OK, OK, It’s Really Bad… But What is It?

"Critical race theory has moved into our school system, and we have to remove it." 

Virginia’s Governor-Elect, Republic Glenn Youngkin Fox News on Aug. 5th during his campaign.

"I've never figured out what a critical race theory is to be totally honest, after a year of talking about it."  Fox News Personality, Tucker Carlson, November 3rd  

During his campaign for governor of Virginia, the victor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, built his central message on his intention to ban “critical race theory” (CRT) on the first day he took office. Though asked several times, Youngkin never actually defined what he thought CRT actually meant. The closest he seems to have approached a definition is this statement made at an October 22nd campaign rally in Richmond, Virginia: “"America has fabulous chapters, I mean, it's the greatest country in the world… But we also have some important chapters in our history, we must teach them but what we won't do, what we won't do is teach our children to view everything through a lens of race. We won't do this. I mean, we know in our hearts it's wrong." [Emphasis added]. 

But what is CRT and where is that an academic approach in our nation’s public schools? Vox.com (November 4th) tried vainly to find examples of that approach: “Critical race theory was, until recently, an obscure school of thought in legal academia focused on analyzing the failures of mainstream legal approaches to fully remedy racial inequalities embedded in American law and society. It is not a standard part of the K-12 curriculum in Virginia or elsewhere.” Read the caption on Fox News image of Carlson and Youngkin pictured above. It suggests a solution for a problem that really does not exist. But running against unprovable abstractions just might be a winning strategy for the GOP.

The November 4th issue of Newsweek tackles the CRT this way (sound familiar?): “[It’s] an academic framework that examines history through the lens of racism that conservatives have claimed is an effort to rewrite U.S. history and make white people feel that they are inherently racist… At a roundtable earlier [during pre-election campaigning in October], Youngkin's opponent, former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe was asked to define critical race theory. He refused, saying it was not taught in Virginia schools and that the issue was a ‘dog whistle’ being used to divide people.

“In [the waning weeks of the campaign], Youngkin… targeted McAuliffe in television ads over his stance that parents should not tell schools what to teach… A recent Fox News poll found that 50 percent of likely voters say parents should be telling schools what to teach, while 40 percent said they shouldn't. The survey found registered voters were split, with 45 percent saying parents should be telling schools what to teach, and 43 percent saying they shouldn't.” Democrats may view this as down-and-dirty Trumpian racism, but Youngkin never campaigned with Trump by his side. This issue appears to resonate as a very significant backlash against pressures to diversify and the Black Lives Matter protests. Election experts chalk this message as an important touchpoint for “white suburban mothers” without a college education, the constituency that they say gave Republicans an edge in state that carried Joe Biden in 2020.

Wajahat Ali writing for the November 3rd theDailyBeast.com, explains: “As a student of American history and a person of color, I never underestimate the white, hot rage, anxiety, and resentment of a Karen scorned. You might think you’ve won them over with Beyonce, Oprah, chai latte, and henna, but the cult of Karen will always turn on people of color on a dime to uphold oppressive systems that ensure they remain influential and powerful handmaidens of white supremacy.

“Don’t believe me? According to an NBC exit poll, 75 percent of white women without college degrees voted for Glenn Youngkin for Governor in Virginia, compared to 56 percent who went for Trump in 2020. They voted for a man whose single campaign message was about stopping the manufactured bogeyman of Critical Race Theory, the latest incarnation of the Southern Strategy, which most of his voters can’t define and isn’t taught in schools, but they are certain it is absolutely terrifying and worth canceling because it’s making their kids hate white people and become transgender.” 62% of college educated Virginia women voted for McAuliffe according to that same poll.

Though Tucker Carlson doesn’t know exactly what CRT is, to him it sounds very much like “Nazi” programming and very un-American. That the United States is becoming a majority of minorities seems to be terrifying for a statistically relevant portion of voters. At the essence of what are referred to as the “culture wars” – CRT and opposing those who are in favor of removing vestiges of pro-slavery heroes, statutes and name usage (pejoratively referred to as the “cancel culture” movement) – Republicans seem to have found an issue that appeals to a whole lot of voters. The hallmarks of racism may be unmistakable, but there is enough “plausible deniability,” insistence that this is just a way to support a quality education, that it is finding a lot of traction.

But a little digging reveals how far Youngkin, a very successful fund manager, was on the other side of this issue… before he discovered the efficacy of a racially tinged message: “Less than a week after the police murder of George Floyd, Youngkin’s company, sprawling private equity firm the Carlyle Group, put out a press release, signed by Youngkin and his co-CEO, Kewsong Lee, promising ‘a special match’ offer to employees who donate up to $1,000 to any one of three social justice organizations: the Equal Justice Initiative, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the NAACP.” TheDailyBeast.com, October 12th. Then Youngkin, like the entire GOP, discovered the efficacy of embracing the racially charged notion of cultural wars and the buzzwords that go with them. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and that a racist undertone just might give the GOP victory in the coming elections is deeply disappointing, but watching helpless Democrats struggle for elusive unity is even sadder.