Dear God, I was really surprised to learn in the last week that Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been around since the early 70s. What?!? But I’ve been hearing so much about it lately. How could this not be something new?
I think I first heard it referenced on a podcast a few months ago. What I remember wasn’t an endorsement, but it wasn’t a condemnation either. It reminded me of a column I found about a year ago by Randy Alcorn titled “Black Lived Do Matter, But the BLM Organization Opposes Christian Values: So What Should We Do?” That particular editorial was about how it’s important to not throw out an important concept of realizing there is a racism problem in our society while rejecting the politics of an organization that has co-opted the the words “black lives matter.”
Anyway, to go back two days, I came across this YouTube video showing an exchange between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a member of Congress, during which CRT was discussed. I’ve recently heard so many scary, alarmist things about CRT, but everyone sounding the alarm about it was very vague. I decided I needed to do my due diligence and learn more about it so that I could develop an informed opinion rather than just decide what I thought about it by whether the person talking up its virtues or its dangers had a (D) or an (R) by their name, or was on CNN or Fox News.
Of course, I started with Wikipedia, the great authority for all knowledge (sarcasm intended). That’s when I confirmed what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs alluded to: this is not a new concept. I’ll get back to that later. After I read the explanation of it, I read some commentaries by people who are critical (“The Lies that Serve Us” and “What is Critical Race Theory?”). After reading them, my assessment was that there are probably some basic truths.
- Jim Crow laws are an undeniable way in which state and local governments enacted laws to suppress the advancement of black people.
- Redlining was a huge factor in suppressing the ability of people of color to build wealth through property ownership.
In fact, I’m going to stop this list. There are too many examples of systemic racism for them to be denied. Quite simply, I am a privileged white man. I get the benefit of the doubt because of how I look. When my wife and I are driving back from South Padre Island and go through the inland border checkpoint, they wave us through without checking our ID, while my Hispanic coworkers have to produce identification. My minority coworkers experience racism at local stores just in how they are treated when I do not. Again, there are too many examples to even list. They are just too numerous. But in short, there are certainly aspects of CRT that are undeniably true.
What’s concerning me is that we’ve become such a binary society. We have to accept all or nothing. If I support Trump or Biden for president, that means I have to either support or attack everything they say, believe, or put into place as policy. Our society no longer values critical thinking and nuance. We can’t see how someone might have a great theory with weak elements or a terrible theory with solid elements. It’s all or nothing.
Finally, I read this piece by Robert Vischer, dean of the law school at St. Thomas University. It’s called “Staying Calm About Critical Race Theory.” Basically, Vischer pulls out the value we can learn from CRT without having to embrace the whole thing. Just like black lives do, indeed, matter, that doesn’t mean we have to embrace everything the organization believes.
So regarding CRT, it feels like people who don’t want to exam how racism is still active in our society and even laws have attached it to an extreme theory so they can avoid dealing with it. It’s ridiculous.
Father, at the end of all of this, I simply ask that you open my eyes so that I can see. Part of that process is to develop more friendships with people with difference color skin than I have. In fact, that’s going to start tonight with church. My wife and I have decided to try to attend the Spanish mass at our Catholic Church as much as possible so that we can at least start the process of getting to know our neighbors. In fact, I’ve already noticed one thing that cannot help but impact the ability for Spanish-speaking Catholics in our town and their relationship with you. Their mass is at 7:00pm on a Saturday night. The Saturday English mass is at 5:00pm. So if I am English-speaking, I can choose mass at 5:00pm on a Saturday and still have my evening ahead of me, or go at 7:30am, 9:00am, or 11:15am on Sunday. But if I am Spanish-speaking, my only choice is to give up the heart of my Friday evening. How much does that impact the ability of the Spanish speaking Catholics to be exposed to mass and to you? So teach me. Open my eyes so I can see. And please direct me so that I might help our society to make a difference when I see injustice at any level.
In Jesus’s name I pray,
Amen
Emails to God 