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Guest column: Is Critical Race Theory the best way to teach history and racism?

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Tommy Zhang
Guest Columnist
Tommy Zhang

Is Critical Race Theory the best way to teach history and racism? A pro-human approach may be better. 

Recently “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) gathered a large amount of controversy across the country. Opponents of CRT called it divisive and indoctrinating and claimed that it has no place in schools. Many states passed legislation, banning its teaching in K-12 education, including our state, Florida. 

I disagree with the legislative efforts to ban CRT in schools. The language of these bills is vague. It can have a chilling effect on free speech or on the teaching of racism’s history and impact in general. It is hard to know where the line is. To avoid crossing any lines, people may end up choosing to avoid the topic of racism altogether.  

This fall will be my senior year in high school. I was born an American, but I spent most of my childhood overseas. It is important for me to learn American history, the true and complete history. Learning about slavery, Jim Crow, and racism, past and present, is important to me because I want to understand American society in order to figure out ways to make it better. 

However, we need to ask ourselves whether teaching the dark part of American history and society through the lens of white power and supremacy, racial hierarchy, and the framework of “oppressor and oppressed” (which CRT proposes) is the best way. I don’t think so. It unintentionally teaches students to focus on “my” own ethnic/racial group in history, and what “my own” people have done or suffered. It inevitably leads to an “us vs them” mentality because it focuses on how people are different, rather than what commonality we share. 

We can find a better way to learn about history and racism, through focusing on people’s common humanity. Recently, I read a pro-human learning standard for K-12 history and civic education written by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (F.A.I.R.). 

I was attracted to FAIR’s idea that students will develop a conceptual understanding of what Martin Luther King, Jr. called “human personality,” and will learn to recognize and respect the humanity of others in their interactions. I hope my school can adopt this pro-human anti-racist approach. 

Like Martin Luther King Jr. and many other advocates from the past and present, I believe we should learn about history through the lens of human compassion and empathy, and fight against racism together using our shared human strength, rather than as members of different racial groups.

Tommy Zhang is a rising senior at The Bolles School.