{"id":1530322,"date":"2022-06-28T10:19:23","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T14:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1530322"},"modified":"2022-06-28T10:19:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T14:19:48","slug":"an-educators-perspective-on-the-social-experiment-called-critical-race-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/an-educators-perspective-on-the-social-experiment-called-critical-race-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"An Educator\u2019s Perspective On The Social Experiment Called Critical Race Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fan-educators-perspective-on-the-social-experiment-called-critical-race-theory%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1530322&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><em>The following is a review of a new book from Dr. Ernest J. Zarra, <\/em>From Character to Color<em>, on <\/em><em>the challenges educators face with Critical Race Theory.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Something off-putting started appearing in Facebook posts a few years ago. I noticed some of my thoughtful, hard-working, and, in many cases, progressive Facebook friends began making peculiar comments that seemed utterly disorienting.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t want to hear about \u201ccolorblind\u201d anymore. That\u2019s laziness and insensitive.<\/p>\n<p>Lived experiences teach us that we can\u2019t treat every student the same.<\/p>\n<p>We teachers must do the work to understand the trauma of our students\u2014curriculum is secondary to social-emotional scaffolding.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes I would receive odd messages from former students \u2013 students I had a good relationship with, mind you\u2014telling me they were rethinking their years in my classes and wondered why I never talked about my own \u201cprivilege\u201d or \u201cpower.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My entire life, as both a student and a teacher, has been predicated on the conventional and mainstream notion that American education aspires to be the great equalizer in civil society\u2014the dream of Jefferson and Horace Mann and many a school reformer. Though, it was more than just a dream. Over two decades, I have witnessed hundreds, if not thousands, of students rise from the ashes of poverty to find success in their lives\u2014not because they were obsessed with power or racial identity or niches of aggrievement. They found success because they worked hard, valued education, played by the rules, and upheld traditional standards of behavior.<\/p>\n<p>So, what happened? Where were these new claims of potent racial consciousness coming from? How were our classrooms devolving into laboratories of social experimentation?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To fully understand these changes, I have found it helpful to read the new book \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Character-Color-Critical-American-Education\/dp\/1475864132\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1QPHKSDH5UE6N&#038;keywords=from+character+to+color&#038;qid=1655998965&#038;sprefix=From+Character+to+%2Caps%2C159&#038;sr=8-1\">From Character to Color: The Impact of Critical Race Theory on American Education<\/a>\u201d by life-long educator and scholar Dr. Ernest J. Zarra. Of course, there are other recent books that cover similar ground such as Charles Love\u2019s splendid \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Race-Crazy-Progressive-Racism-Movement-ebook\/dp\/B09FM47C96\/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&#038;qid=1655999008&#038;sr=8-1\">Race Crazy<\/a>\u201d or sections of Douglas Murray\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/War-West-Douglas-Murray\/dp\/0063162024\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=BLE6LX398FKP&#038;keywords=war+on+the+west&#038;qid=1655999287&#038;sprefix=war+on+the+west+%2Caps%2C139&#038;sr=8-1\">The War on the West<\/a>.\u201d Like these texts, Zarra masterfully explains the origins of CRT, demolishes the notion that schools \u201cdon\u2019t teach CRT,\u201d and eloquently elaborates on the reality that \u201cCRT is illiberal and constraining, emotionally tattooing labels upon children even in the womb.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though, Zarra\u2019s book is unique amongst these other powerful and compelling books. He explains that the most sinister element of CRT, and there are many to be sure, is that it bludgeons and hollows out any form of grace. Grace is traditionally upheld as a religious value \u2013 a profound gift of faith, the living embodiment of unconditional, divine love \u2013 but Zarra brilliantly explains the necessity of grace in a multicultural and multiracial society with a troubling racial past.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWithin the teachings of this new religion any person born as white is automatically classified as a potential oppressor. Within this racial religion, wrongdoings committed by Americans of the past are imputed to Americans of the present. Continuous vengeance over forgiveness is acceptable as atonement for the past. In contrast, with the practice of common grace, skin color is not one\u2019s primary identity.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>While we are certainly historic beings\u2014conditioned by our moment in history, influenced by our technological status, poisoned by the twilight of our civilization\u2019s current exhaustion\u2014we do not have to be defined by the accidents of our identity. Our immutable characteristics need not shape our world-view or sketch the outlines of our souls. As Zarra wonderfully explains, \u201cgrace knows no race.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He deftly delves into the juxtaposition between the theories of modern CRT activists and the traditional, natural-rights idealism of Martin Luther King. The displacement of natural law in favor of a historicist quest for power by aggrieved populations will utterly destroy a multicultural society because it views grace and forgiveness as hurdles of the ultimate goal \u2013 which is not universal justice for all, but a naked and cynical transfer of raw power from one group of citizens to another.<\/p>\n<p>The most brilliant section of the book is his exploration of what awaits a society with these aims in mind. His central insight is that CRT is a backdoor to a form of soft autocracy in which \u201cequality of humanity\u201d is replaced by \u201cequity by government.\u201d American equality is rooted in a common humanity bestowed by \u201cthe laws of Nature and Nature\u2019s God.\u201d It is protected by constitutional text: \u201cequal protection,\u201d \u201cdue process,\u201d \u201cprivileges and immunities,\u201d and \u201cfull faith and credit.\u201d To replace constitutional guarantees of liberty with fiats of equal outcomes would require a scale and scope of government power wholly alien to the constitutional norms of the nation.<\/p>\n<p>My criticisms are mild. I found his meditations on the centrality of social grace so unique and insightful that I wanted more. All told, this is an important contribution to the current backlash towards CRT and anti-racism dogmas, especially as it is told from the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following is a review of a new book from Dr. Ernest J. Zarra, From Character to Color, on the challenges educators face with Critical Race Theory. Something off-putting started appearing in Facebook posts a few years ago. I noticed some of my thoughtful, hard-working, and, in many cases, progressive Facebook friends began making peculiar &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":790,"featured_media":1530342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1530322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/790"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1530342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}