Attacks on CRT aim to whitewash ugly truths of American Black history, perpetuate injustice

Black History is about naming the unnamed: reciting their contributions to humanity. However late, better late than never! Giving, posthumously, the unnamed and non-remembered medals of honor for their valuable inventions, shed blood, sweat, and tears from their weary years can significantly reconcile the unbalanced checkbook of America's history of education.

An important part of education is "re-membering." To re-member is more than identifying UFOs — unidentified famous occupants of American history. Re-membering is for the purpose of celebrating and integrating into a unified history shattered and scattered Black bones; dis-membered and fleshless Black bones; buried Black bones hidden beneath the grassy knoll of cemeteries. Re-membering is remembering on steroids: a mandatory corrective for all school levels and the business community. To re-member is righting the egregious wrongs of history's truth deficit disorder. Resurrected contributions contained in buried bodies would serve us well as a nation too divided on so many levels.

Black History Month is more than remembering, recognizing and celebrating the unnamed and those left out of American history.

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One more painful aspect of Black history these days is Critical Race Theory (CRT). The definition of CRT these days seems much like defining art work: It is in the eyes of the beholder! Ask 12 different people and you will get 13 different answers!

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Long before Critical Race Theory, however defined, became the subject of conversation birthed in law schools, it was discussed at simplistic environs — kitchen tables around which sat mom and dad, or front porches where grandmom cracked off the ends of string beans as grandad — with cornpipe in mouth — found a way to simultaneously chew tobacco. The kitchen and the front porch were locations where Black families studied the painful subject of how they "made it" in a strange land in the midst of "strange fruit" dangling in trees by the rope of injustice. Recall how Billie Holiday's song "Strange Fruit" evoked the lynchings of Black Americans.

Let's break down the word "critical" in Critical Race Theory. The word "critical" is an academic term that refers to critical thinking and scholarly criticism, not to criticizing or blaming people. Critical Race Theory for Black elementary children can be defined as "critical" conversations on racial survival in the context of a virtually "whites only" world narrative. The word "critical" has been accentuated by a great deal of discussion on "Maus."

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"Maus," a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, has been banned by a Tennessee school district, prompting blowback from critics who say it's essential to teach children about the genocide. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum said on Twitter:

"'Maus' has played a vital role in educating about the Holocaust through sharing detailed and personal experiences of victims and survivors."

"…Teaching about the Holocaust using books like 'Maus' can inspire students to think critically about the past and their own roles and responsibilities today."

The McMinn County School Board begged to differ. It voted unanimously in January to remove "Maus" from its curriculum and replace it with an alternative that had not been identified at the time of the vote.

Cannot the same, painful process of learning to think critically be true when reading the good, the bad and the ugly of American history? Indeed, good for some, as long as one stays clear of the iceberg allegations of false ideas, theories and misinformed rants of Critical Race Theory. Misinformed persons believe Critical Race Theory should not be mentioned in the same breath as "legitimate" Black history — as defined by unsung heroic Black men and women worthy of a month of celebration under the bright sun of American history. But for others, Critical Race Theory is the foundation of the need for Black history to tell the truth of Black accomplishments — against all odds.

What about the word "race" in Critical Race Theory? After extracting color-centered race from the human race, white educators, backed by fake science, drew lines in the proverbial sand as dangerous as the minefields American soldiers were trained to locate for survival on the battlefields of foreign lands. False scientific theories of racial differences were as unjust as the gerrymandering lines drawn by political parties to reinforce and secure political power in ways that dilute the power of Black voters.

We now know from historical research and science the manufactured, institutionalized and enforced theory that promoted strong boundaries between white and Black people for political reasons was rooted in power retention and grounded in authority based on color.

The "theory" aspect of Critical Race Theory is based on a preponderance of well-documented statistical evidence based on legal research into disparities that result from the scales of (in)justice.

A key tenet of CRT, according to Wikipedia, is that "racism and disparate racial outcomes are the result of complex, changing, and often subtle social and institutional dynamics, rather than explicit and intentional prejudices of individuals. CRT scholars argue that the idea of race advances the interests of white people at the expense of people of color, and that the liberal notion of U.S. law as 'neutral' plays a significant role in maintaining a racially unjust social order, where formally color-blind laws continue to have racially discriminatory outcomes. CRT began in the United States in the post–civil rights era, as 1960s landmark civil rights laws were being eroded and schools were being re-segregated."

Let us be honest. Is this being taught in elementary schools? Of course not. Then why are parents racing to school board meetings, filling auditoriums and demanding an end to instruction on Critical Race Theory? One reason is politically motivated deceivers have them totally confused.

In a strange twist of of fate, what some white people have meant for evil — the elimination of Critical Race Theory instruction — is turning out for good. My mother taught me long ago that God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. God plants His feet on the sea and also rides the storm.

Critical Race Theory instruction and conversations should take place at appropriate age levels in particular educational locations and in wholesome ways! The promotion of falsified or whitewashed American history for the perpetuation of political and corporate comfort and profit is anathema to the very theory of a comprehensive education.

Church leadership should lead the charge in promoting the whole truth of American history, however graphic and grotesque. The white church should exercise a leadership role in racial conversations with respect to education because its pulpit leaders boast in sermons, in Christian education and songs about the Christ who is the way, the truth and the life! The church must not only promote the truth — it must expose lies.

Critical Race Theory conversations should be mandatory for Americans regardless of color and creed because of the collateral damage to the mental well-being of our nation. The ever-widening political divides and convulsions our nation is experiencing are rooted in efforts to protect lies and silence truth-tellers.

Re-membering the shattered and scattered, dis-membered and fleshless buried Black bones in history's cemeteries is a mandatory corrective for all schools and the business community. When we unite Black history and Critical Race Theory in holy matrimony, America is made the better! Until we join the hand of Black history with the hand of Critical Race Theory, the blood of the slain will be heard crying out from the soil that received it, " No justice, no peace!"

Let us not be undertakers, throwing more dirt on buried caskets. Let us be overcomers, those who resurrect the truth from the graveyards of history.

Charles Mock is the pastor of Community Baptist Church in Erie.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Black history and CRT, reckon with the good, bad and ugly of US history