Top academics explain the heated debate on critical race theory | ABC New

millions of white americans belong to the klan and they weren't even embarrassed by it they were proud of it and that hate became embedded systematically and systemically in our laws and our culture we do ourselves no favors by pretending none of this ever happened critical race theory says every white person is a racist critical race theory says america is fundamentally racist and irredeemably racist and let me tell you right now critical race theory is bigoted it is a lie and it is every bit as racist as the klansmen in white sheets president biden senator ted cruz weighing in on the latest clash in the culture war critical race theory it's an approach to teaching of american history and civics that argue systemic racism is woven into american law and institutions it's become a flash point for conservatives who argue the approach itself is racist with several states and localities moving to ban critical race theory from curriculums here to discuss the issues fueling this heated debate two top academics leah wright record professor of history at brandeis university and glenn lowery professor of social sciences at brown university senior fellow at the manhattan ensue welcome to you both and leah let me begin with you lay out the terms of the debate from your perspective first how would you define critical race theory so i think we have to be clear about the definitions it's really important and what you're hearing now is a debate supposedly over critical race theory but that's not actually what we're debating critical race theory is in a lot of ways just a niche section of uh of academia that deals with kind of using laws institutions policies to understand how racism how inequality how discrimination has been perpetuated it's been taught in upper level seminars usually third year electives in law schools but certainly my children are not learning kimberly crenshaw derek bell imani perry and the like in their public school educations the debate that we're having right now is over the study of race racism and inequality in history and in public public policy and certainly how those things have been taught throughout history how they've been understood throughout history and then how they are part of the larger american story that we tell each other and one another and including our students glenn what do conservatives mean by critical race theory what's their concern and do you agree with the definition i think the definition is fine as far as it goes i think the concern is about the narrative it's about what is the story of the american project and where does race fit into that and i think it's a bit like arguments about how do you teach evolution versus creationism or what do you do about sex education in the schools where people are concerned that a certain narrative a certain view which is very uncharitable to the american project and which is buttressed by references to historical mistreatment of african-americans that that is being uh the put forward as the major framework for understanding contemporary issues of racial disparity so the conservatives who are objecting are saying no it's not systemically white supremacist inherent uh american failure there are complex dynamics at work here uh that are account for these disparities is banning critical race theory from curriculum is the way to go glenn why don't you start oh no i wouldn't do that no more than i would ban the teaching of marxism i mean i wouldn't ban it i would argue against it in other words i would argue the glass of the uh american saga with respect to race is half full and more i would say that if you looked at mid 20th century uh the typical occupation for an african-american woman was a domestic servant this has changed dramatically within my lifetime i would say that slavery was a fact of human culture everywhere emancipation which happens here in the united states of america on mass is a uniquely american achievement not that slaves were not emancipated elsewhere but that the implicit promise of the american project culminates for blacks and emancipation and in the uh civil rights movement so i would say let's fight over the narrative let's not fight over words leah one of the concerns you hear from conservatives is that progressives don't recognize the kind of progress that glenn was just talking about and we'd most you know most recently just this week juneteenth finally perhaps a national holiday right and i think this is a is a wonderful example of the way in which kind of you know the idea of teaching race racism and the study of inequality in the classroom can actually produce substantive in this case legislation so we do see something emerge out of this like juneteenth right and we know that opal lee 94 year old opal lee has been fighting for this for years and certainly the way that it has been taught is both is one that's that's complex that understands the way in which the federal government failed the way in which the state of texas and individuals in texas uh failed but also one that is celebratory about the way in which a group of people have persevered have been deeply resilient and so part of i think what we have to understand here is that the celebrate the celebratory moment that we have for juneteenth right now is the kind of thing that people are trying to legislate against right the study of that actual june team the study of a moment like tulsa which we recently uh kind of commemorated the 100th anniversary of tulsa you don't want to legislate against that you don't want to ban against that because it'd be legislating against the truth and it would be legislating against history as it happened glenn how do we bridge this divide well i think we should get beyond race i know i'm spitting in the wind when i say that i know no one wants to hear it i think the right story here is that it's the american story we're all in this thing together i know that's very easy to say i think martin luther king got it right in 1963 i think that the racialization of this discussion of crime and violence and policing of poverty and wealth and whatnot is bad for america i think talk about reparations whatever the moral argument might be is disastrous for the future of this country black people should not be trying to cut a separate deal with america let's make the country a good country for everybody and we'll be on the right track take on that leah well i think glenn is right in citing martin luther king jr but i'm going to cite him in 1967 where he said where do we go from here chaos or community and i think one of the things that he pointed out is that we are going to have to get to the root of understanding inequality and we're going to have to get to the root of understanding racism by actually studying the past and doing an honest and objective job of studying the past and that means understanding both the national sins but also understanding the uh the great parts of america and how those things come together how they haven't benefited everyone in our society and in our country and in fact by studying race racism inequality understanding institutions systems right all of those things we actually aren't just making america a better place for african americans although certainly right that is the narrative i think people want us to understand or want us to think that is the the compelling narrative but instead we're making america a better place for everyone it makes america a freer and more democratic and more inclusive place for all of us glenn i saw a knot of your head to some of what leah was saying there yeah i mean i agree you don't ban the teaching about the history of the country i agree with that as i say the uh the question here is about the narrative it's about how we're going to tell the story there's a lot to agree on and i'm so happy to hear the endorsement of martin luther king 67 is fine with me two poor people's campaign riverside church speaking against the vietnam war that's also fine with me but basically we are 13 african-americans of a country which is dynamic and it's moving in the 21st century with all kinds of forces going on we need to join hands with our fellow americans on behalf of improving our circumstances for all of our people and i you know i i don't think that we're getting there with some of the racial rhetoric that i hear coming out of various quarters thank you both for an illuminating discussion thanks very much hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the abc news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 169,943

Keywords: American, Critical, George, Glenn, Juneteenth, Leah, Loury, Rigueur, Stephanopoulos, This, Week, Wright, conservatives, education, history, inequality, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-78387074, race, racism, schools, theory

Id: k5LO_b3k6a8

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 20 2021