Where Are The Hoards of Parents Supporting Equity in Education?

At first, I was a bit irritated by the hoards of misinformed parents squawking about CRT (Critical Race Theory) in K-12 public schools. They glommed onto "critical" and conflated it with the current movement in education to dispense with a single viewpoint from which we discuss and study events.

Then I was curious. Why aren't hoards of parents organizing to insist that we use education to take an honest look at where we've been as a nation, where we are and where we'd like to go...as a United States? Where is the United front of Black, Mexican, Asian and White parents who want educators to be free to discuss the history of this nation, the beauty of this nation and the imperfections of this nation?

The Civil Rights movement lead to Cesar Chavez fighting for the rights of farm-workers and immigrant labor. Chicano Studies departments came into being after African-Americans fought for African and African-American Studies departments. Even Women's Studies came into being on the heels of the movement for Black Studies as an academic discipline.

The fight against structures of racism and oppression have benefited the vast majority of Americans in one way or another. In fact, it is the ability to fight against perceived injustice that has us laud our Constitution over those of other democracies. African-Americans are a study in the flexibility and strength of this nation.

Isn't that something all Americans should want to see taught in schools? Isn't that something around which parents could organize en mass

And, lastly, for those who are unsure what I meant above when I referred to a "single viewpoint of events," here's an example. The United States and Europe, the Allies, were victorious in WWII. We stamped out fascist forces, ushering in a new wave of democracies around the globe. And while this was happening, the United States also confiscated the property of American citizens of Japanese descent and sent them to desolate, isolated camps. While we were stamping out the horrific expression of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, African-Americans serving in the United States military were segregated and treated as second-class citizens. Educators should be free to discuss the complexity of the social, economic and political landscape during WWII. Students should be free to explore all of this as well.

Perhaps the parents fighting against the expansion of perspectives do not realize that just as there were men who stood with women in the fight for women's suffrage, there were White Americans who fought against slavery. There were White Americans who fought against Jim Crow. How do children learn of these lighter-hued heroes if we must skip over the reason for their heroism. Or did they not learn in school that both Blacks and Whites have fought against and detested injustice and inequality?

To hear Kwame Simmons full episode on access to political power, click here.