YWCA, NAACP presentation dispels myths around critical race theory

Sep. 21—K-12 schools aren't teaching critical race theory, but they should be teaching the country's full history and including diverse perspectives, presenters said at a Tuesday virtual discussion hosted by the YWCA and NAACP Boulder County.

The discussion, moderated by Leadership Fellows Boulder County co-director Elvira Ramos, addressed what critical race theory is and isn't. Critical race theory became a buzzword this year that's been incorrectly conflated with racial justice work in K-12 education, panelists said.

Locally, after community members criticized the St. Vrain Valley School District for teaching what they believed was critical race theory, the district added a statement to its website saying its curriculum doesn't include it.

Critical race theory, according to the presentation, is a graduate-level research framework that "asserts that racism is not just the product of individual bias but rather is embedded within social institutions and structures."

Panelists said the culture wars around critical race theory have had a chilling effect, with school districts and teachers increasingly fearful that they will get in trouble for teaching about topics that include systemic racism.

Panelist Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association, said legal challenges claiming school districts include critical race theory in the curriculum are unlikely to be successful because "there's nothing really there."

Instead, she said, the danger is that educators won't be supported in "an honest teaching of our history."

"It's unfortunate that there are those who are using this as an opportunity to turn our schools into a political battleground," she said. "We want to teach what unites us and moves us forward."

Ashlea J. Campbell, a recent graduate of the educational studies doctoral program at the University of Northern Colorado, said schools need to teach critical thinking skills so students can challenge the status quo as adults.

If they learn how systems of oppression and white supremacy affect them and affect their peers, she said, they can "start chipping away at some of those structures that oppress people."

She said she disagrees with people who say schools will teach students to hate by teaching about institutional racism. Instead, she said, learning about racism teaches empathy, understanding and tolerance.

"I don't see the word hate coming out so much," she said.

Deborah Ortega, the founding director of the Latino Center for Community Engagement and Scholarship, added that she's not sure why people are afraid to expose children to different thoughts and ideas.

When parents say they're afraid schools are teaching people to hate, she said, they're not worried that Latinos are going to hate Black people or Asians. What they're leaving out of the question is that the fear is about white people, she said.

"Even this question, the assumption is about white being the center of everything, and it just isn't," she said.

Stephanie Renee Toliver, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, said students of color need to see themselves reflected in the curriculum and hear stories about those who look like them — and not just stories of slavery and other horrors experienced by people of color through history.

"For students of color, they get to see themselves thriving and surviving, to see their history, to see how they're valued as part of the classroom culture," she said. "White students, they can see that there's so much out there. They can use their power to support others."