By: William F. Spivey
“White people go around, it seems to me, with a very carefully suppressed terror of Black people — a tremendous uneasiness. They don’t know what the Black face hides. They’re sure it’s hiding something. What it’s hiding is American history. What it’s hiding is what white people know they have done, and what they like doing. White people know very well one thing; it’s the only thing they have to know. They know this; everything else, they’ll say, is a lie. They know they would not like to be Black here. They know that, and they’re telling me lies. They’re telling me and my children nothing but lies.” — James Baldwin
In an interview with ABC in 1979, they didn’t dare run. James Baldwin said out loud what white censors couldn’t stand to hear. He spoke of white fragility, which is at the core of why some people don’t want any children, white or Black, to be taught about systemic racism in schools. They prefer the myth they’ve created to cover up past sins. Most of all, they don’t want you to know how those sins, the sins of the forefathers. They have translated into an inequality they don’t want to address, how their ill-gotten riches have come at the expense of the mistreated, how that mistreatment has been codified into America’s laws and policies to maintain the status quo but to widen the gap of inequality perpetually. Banning CRT is about keeping the facade of innately good whiteness when history shows us no such thing exists. Baldwin would have contempt for both sides of the debate. One side without the courage to go far enough. The other wants to cover up the truth lest it requires action and, worse yet, reparations.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have. People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
James Baldwin would condemn both sides of the Critical Race Theory debate, for, in the end, they all want to tell us lies. The proponents of Critical Race Theory (CRT) are the easiest to dispose of. They believe that racism isn’t just individual bias or prejudice but is also embedded in legal systems and policies. They say that racism is part of everyday life, so people — white or nonwhite — who don’t intend to be racist can nevertheless make choices that fuel racism. That’s fine as far as it goes, but they propose stopping short of telling America’s true history. They will leave intact the legacy of The Founding Fathers; they won’t reveal the racism built into The Constitution. They would never suggest the Supreme Court’s fundamental role is to protect whiteness, as they’ve done by weakening or finding unconstitutional every Civil Rights Act or Voting Rights Act in the history of ever.
Critical Race Theory is a good concept but could never be taught comprehensively and factually. A first-grade teacher in Georgia said she is only allowed to teach Ruby Bridges (the girl who integrated New Orleans schools) and George Washington Carver. That’s it! CRT will introduce tidbits but never reveal the extent of brutality against enslaved people that continues in different forms into the present. CRT will never teach that the labor force that built the nation was expanded by rape and forced breeding which historians have labeled “natural increase” instead of naming the breeding farms for what they were. Thomas Jefferson had boys working in his nailery beaten to increase productivity which historians sought to hide. James Baldwin would object to the literal whitewashing of history that has always been so, and CRT will be no different. CRT will be limited by the conflicting goals of not tearing down institutions and not wanting white people to feel bad.
“Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go. The details and symbols of your life have been deliberately constructed to make you believe what white people say about you. Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority, but to their inhumanity and fear.” James Baldwin
While Baldwin would dismiss those seeking to teach a limited version of Critical Race Theory, he would have nothing but contempt for those wanting to abolish it. He would know that their goal was to protect the myth white America has created for itself and maintain the riches achieved under a system that denied the humanity of those who built much of the nation. Variant tales of history are not limited to the Black experience in this nation; little will be taught about the experience of Asians, Mexicans, Native Americans, or anyone of color. There is a new uproar about the lie perpetuated about The Alamo. The story is about the American “heroes” who fought to the last man to buy time for Sam Houston to arrive and defeat Santa Anna. The lie barely, if ever, mentions the Texas Latinos (Tejanos) who fought and died alongside them. Texas schoolbooks keep teaching the lie, especially to the Hispanic population that will soon be a majority. White America teaches white heroism and betrayal of those of color, unable to handle the truth.
“Neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it.”
James Baldwin knew of the fear white people have of Black people. But it isn’t the fear of violence and the image of thugs they have promoted that scares them the most. It’s not knowing what their co-worker, neighbor, or a stranger they meet at a restaurant or on the street knows about their history. How much anger might be welled up inside for past and present transgressions against them? They don’t want your children or theirs to know about the systemic racism in America and are doing three things in response. They are fighting to keep persons of color from ever knowing America’s true history, working nationwide to suppress minority voting, and hoarding guns and ammunition.
In many respects, the argument about Critical Race Theory is a made-up controversy. People argue to keep from being taught what was never being taught anyway. James Baldwin would see through this as the lies that they are. So should we all.
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