Blackburn Op-Ed: Why Is Critical Race Theory Dangerous For Our Kids?
Photo: U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R) Tennessee
Photo Credit: marshablackburn / Instagram
Published July 13, 2021
By Senator Marsha Blackburn –
For months, parents have raised the alarm about the left’s effort to brainwash our children by injecting Critical Race Theory (CRT) into public school curriculum.
One Tennessee mom recently warned Williamson County parents that her seven-year-old daughter came home from school saying, “I’m ashamed that I’m White.” Her daughter asked, “Is there something wrong with me? Why am I hated so much?”
This reaction is reason enough to start asking questions, but those who have yet to investigate the tenets of CRT will be shocked to know that this child’s distress was the desired result of her lessons. If left unchecked, this mental and emotional trauma will worm its way into every classroom in America.
Although promoted as “anti-racist” civil rights education, CRT actively encourages discrimination.
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At its core, CRT segregates people into two main categories: oppressors or victims. The calculation is based solely on skin color. The tenets of CRT stretch far beyond the humanities. In some classrooms in Oregon and California, students operate under the understanding that “finding the right answer” in mathematics is racist. “Right” and “wrong” answers are deemed a product of white supremacy.
The woke gymnastics required to reach such a conclusion would be amusing if this destructive ideology didn’t pose such a danger to education in America.
We can all agree that racism and discrimination are wrong and have no place in the classroom—but neither does racially motivated propaganda.
In the U.S. Senate, I’ve been leading the charge for true equality in the classroom. I led legislation prohibiting federal funding of the “1619 Project,” which reframes American history in terms of racial conflict and oppression. I also joined my Senate colleagues in demanding that Critical Race Theory’s prejudicial influence be kept out of K–12 classrooms.
Many on the left have tried to dismiss this as a political non-issue, but here in Tennessee, we see opposition to CRT is coming straight from parents and educators.
In response, the Tennessee State Legislature passed and Governor Bill Lee signed a bill banning CRT in schools. Still, we must continue to stand firm at a local level.
Children should not be forced to endure this latest round of revisionist history, but it will take more than letters and legislation to keep CRT out of the classroom. Parents need to keep showing up to school board meetings and reporting discriminatory conduct.
The last thing educators should be doing is encouraging our children to be ashamed of the color of their skin.
That same Williamson County mom who warned about the dangers of CRT was left with no choice but to put her seven-year-old in therapy. Why? “She is depressed. She doesn’t want to go to school.”
While parents struggle to help their children manage the mental and emotional damage inflicted by this dangerous ideology, the left will continue to re-write our education system to fit their woke agenda—and they won’t stop until CRT is in every classroom in America. I will gladly stand with Tennessee parents to demand an end to this latest, unhinged attempt to brainwash our nation’s children.
About the Author:
Marsha Blackburn is the senior United States Senator from Tennessee. A businesswoman, she is a member of the Republican Party. Blackburn was a state senator from 1999 to 2003 and represented Tennessee’s 7th congressional district in the U.S. House from 2003 to 2019. On November 6, 2018, she became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee, defeating former Democratic Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. She took over as the state’s senior senator in January 2021, when outgoing Senator Lamar Alexander retired. Follow Blackburn on Twitter @MarshaBlackburn and Facebook.
Great content !!! Conservatives must be informed in order to be effectively engaged. We have some serious Battles facing us now !!!
Thank you!
How much freedom does a teacher have in consideration of the inclusion of CRT in their classroom? How much freedom does a school board have in forming the criteria of school curricula within their jurisdiction? I know parents can attend school board meetings, but, beyond voicing an opinion, what can be done to influence the school board’s decisions? I no longer have children in school, but the spread of school board approved teaching of CRT is extremely unnerving! Although Tennessee has a law in place forbidding the teaching of CRT, I have read several articles indicating that teachers in Tennessee have stated that they plan to defy the law and include the tenets of Critical Race Theory in their classes regardless of consequences! Just how will this law be enforced? My questions ought to be the concern of every parent of children attending schools in our state!
Seriously
In what school was it taught? Williamson and Davidson may have had something similar to your CRT paranoia.
My children attend school in Lawrence county, with maybe two mixed classmates. No black person goes to the local school and in the 20 yrs Ive lived here,I think we had one black student for like a month. That school in no way taught CRT, they didn’t even observe MLK day back in 2007,and they wont teach it there.
if you have issues with Williamson county and its curriculum, talk about them. Not the whole state because we don’t even know what CRT is! Its a damn talking point. Theres so much bigger fish to fry.
Any person who does not understand how crt is not in the schools with SEL- social emotional learning will lose their children and grandchildren to marxist propaganda. For life. Period. Be warned.