On questions of race, history repeats itself
We know now what a certain segment of the population was doing last summer as the rest of the country was talking about race. They were seething.
The best way to make sense of the current frenzy over Critical Race Theory — a phrase that’s being used as a catch- all for any racerelated talk some activists don’t like — is to recognize it as an inevitable backlash to whatever progress was made last year in taking on the nation’s longstanding racial wounds.
That progress was itself overstated, as much of what resulted from the George Floyd protests could best be described as half- measures. But at least there was a public conversation. And that was enough to provoke outrage.
The result is that anything gained in the past year, such as an understanding on the part of white people of what everyone else in this country can face daily in terms of suspicion, discrimination or worse, has been cast into doubt.
It’s been most visible in school systems, which have been the focus of intense criticism over what they may have been teaching on the subject of race. Greenwich got the most attention, but it’s come up all over, including in Redding, where objections have been raised over an anonymous survey asking questions about race, and in Guilford, where a group said children were being punished “for sins they did not commit, and for a democratic infrastructure and way of life they had no part in building.”
There’s no indication anything like that is happening. Instead, people are apparently upset that previously verboten truths about our nation’s history are now up for discussion.
School systems reacted to last summer’s protests in different ways. Like a lot of companies did, some formed committees to look at their own racial makeup, and to ask why things look the way they do. A general agreement that diversity and equity should be encouraged started to take hold. That has proven temporary.
What was most striking about last year’s protests in Connecticut wasn’t just their size, but where they happened. Some of the whitest towns in the state were home to multiple Black Lives Matter rallies. It led to questions about race in policing, housing and medical care, some of which were taken up by the state Legislature. One outcome was that more people became aware of the realities of our nation’s history in terms of race relations, and its inherent ugliness.
Our nation is hardly alone there, but we seem uniquely determined to pretend everything we’ve done has been with the best of intentions. Teaching the truth of our country’s past and all its messiness is in conflict with the desire to always see this country on the right side of history, which helps explain the current pushback.
Outraged parents, goaded by activists nationwide, have taken this fight to local school systems. But last year’s marches were defined by a desire for a greater understanding: Why are things the way they are? And you can’t get anywhere on that question without knowing the history. If we’re ever going to understand why restrictions on voting, to name one example, remain a concern in 2021, then knowing about our past is necessary.
This is why education is so important, so that we can better recognize the patterns at play. Because this was always going to be the result of last summer’s protests. Whenever there’s progress on questions of race, the backlash is inevitable. Just as surely as Barack Obama led to Donald Trump, so Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 led to outrage over Critical Race Theory in 2021.
We don’t need to do this every time. But because we seem so determined to ignore the lessons of the past, here we are again.