Thoughts on Critical race theory

Although there’s research indicating that infants demonstrate a preference for caregivers of their own race, any future racial biases and bigotries generally are environmentally acquired. Adult racist sentiments are often cemented by a misguided yet strong sense of entitlement, perhaps also acquired from one’s environment. One means of proactively preventing this social/societal problem may be by allowing young children to become accustomed to other races in a harmoniously positive manner. The early years are typically the best time to instill and even solidify positive social-interaction life skills/traits, like interracial harmonization, into a very young brain. Human infancy is the prime (if not the only) time to instill and even solidify positive social-interaction characteristics into a very young mind.

At a very young and therefore impressionable age, I was emphatically told by my mother (who is of Eastern European heritage, Croatian specifically) about the exceptionally kind and caring nature of our Black family doctor. She never had anything disdainful to say about people of color; in fact, she still enjoys watching/listening to the Middle Eastern and Indian subcontinental dancers and musicians on the multicultural channel. I believe that her doing so had a very positive and lasting effect on me.

Irrational racist sentiment can be handed down generation to generation. If it’s deliberate, it’s something I strongly feel amounts to a form of child abuse: to rear one’s impressionably very young children in an environment of overt bigotry — especially against other races and/or sub-racial groups (i.e. ethnicities). Not only does it fail to prepare children for the practical reality of an increasingly racially/ethnically diverse and populous society and workplace, it also makes it so much less likely those children will be emotionally content or (preferably) harmonious with their multicultural/-racial surroundings.

Children reared into their adolescence and, eventually, young adulthood this way can often be angry yet not fully realize at precisely what. Then they may feel left with little choice but to move to another part of the land, where their race or ethnicity predominates, preferably overwhelmingly so. If not for themselves, parents then should do their young children a big favor and NOT pass down onto their very impressionable offspring racially/ethnically bigoted feelings and perceptions, nor implicit stereotypes and ‘humor’, for that matter. Ironically, such rearing can make life much harder for one’s own children.

This is exactly the thing i was trying to express. We need to have all these conversation. They are not easy for either side of the effects. We can do better by being more inclusive and taking the time to share knowledge. All prejudice is rooted in ignorance.

Personally, I try hard to see that in every encounter. No matter the label, we are human first and with dignity and respect for the individual we can all learn and get better.

Thanks for sharing the resources.

You bring up interesting points. One thing you said stood out to me: "I know and accept that this country has fallen short of this goal many times. But i can not ignore the the beautiful examples of Americans coming together to help one another."

When we use statements like "but..." to follow up a comment, it tends to negate some of what comes before it. This country has fallen short of this goal many times. Full stop. We continue to do so today. You mention the southern border, where I am not sure if you know but the experience is not such a positive one as you describe. Children have been separated from families and both children and adults experiencing extensive trauma as a result of the practices at the border.

When I think of the "spirit of the constitution" I have to remember the greater context during that period. You add "(people)" in parentheses after "men" but the reality is that myself, other women and marginalized genders, LGBTQIA2S+ people, disabled people, children, those whose first language is not English, and Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other People of Color were not the "people" being referred to in the constitution. While Critical Race Theory is a theory, a lens through which we can examine policy and practice, I would say that we have ample evidence that racism is, in fact, embedded in policies and laws.

I appreciate your digging into your perceptions and beliefs. I would strongly encourage you to read Ijeoma Oluo's Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. It is eye-opening to learn the many pervasive ways that our systems "work by design" as Oluo writes. Nothing we see today was by accident. Enslavement became Jim Crow, became the prison industrial complex. Slave patrols became traffic stops. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is another great read for context and history.

I write all this not to discourage you from continuing to reflect on this topic, but to help you find further resources and ideas. In the anti-racism spaces I am in, we are often asking "where are all the white men?" because very, very few enter and remain in these spaces in meaningful, sustainable ways. Anti-oppression work is our responsibility when we are members of dominant culture groups such as being white, or able-bodied, or cisgender and heterosexual - to name just a few examples.

Finally, I would invite you to explore the characteristics of white supremacy culture. We have the privilege as white people for this conversation to be very academic and theoretical, but for Black and Brown people this is their literal lives and safety.

http://whitesupremacyculture.info/