This is a letter I wrote to my local paper. Feel free to borrow from it for your own letters.
The March 20th issue of the Sun contained a letter both defending CRT (Critical Race Theory) and simultaneously putting forth the falsehood that it is not in schools. To understand this sleight of hand, we must understand the difference between theory and praxis. Praxis is "the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, embodied, or realized." So no, Elementary School teachers are not usually explaining to your kids, "This is Critical Race Theory." They are doing something far worse - they are seeding the tenets of CRT in every part of K-12 education.
CRT does indeed have roots in Marxism. It is just one small part of what is known as Critical Social Justice, or more colloquially now as "woke" ideology. Whereas Marxism taught that the best way to look at the world is as a competition for wealth among class groups divided into oppressor and oppressed, Social Justice (including CRT) teaches that the best way to look at the world is as a competition for power among identity groups divided into oppressor and oppressed. Just as Marxism pushed the idea that we needed to forcibly redistribute wealth among class groups, to reach equity, Social Justice teaches that we must forcibly redistribute power among identity groups in order to reach equity. In short, in tells us we must judge and treat people differently based on what idenity groups they're in, based on what race they are, based on what sex they are, based on what sexuality they are, and so on. It is a thoroughly racist and sexist ideology that sells itself as "Anti-Racist" and "Anti-Sexist."
I was a true believer in Social Justice for over 20 years. Long before it hit the mainstream and embedded itself in our elementary schools, our media, our corporations, our churches and our government. I was indoctrinated into this belief system at Duke University in the late 1990s. Back then it was mostly only found in academia - in higher education - but now it is in your kids' public schools, yes, even here in Texas.
Any teacher who is indoctrinating your children to look at one another not as individuals, but as members of different collectives based on their race, is pushing CRT. Any teacher who brings the racist terms "white privilege," or "white fragility," or the sexist terms "toxic masculinity," or "male privilege" into your child's vocabulary is teaching them to judge their friends not on the basis of their character, but on the basis of their race and sex. This is a mutated form of identity-based Marxism, but it is just as reprehensible as the Marxism of the twentieth century. Find out what your kids are learning in school. DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) is yet another gateway to this destructive and divisive identity-based ideology. They will keep coining new names for it, as they try to run from the ones like CRT that they feel have become unmasked. If you are a parent who wants to learn more about Social Justice or Critical Race Theory, feel free to find me and reach out to me. We should not give this evil one inch in Georgetown.
Keri Smith
Critical Race Theory is Not Just in Our Schools
Keri, Are you still involved with Unsafe Space? I have been away for some time and was surprised to come back and find the YouTube channel had changed.
Because of your clear and precise writing style, I also wondered whether you have any inclination to write a primer explaining CSJ and its core tenets. I know Lindsay and Pluckrose have done something similar, but their book is pretty heavy going and it is difficult to parse the faith-based assumptions/core tenets that form the catechism of CSJ, from their genealogical approach.
Social justice sounds great on paper, until you start asking questions.