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If you don’t know what critical race theory (CRT) is, don’t feel bad. Neither do the folks in charge of K-12 education in Ohio.

Let’s go back to July 2020 when the Ohio State Board of Education passed “a resolution to condemn racism.” Acknowledging disparities in the education system for students of color and whites, the board required all Department of Education employees and contractors to undergo implicit bias training.

But in October 2021, after a change in personnel, the board did an about-face and passed a resolution that put the brakes on implicit bias training. Perhaps trying to camouflage what it had done, the board titled its decision a “resolution to promote academic excellence… without prejudice or respect to race, ethnicity or creed.”

This second resolution wasn’t just hollow—it condemned racism but did nothing to reduce racism—the board wasn’t honest. Citing an attorney general opinion, the board justified its decision by stating it lacked authority to require implicit bias training for contractors. True, but the attorney general expressly stated the board had authority to require such training for employees. Why not make the training optional for contractors?

The board also determined that CRT has “no place in K-12 education,” even though, former board president Laura Kohler states it’s never been taught in Ohio’s K-12 schools. The resolution also condemned programs that promote “collective guilt, moral deficiency” to a “whole race or group of people.” As if this type of instruction is part of any curriculum

Apparently, the board succumbed to the nationwide misconception about CRT.

The Manhattan Institute calls it “a radical Left ideology” that “rejects the American principles of individual rights, meritocracy, and equality under the law.” State representative Matt Lockett (R-Ky.) says CRT is “identity-based Marxism based solely on the color of one’s skin” that “seeks to use race as means of moral, social and political revolution.”

The Heritage Foundation says CRT “does not value people by the content of their character nor does it value hard work,” and it seeks “to tear down and erase the history of ideas that created Western culture.” Its supporters believe that “to advance American culture, they must destroy the system.”

Scary stuff, but far from accurate.

CRT is the result of civil rights attorney and law school professor, Derrick Bell, examining why Blacks were still at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder in the 70s after civil rights laws had been passed in the mid-60s. Bell concluded the problem had to lie within America’s various social structures.

According to law school professor Khiara Bridges, racism is not innate but has been embedded within our systems and institutions. It has been codified in law and woven into public policy, meaning we are not the nation of meritocracy or colorblindness we claim to be.

Tough stuff to swallow, but think about how whites lynched some 6500 Blacks with impunity between 1865 and 1950. Think about how Blacks were excluded from significant parts of the New Deal—pensions, unemployment compensation, for example—because of exclusions for agricultural and domestic workers, roughly two-thirds of whom were Black.

In 1938, federal mortgage lending directions stated that neighborhood stability is dependent on properties continuing “to be occupied by the same “social and racial classes.” Entire predominantly Black neighborhoods were “redlined” by lending institutions. Recent, stricter voting laws disproportionately affect minorities and reduce their ability to vote.

When you confront the dark side of American history, backlash is inevitable, and the message of CRT gets perverted.

You would think people in the education business would dig deep for the truth instead of reacting reflexively and would ponder whether CRT has a place in high school as part of American history.

The irony is stunning. By using its authority to preclude training in implicit bias and suppress teachers from addressing historical facts, the board of education made a case for CRT.

[A shortened version of this post was published as an op-ed on February 21, 2022, in The Columbus Dispatch.]

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Jack D’Aurora writes for Considerthisbyjd.com

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