Billy Long: Parents must be willing to speak out against "despicable lies" of Critical Race Theory

When our founders drafted the Constitution, they began with the preamble, setting out to “form a more perfect union.” They accepted the fact that nothing in life is perfect, especially our American experiment, so they created a set of laws to establish a government that is constantly capable of improvement. 

Today, many in our media and academia choose to distort the history of the United States, and view everything through a racial lens. This view is entirely ahistorical and teaches children that they are either victims or victimizers.

A key component of Critical Race Theory (CRT) teaches that America today is systemically racist as a result of slavery and the Jim Crow era segregation laws. Those who push this theory believe that every aspect of American society is rigged in favor of white people and use this view to indoctrinate children in our schools. 

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s brought forth great changes, and as a result, in the 21st Century, there is not a single law on the books in the United States that discriminates against people of color. 

In fact, there are several laws prohibiting discrimination both in government and private business. As much as CRT proponents hate to hear this, it is the truth, America is not a systemically racist country.

Many proponents of CRT will claim that challenging their warped view means that we don’t want to teach the truth about American history. This is a bold-faced lie. There is not a single school in this country that doesn’t teach about the history of slavery and the impact of Jim Crow before the Civil Rights Movement. 

Entire chapters in history books are dedicated to these topics. Wanting our students to be taught the history of slavery in our country does not mean that we want them lied to about supposed systemic racism in our institutions today. 

Our children should know about the atrocities of the past, while also learning to never repeat these mistakes, but teaching them that an entire race is responsible for victimizing people of color is counterproductive. Perpetuating this lie to our school aged children will only further divide our country along racial and political lines for generations to come.

While CRT is nothing new, the recent debate over it has ignited over the past several months. Last year, President Trump prohibited CRT teaching to federal employees, but like everything else that President Trump did in office, President Biden rescinded the order on day one. 

Since then, the American people have begun to speak up. Parents who were normally apolitical have stood up against school boards all across the country, demanding their children not be fed CRT’s despicable lies. In order to win this fight, we need more parents who are willing to speak up against CRT. Our children are counting on us, we can not let them down.