a purported conservative, arguing “there’s a lot for conservatives to embrace in critical race theory.”
In recent years, corporate media seems obsessed with finding pseudo-conservatives to make the case — for abortion, for leftism, for eradicating the Electoral College, and other progressive policies.
Abernathy, a former newspaper editor, operates from a vacuous understanding of both CRT and conservatism.
He believes the left has a point about CRT because “many conservatives pride themselves on being grounded in logic rather than emotion. Logic dictates that something as historically obvious as the impact of slave labor on the success of our nation should be acknowledged and more comprehensively taught, along with the fact that our legal, governmental and economic institutions were crafted, intentionally or otherwise, to favor White people.”
He does not elaborate on which of today’s American institutions unfairly favor whites. (And why is he capitalizing White?)
Actual conservatives are skeptical of clichés that different outcomes — how social justice warriors cite discrimination vis-à-vis so-called “equity” nowadays — are evidence of blatant injustice.
Abernathy’s arguments may be aimed at conservatives, but he never attempts to debate conservative condemnations of CRT. And there are myriad reasons we object to CRT.
It is a regressively racist ideology that undermines America’s institutions, teaches citizens (especially impressionable children) to categorize one another based on race, and presents a revisionist view of our country’s proud history. There’s a reason Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost an election last month in a blue state.
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Most of all, however, the CRT view of the individual is inapposite to conservatives’ understanding of humanity, since it portrays citizens as helpless rather than autonomous, let alone noble.
And yes, Nikole Hannah-Jones, they teach CRT at all levels, and we still discuss it daily.
Yes. I think I’ve said this in every one of my interviews in the last few weeks. No one is talking about CRT now that the election is over. We know why Republicans stopped. That media stopped reporting this made-up controversy speaks to the complicity in the propaganda campaign. https://t.co/WGbHrXVYAm
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) December 13, 2021
Abernathy concludes his treatise with, “Critical race theory should be welcomed in schools to the degree that it introduces the overlooked contributions of African Americans and the institutional racism that has existed since our nation’s founding — within a curriculum that stops short of sermonizing to today’s White Americans or force-feeding politically driven solutions.”
How would someone avoid “force-feeding politically driven solutions” with an ideology that is proudly anti-American, views every aspect of life as political, and, ironically, rejects freedom and classical liberal education?
I’d love to someday run this story by Abernathy: At lunch this weekend, a friend told me he pulled his son out of their elite private school because the CRT curriculum physically divided the class by race and political views a few weeks ago. Now, his 12-year-old son’s lifetime friend, who’s black, is no longer a friend.
Just 9 months ago, states got $350 billion in all-purpose federal grants, plus an additional $129 billion just for schools. But by all means, keep pleading underfunding this year. https://t.co/96XBdV8p9D
— Brian Riedl 🧀 (@Brian_Riedl) December 13, 2021
Too many of our public and private schools are overfunded, left-wing, and dishonest. That’s the problem, Mr. Abernathy.
