Psaki says teaching kids critical race theory isn't 'indoctrination,' it's 'responsible'

Here we have the Biden administration endorsing the teaching of Critical Race Theory to our children.

It teaches that racism is endemic (endemic meaning: natural to or characteristic of a specific people or place;  native ;  indigenous)

In other words every white American is born with it.

As you may know, some of our leftist members here tried to deny it was being taught, while others claimed that it was simply the teaching of the history of slavery in America, which it is obviously not.

Thoughts?

Is this why Joe Biden was elected?

In other words every white American is born with it.

Yes, that is EXACTLY what proponents are saying. Vic you aren’t that fucking stupid and you know full well no one is saying white people are born racist but that racism has very deep roots in government policy, law, and societal attitudes going back to the founding of the US and before, and that it has had a large influence on US history.

Sounds like some folks want to whitewash history and those same folks say racism is practically non-existent in the USofA and that there has been no recorded history of increased violence (by 250%) specifically against Asian Americans since the former occupant of the White House referred to Co-Vid/the pandemic as Kung Flu and the China Virus.

Endemic? If I were to say anything about CRT, the fear of it has become epidemic within certain conspiracy corners who are seeking to placate their specific Kool Aid drinkers. There is a simple way out: Thou shalt not listen to dog whistles. This has become like the mother whose son has been found guilty of killing 17 and pleads for mercy because 34 deserved it.

My daughter had a healthy dollop of CRT where the R stood not only for race but also religion. Neither she nor her friends exhibited any supposed angst.

A final thought: Woof! @!@ 

racism is endemic, not aberrational, in American society"

Um, IT IS. The US has had blatantly and openly racist laws on the books right up into the 1960s, that kind of shit doesn’t disappear overnight. Hell, legally only white men could vote until the 1860s and even after that Jim Crow laws effectively made it so that really only white people could vote in any significant way until the 1960s. Oh, and fucking slavery.Those are of course just the most obvious examples of racism being baked deep into the foundation of the US.

That is completely ignoring the treatment of natives, Asians, the wrong kind of white Europeans, Hispanics etc. 

We are getting better, but that shit takes time and race ha played a huge role in the development of the United States, communities within it, and the way a lot of different groups see a lot of different issues. Seems some people only want to look at a certain viewpoint of American history and focus only on the good while pretending the bad never happened.

We are getting better, but that shit takes time and race ha played a huge role in the development of the United States, communities within it, and the way a lot of different groups see a lot of different issues.

Of course. Legalized racism was only ended in America 55 years ago. That is less than three generations ago. It is not enough time to declare white racism "over". 

Vic, when you were a kid in school, were you ever taught that Jefferson would not consider freeing his slaves because he needed the money they produced for him?

I wasn't. 

Like the country that he had helped to found and govern, Jefferson was locked into support of the slave system if for none other than pragmatic reasons. He simply could not afford to free his slaves because he needed them to work his 10,000 acres of land (not all of it at Monticello), which, without their labor, would have lost most of its value. Yet, for more than fifty years, Jefferson devoted himself not only to an economy based on slave labor but also to a defense of the idea that the slaves themselves constituted a legitimate form of property and slavery was an indispensable social practice. Thomas Jefferson and the Paradox of Slavery ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Jefferson wrote that slavery was wrong at the same time he held slaves and would not consider freeing them because he needed the income they produced. In modern terms we would say such a person was conflicted. There are MANY examples, like this, of "conflicted" in the story of America, which are papered over by saying "they were just men of their times". 

Let's just tell kids of the appropriate age the truth. 

Now I'm confused. 

Teaching children the complete and unvarnished truth about America's history, good and bad, is considered indoctrination. 

But teaching them about creationism and that Christianity is the one true religion, isn't?

Critical race theory is not, as it's defenders here will have you believe, about teaching kids that racism existed in this country. That's, of course,  laughable enough on it's face. The teaching of history, much like the educational field in general, has been dominated by left wing theory since the 70s.  The idea that progressives haven't been teaching kids about the horrors of racism already is preposterous enough.   

Critical race theory is much more insidious than just turning American history is racialist propaganda that ignores facts like the 1619 project. CRT is an outgrowth of Marxist critical theory, but instead of focusing on every interaction through the power of class and money, it's focuses on race as the determinative factor of life. Since white are generally better off, CRT takes its as a given they've rigged society to exploit others (ignore the success of Asians in America).  Everything is thus explained through the prism of race and race alone. It's the default answer to every inequality.  A minority scores poorly on a test? The test was constructed to oppress minorities.  Every discrepancy, every difference in outcomes is ascribed to racism. 

CRT uses race like some devout religious believers use God to explain every out come.  Instead of God willed it, its racism caused it.  One of it's high priests, Ibram X. Kendi, wrote,  that “racial discrimination is the sole cause of racial disparities in this country and in the world at large.”  Think about how insane that is. No personal responsibility. No agency for anyone. It's racism all the way down. 

CRT is not about learning facts. Or history, it's about teaching kids to view the world through racialist eyes. People exist primarily as a member of a race and they are taught to celebrate their victimhood and demand "justice" for what happened to their ancestors or they are taught to be ashamed and guilty because their success comes only through oppressing. As the  the head of Grace school admitted in leaked audio, CRT leads teachers to demonize white kids for being born.  

Do we live in a racist society? 

I think there are legitimate arguments on both sides of the question and eventually a synthesis or consensus of opinion will emerge. 

Critical race theory strikes me as a representation of black (all nonwhite)  power. 

The ultimate truth is that America is going to move away from white viewpoints being the default. Both concerning the present day and history. 

The rest of this is just growing pains. 

he ultimate truth is that America is going to move away from white viewpoints being the defaul

Do you believe teaching kids that their race is the determining factor in their lives is a good thing?  Do you believe racial tribalism is healthy for this country? 

You would argue that Martin Luther King  was wrong then.  People shouldn't be judged by their character, but rather the color of their skin. 

I dont take critical race theory as the "be all - end all"  that you seem to.  It is more of a fad than anything else. 

A number of states celebrated "Confederate Heritage Day" earlier this week. That bothers me much more than Critical Race Theory does. 

You would argue that Martin Luther King  was wrong then.  People shouldn't be judged by their character, but rather the color of their skin. 

Martin Luther King was talking about a "dream" of a post racist society. We are nowhere near that point. 

rtin Luther King was talking about a "dream" of a post racist society. We are nowhere near that point.

CRT rejects that goal.  Do you? I

If people want to defend teaching CRT, then embrace what it actually teaches. 

It is more of a fad than anything else. 

I hope you are right. But the trends seem to argue otherwise. Racialist thought is becoming more, not less common.