Were “critical race theory” taught as one of many belief systems to enrich education with different views, it might be defensible. Instead, it’s taught as the unquestionable truth. It shuts down debate, accusing dissenters of contributing to an oppressive system. 

Also read: COUNTERPOINT | CRT = ‘truth of America”

Despite CRT’s pretensions to objective truth, there is much to criticize. 

For one thing, it abandons the civil rights movement. 

While CRT divides students by skin color into oppressors and oppressed, Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a day when virtue took priority over race. “I look to a day when people are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” When we tell white kids they are inherently oppressive, and we tell black kids they are inherently oppressed, we defy King’s dream.

Critical theory, an openly Marxist philosophy from which CRT derives, teaches that society is divided into the upper-class oppressors and the lower-class oppressed. Critical race theory also divides society into oppressors and oppressed but changes the dividing line from class to race. 

Teach that belief system in all grade levels and you are telling white children to loathe themselves for something they neither believe nor built. You are teaching black children to believe they are incapable of success. You are institutionalizing the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”

This dynamic can be seen in the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place For Hate” curriculum, present in 35 Douglas County schools and many others across the country. It defines racism as “the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.”

Not only does this definition create constant victim and oppressor groups; it also promotes the idea that racism is institutional, not individual. There lies another issue with Critical Race Theory: it is a vehicle for one-sided political activism.

A short perusal of No Place For Hate reveals activism masquerading as education. Its instructor handbook includes lesson plans for elementary students to “model ally behaviors.” No Place for Hate is typical of CRT in this regard. In Iowa, a mandatory teacher race training calls the phrase “Make America Great Again” covert white supremacy. 

CRT doesn’t actually solve anything. If one ethnic group performs worse in a given subject, CRT offers an excuse and someone to blame, but no solution. It doesn’t teach anyone how to read or multiply. We ought to focus on proscriptive solutions rather than regressive excuses.

The consequences of teaching CRT are real. In New Jersey, a student wrote to his teacher about two weeks of English lectures chastising white men. They left him feeling “like worthless scum undeserving of living.”

Thankfully, parents across the country are fighting back against CRT curricula in their schools. In Douglas County, the school board paid $37,000 for CRT-inspired “equity training” with the Gemini Group. After hearing about it, parents showed up to a school board meeting in droves. Mere hours after the public testimony, the Douglas County School District cancelled the remaining trainings.

Critical Race Theory promotes division. Rather than appealing to our national history as an inspiration to build an even brighter future, CRT seeks to drive students apart. Parents should continue to speak out against CRT.

In their formative years, our children should learn the good, the bad, and the ugly of human history – but they should never be defined by it. Everyone can achieve in these United States. Let’s focus on providing the tools and framework to do that rather than take the easy way out. We should prioritize constructive action over excuses to maintain the emotional status quo.

Nate Ormond is a Castle Rock businessman and parent who founded Road 2 Recovery, a committee that seeks to hold the Douglas County School Board accountable for its failures.