Critical race theory. Donald Trump once called it “destructive ideology.” Supporters counter that critics of the academic framework are simply blowing a “racist dog whistle.”
CRT has been around for decades, but one would be hard-pressed to find a political lightning rod that has ignited the divide between red and blue America more this year than the teaching of CRT in public schools. It became one of the The most searched terms on google in 2021, overcoming Black Lives Matter.
But what is the theory exactly?
Turns out it's not that easy for most people to spot, according to a recently released analysis from Covid States Project, a collaborative effort by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern and Rutgers universities. It found that the vast majority of US residents — seven in 10 overall — have trouble articulating what CRT is.
“Critical race theory is a very specific theoretical framework for understanding the role that race plays,” explains David Lazer, distinguished professor of political science and computer science. Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University
“Critical race theory is still pretty obscure to most people,” he says Alauna Safarpourpostdoctoral researcher at Northeastern's Network Science Institute.
Republicans, men and college-educated people say they are more familiar than Democrats and independents, women and the non-college-educated. A third of black respondents report being more familiar than other racial groups in the study.
The poll of 19,000 US residents began nationwide on November 3, a day after Glenn Youngkin, a businessman making his first foray into politics, upset former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in the gubernatorial election. state.
McAuliffe's comment — “I don't think parents should be telling schools what to teach” — was a turning point in the race for Youngkin, who opposed CRT in the state's public schools. “Day one, I'm going to ban it,” says the Republican, who becomes Virginia's chief executive in January.
In fact, more than half of the countries — 29 states — have taken legislative or other restrictive actions limiting how history and racism are taught in public schools by early 2021. In an interesting twist, the study found that the attitude of public towards CRT have no consistent relationship with state policy. In fact, the contrast on the CRT is facsimile in states that have or have not enacted statutory bans.
To better understand attitudes toward how schools should educate students about racism, researchers conducted an experiment. He divided respondents into two camps, asking half of them, “Do you support or oppose the teaching of Critical Race Theory in public schools?” The other half were asked, “Do you support or oppose teaching how racism continues to affect American society today?”
Nearly twice as many respondents supported educating students about racism when the question omitted the phrase “Critical Race Theory.” Fifty-two percent of respondents supported the second question, while only 27 percent favored teaching CRT.
“To what extent are people simply objecting to this three-word phrase they've heard a million times but have been mislabeled, versus the more general issue of how racism continues to affect American society?” he asks David Lazerone of the study's authors and a professor of political science and computer science at Northeastern.
The decisive results some may wonder – aren't the topics of teaching racism in schools and CRT essentially the same? Lazer doesn't think so. “Critical race theory is a very specific theoretical framework for understanding the role that race plays,” he explains. “People can agree with it, or they can disagree with it.”
On the other hand, people may disagree with CRT as a theoretical framework, but strongly feel the impact of racism.
This was indeed true among people of different races and political parties. The survey found that 73% of Democrats, for example, wholeheartedly supported teaching the legacy of racism versus 44% of those who supported CRT. In the GOP, the percentages were much smaller, but 24% of Republicans still supported teaching racism to just 7% who supported CRT.
Among respondents of different races who were asked the same question, however, significant percentages of them neither supported nor opposed teaching CRT in public schools. It further highlighted how little people knew about it, the researchers explained.
But this was not the case with people of different races who had strong opinions one way or another about teaching the legacy of racism.
“It's really about the legal uncertainty of the CRT,” says Lazer.
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