Let’s Talk About… Critical Race Theory

Before we enter into a discussion about Critical Race Theory, let’s ask a question, or two.

First, is discrimination based upon skin color, ethnicity, national origin, or any other factor, something that can be eliminated by law?

Or, is it a flaw, a character defect permanently present in humanity?

At its root, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and other ‘isms and phobias are based upon an inherent dislike, even to the point of hatred, of others who are dissimilar in some aspect, and because of that dissimilarity thereby become the object, and target of scorn and hatred from and by a perpetrator. Any discriminatory behavior by the perpetrator is justified by the same upon the alleged differences in the object (the one(s) being discriminated against), i.e., the victim(s), and subject, i.e., the perpetrator – the “hater” and “hatee,” if you will.

Various laws, including liberal laws regardless of their age, have thus far failed to eliminate such innately discriminatory practices, and damages, from law, or from business. The myriad laws in our nation touching upon the slave trade, slavery, and discrimination stand as ongoing evidence of that fact.

Everything Old Is New Again

In Abraham Lincoln’s day, a segment of the Republican party then called “Radical Republicans” — a faction within the Republican party comprised primarily of Northern altruists, industrialists, former Whigs, practical politicians, etc., led by Thaddeus Stevens in the House of Representatives, and Charles Sumner in the Senate, from about 1854 until the end of Reconstruction in 1877 — were renown for their goal of immediate, total, and completely permanent eradication of slavery, without compromise. They were opposed even by members of their own party, as well as by Democrats.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Today, within the Democratic party, the Progressive faction is opposed by “moderates,” and they’re all opposed by Republicans.

And even within the Republican party today, there are also splinters and divisions. The “Trumpers” aka sycophants of the 45th POTUS, and the more level-headed, even-keeled moderate faction of the party.

There are lessons to be learned from history… if only we’ll learn them. And sadly, it seems as if we’re condemned to repeat them, time, and time, and time again.

It was Spanish-born American philosopher/poet George Santayana (1863-1952) who wrote that…

“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

–– George Santayana (1863-1952), Spanish philosopher, writing in “The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress“ (1905-1906), Vol. I, “Reason in Common Sense”

So… what about Critical Race Theory?

What is it?

Where’d it come from?

Who invented it?

What does it say, do, or advocate?

The very heart, the “nut,” or crux of the matter is addressed above, and could be stated this way:

Is it possible to eradicate discriminatory practices, and any associated damages, through legislation, and if not, to what extent are such discriminatory practices present, and how can they be rectified, or ameliorated, if at all?

Essentially, Critical Race Theory is a sophisticated, esoteric, high-level legal academic pursuit, which acknowledges that, to this point historically, laws (again, even liberal laws, regardless of their age) have failed to eradicate racism, racist practices, and discrimination, and asks if legal avenues (laws) are able to eradicate it, or if it’s a fixture permanently etched upon the human heart, and thereby inherently present in all laws, and if so, to what extent.

So yes, it’s a broadly-encompassing theoretical legal academic pursuit, and a question which possibly, might never be answered. Yet, there is understanding to be gained by such pursuit, and it is just plain wrong to chastise those who pursue such high-level questions and thinking.

16th Century Thought Police, and The Law of Unintended Consequences

Such chastisement is akin to the Church’s history of punishing or excommunicating scientists “back in the day” who posited that the Earth revolved around the sun, rather than vice-versa, as the Church taught. The heliocentric cosmological theory was further advanced by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who pursued the work of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), and was chastised and punished by the Church for his ideas, research, and thinking. [NOTE: Contrary to popular, or widely-held belief, Galileo was NOT excommunicated, though he and his work were condemned by the Church, for which he was tried by the Roman Inquisition, found guilty, and in 1633 sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life.]

Consider, for example, the so-called “Law of Unintended Consequences,” which posits that when one action is undertaken, another, unintended action will occur. It’s an example of the law of physics which states that, “for every action, there’s an equal, and opposite, reaction.”

The same is true in the legal realm (jurisprudence).

Rob Norton wrote the following excerpt in a brief essay about the “Law of Unintended Consequences“:

“The concept of unintended consequences is one of the building blocks of economics. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” the most famous metaphor in social science, is an example of a positive unintended consequence. Smith maintained that each individual, seeking only his own gain, “is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention,” that end being the public interest. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, or the baker, that we expect our dinner,” Smith wrote, “but from regard to their own self interest.”

“Most often, however, the law of unintended consequences illuminates the perverse unanticipated effects of legislation and regulation. In 1692 John Locke, the English philosopher and a forerunner of modern economists, urged the defeat of a parliamentary bill designed to cut the maximum permissible rate of interest from 6 percent to 4 percent. Locke argued that instead of benefiting borrowers, as intended, it would hurt them. People would find ways to circumvent the law, with the costs of circumvention borne by borrowers. To the extent the law was obeyed, Locke concluded, the chief results would be less available credit and a redistribution of income away from “widows, orphans and all those who have their estates in money.”

“The first and most complete analysis of the concept of unintended consequences was done in 1936 by the American sociologist Robert K. Merton. In an influential article titled “The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action,” Merton identified five sources of unanticipated consequences. The first two, and the most pervasive, were ignorance and error.

“Merton labeled the third source the “imperious immediacy of interest.” By that he was referring to instances in which an individual wants the intended consequence of an action so much that he purposefully chooses to ignore any unintended effects. (That type of willful ignorance is very different from true ignorance.) A nation, for example, might ban abortion on moral grounds even though children born as a result of the policy may be unwanted and likely to be more dependent on the state. The unwanted children are an unintended consequence of banning abortions, but not an unforeseen one.

“”Basic values” was Merton’s fourth example. The Protestant ethic of hard work and asceticism, he wrote, “paradoxically leads to its own decline through the accumulation of wealth and possessions.” His final case was the “self-defeating prediction.” Here he was referring to the instances when the public prediction of a social development proves false precisely because the prediction changes the course of history. For example, the warnings earlier in this century that population growth would lead to mass starvation helped spur scientific breakthroughs in agricultural productivity that have since made it unlikely that the gloomy prophecy will come true. Merton later developed the flip side of this idea, coining the phrase “the self-fulfilling prophecy.” In a footnote to the 1936 article, he vowed to write a book devoted to the history and analysis of unanticipated consequences. By 1991, Merton, age eighty, had produced six hundred pages of manuscript but still not completed the work.

“The law of unintended consequences provides the basis for many criticisms of government programs. As the critics see it, unintended consequences can add so much to the costs of some programs that they make the programs unwise even if they achieve their stated goals. For instance, the United States has imposed quotas on imports of steel in order to protect steel companies and steelworkers from lower-priced competition. The quotas do help steel companies. But they also make less of the cheap steel available to U.S. automakers. As a result the automakers have to pay more for steel than their foreign competitors do. So policy that protects one industry from foreign competition makes it harder for another industry to compete with imports.”

As a case in point to illustrate the so-called “Law of Unintended Consequences” in this context, of racism, and inequity, in the legal arena with respect to racism, consider Detroit, MI, and the matter of the integration of that city, and its public schools. The United States Census Bureau found in 2020 that Detroit’s population is 78.3% Black/African American alone. The White alone population is 14.7%. It is one of America’s most segregated cities.

Comparatively, Atlanta, GA is 51.0% Black alone, and 40.9% White alone;

• Montgomery, AL is 60.8% Black alone, and 32.6% White alone;
• Memphis, TN is 64.1% Black alone, and 29.2% White alone;
• Chester, PA is 68.9% Black alone, and 20.6% White alone;
• Birmingham, AL is 69.9% Black alone, and 25.8% White alone;
• Gary, IN is 78.5% Black alone, and 15.3% White alone, and;
• Jackson, MS is 82.2% Black alone, and 16.5% White alone.

Clearly, Detroit, MI is among America’s “Blackest” cities, according to the United States Census Bureau’s 2020 findings. And, to be certain, the term “Blackest” refers exclusively to the percentage of population who identify as “Black alone.”

Detroit’s poverty rate – again, the USCB’s 2020 findings – is 35.0%, also among the nation’s highest.

Comparatively again,

• Jackson, MS’s poverty rate is 25.4%, while
• Birmingham, AL’s poverty rate is 25.9%,
• Gary, IN’s poverty rate is 30.6%,
• Chester, PA’s poverty rate is 31.4%, etc.

Is it by mere happenstance that Detroit has a high Black population -and- a correspondingly high poverty rate? Did it just happen overnight, drop out of the sky, or, could there be a rational explanation for such a problem – how it happened?

How Did We Get Here?

The pertinent case and court rulings to illustrate the “Law of Unintended Consequences” with respect to racism, the damages it causes, and demonstrating that legal recourse has to date been ineffective at resolving that problem, is Milliken v. Bradley, No. 73-434, which eventually wound its way to the Supreme Court, was argued February 27, 1974, and decided July 25, 1974, and found in 418 U.S. 717.

Verda Bradley moved from Knoxville, TN to Detroit, MI in the early 1940’s, and raised her family in that city. When her children became school age, she attempted to enroll them in public city schools, which was where problems began. The 1954 SCOTUS decision Brown v Board of Education ruled that “de jure” racial segregation in schools was illegal, but such segregation in Detroit’s public schools continued unabated, and actually increased, in fact.

By the 1960’s, when Ms. Bradley enrolled her children in Detroit’s DeWitt Clinton School, the school had gone from around a 10% Black student population, to a very nearly 100% Black student population. Conditions in the school were atrocious, with long-outdated textbooks, overcrowded classrooms, and a literally deteriorating physical plant.

Nathaniel R. Jones, a retired Federal judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the NAACP’s General Counsel from 1969 to 1978 who helped argue the case, remarked that, “These children were kept in schools that the Supreme Court said… were unconstitutional. Their situation was typical of what was happening in northern, and particularly urban, school districts.”

In an effort to thwart Detroit’s increasing racial polarization, on April 7, 1970 four of the city’s Board of Education’s six members passed a plan to integrate and decentralize the schools.

Chaos ensued.

Bomb scares and death threats followed, and a group of Whites calling themselves “Citizens’ Committee for Better Education” successfully lobbied to recall all four board members who had voted for integration. And in response, the state legislature passed Public Act 48, by Senator Coleman A. Young (1918-1997), an African-American Democrat born in Tuscaloosa, AL who later became the city’s long-running Mayor, that voided the April 7 plan and placed school districts in the control of local neighborhoods.

Can A Court Ruling Fix It?

Shortly thereafter, and in response, Verda Bradley along with several other parents whose children were in Detroit public schools, gathered at the NAACP’s Detroit branch to demand action. On August 18, 1970, led by Nathaniel R. Jones, General Counsel for the national NAACP, suit was filed on behalf of Ronald and Richard Bradley, the Detroit NAACP, and parents of all minority children attending Detroit public schools in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against Governor William Milliken, Attorney General Frank J. Kelley, State Superintendent of Public Instruction John W. Porter, the Michigan Board of Education, the Detroit Board of Education, and the Detroit School Superintendent. In part, the suit alleged that Act 48 was unconstitutional, that official policies had segregated Detroit’s schools, and sought reinstatement of the April 7 plan.

The suit bounced around in the legal system, and eventually wound its way to the SCOTUS on February 27, 1974. The state and suburbs argued that, beyond the defunct Act 48, they had not formed any policies of segregation in metropolitan Detroit schools. Former Michigan Attorney General Frank J. Kelley said, “the remedy was too broad and too overwhelming to be applied to a situation of isolated discrimination. The remedy was fraught with implications that went far beyond the problem they were trying to address.” The NAACP argued that Black children had been separated from surrounding White neighborhoods and schools by an official line (redlining), and that the government proposed to make that line the boundary of the Detroit school district.

Following remand from the SCOTUS, “the trial court immediately ordered the Detroit school board to resubmit a desegregation plan limited to the Detroit school system. Along with proposing a student reassignment strategy which would have eliminated racially identifiable schools, the new plan included 13 remedial programs, which it called educational components, in the areas of reading, teacher in-service training, testing, and counseling. According to the revised plan, all costs for those additional programs were to be shared between the Detroit Board of Education, and the State of Michigan. But the state filed objections to the board’s plan, and contended that the remedy should be limited to student reassignments for the purpose of achieving desegregation. State officials argued that the educational components were excessive.”

The remanded Milliken II decision vindicated the SCOTUS’ earlier decision, and affirmed the decisions of the trial court and Sixth Circuit which ordered the State of Michigan to fund the additional programs designed to remedy the negative educational effects of imposed segregation, and observed that student reassignments did not automatically remedy the effect of previous educational segregation, and that public officials had to deal with the consequences of segregation through various and sundry measures.

“In Milliken II, the Court advanced three holdings: First, the justices thought that the lower court appropriately approved the remedial educational plan. Second, the Court illustrated that consistent with the Eleventh Amendment, the State of Michigan had to pay half of the implementation costs of the educational components of its order. Third, the Court was satisfied that the earlier judicial orders to remedy the segregative student assignments did not violate the Tenth Amendment.”

In his dissent, Justice Thurgood Marshall made a prescient remark:

“The Detroit-only plan has no hope of achieving actual desegregation. … Instead, Negro children will continue to attend all-Negro schools. The very evil that Brown was aimed at will not be cured but will be perpetuated.”

Justice Marshall was 100% correct, and tee-totally spot-on.

So-called “White flight” decimated Detroit, and its city schools, and laws, no matter how well-intentioned, have been incapable of resolving the problem.

Corollary to that, are that the ‘isms and phobias mentioned above are included in the matter. And, in a way, Critical Race Theory is a penultimate theory of law, positing that other, new, different, and even radical, measures could, and/or should, and/or ought to be considered, or if it’s even possible to eradicate such hatred.

What Does Music Theory Prove?

Critical Race Theory is, without question, VERY high-level thinking. But again, it is theoretical, and merely asks questions. It has neither posited any remedy, practical, conclusive, theoretical, or abstract, nor has it found any answer to the problem(s) which its practitioner theorists explore. Think of it along the lines of music theory, or even the theory of relativity in the mathematical science of physics.

We know, for example, that E=mc², which is popularly known as “Einstein’s Theory of Relativity,” which essentially states that energy is equal to the mass of a thing multiplied by the speed of light squared. It correlates light to energy and physical substances. Is light a physical substance? Again, that is a theoretical question, one which, at this point, science has not definitively answered.

And there is the equally perplexing matter of the relatively-newly discovered “black holes,” astronomical objects that are so obscure, so mind-bendingly incomprehensible that science is straining to understand them, which – as far as we know now – are so gravitationally dense, and electromagnetically strong, that they “suck” light into them, and crush (presumably) whatever goes in, and cannot/do not permit any type of anything to escape… again, that’s theoretical and speculative, as far as we know now. And that’s extremely limited knowledge. But we continue to strive for such understanding. And we’ve not yet mentioned “worm holes” which posit that they are “portals” perhaps through/to another dimension, with which we are yet unfamiliar.

And then also, consider music theory. In modern western music, there are intervals called seconds, major and minor thirds, sixths, sevenths, and ninths (actually, the ninth is the second of seven in the scale, but played above the upper note in a chord), while fourths and fifths are called diminished, or augmented, respectively. Those matters came about through historical development of music, which continues to evolve. Ancient music – think Gregorian chant, or earlier – was some of the very first music to have been notated, and it was commonplace for chords comprised of fifths and octaves – a strict no-no in traditional compositions and arrangements, for their often “hollow” sound, rather than being polyphonic.

However, modern composer/musicians such as Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951), Philip Glass (b.1937), Igor Stravinksy (1882-1971), and others, have challenged the traditional western octavian-based, diatonic music theory and style with compositions using a 12-tone technique, while acknowledging that there are tones and semi-tones between seconds – chromatic semitone or augmented unison/ diatonic semitone, or minor second – a dissonant-sounding combination – which have been historically, and continue to be, used by various ethnomusicians worldwide.

And yet, traditional ethnic music among various people groups globally, such as Tuvan throat singing among the Turkic peoples of Mongolia and southern Siberia, Japanese-based music using the koto, sangen, biwa and other instruments, the Indian Buddhist/Hindustanic sitar, tabla, and shehnai, the rhythms and tones of percussive instruments associated with people in the African continent, and the Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo, are all instruments and musics that challenge the primarily European-developed modern music theory. And, they are (almost) every one enjoyed, appreciated, and used even today, in modern compositions, as well as traditional ones.

In both instances and cases, the practitioners of such arts, crafts, and sciences are neither “right” nor “wrong,” and are stretching to grow, to learn, discover, and primarily, to understand the past, and look toward the future, building upon what has been learned and understood.

So again, in a sense, we have come full circle representationally, per se, with the matter and question of whether it is possible, or not, to have a society free of hatred and discrimination, or, if some form of discrimination is naturally and normally inherent, regardless of how diligent, and well intentioned such efforts to eradicate, eliminate, and ameliorate them might be.

Does anyone know the answer to such questions?

I trow not.

For those who may be unaware, the word “trow” is an archaic form of the action to think, believe or suppose.

To Catch The Falling Hot Air, Hold Out Your Hands

And so, amidst the ruckus that is public life these days, and particularly among so-called politically “conservative” individuals and politicians — some of whom are deliberately “playing” their constituents for all they can, by “milking” their ignorance and misunderstanding for all it’s worth, as if they’re going to “save” them from some alleged evil — there must be something.

Or, is there?

Some, including tevee’s well-known talking heads, and agitators – those who stir the political pot on talk radio – would have their gullible audience members believe that a great threat to America is afoot.

But, is it?

Again, those individuals unscrupulous politicians and instigators who unjustly and unfairly take advantage of abuse their constituents and audience are primarily to blame, while the next-in-line are their barking dogs on the airwaves, who are “all about the money” because their often-hackneyed contrivances are purely for an increase in viewer/listenership, exclusively for the ability to increase revenue by increasing spot advertising rates/prices thereby. For them, it’s “all about the money,” nothing more, nothing less.

Such individuals falsely claim that Critical Race Theory somehow is a threat to the American way of life, and that it’s being taught in public schools, and thereby undermining the principles ensconced and enumerated in the Constitution.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Further, I sincerely doubt that K-12 school-aged children would have even the faintest idea about any theory, legal, or not.

Again, is it genuinely a problem? It is a “perversion” of the principles of “liberty and justice for all”?

In order to answer those questions – and others – we need to examine a few things, one of the first ones being Critical Race Theory, which we have addressed, and move forward from that point.

So, in conjunction with that, let’s quickly examine some laws at the Federal and State levels that address the matters of slavery, and those pertinent to those whom were enslaved, including their descendants.

Those individuals are practically exclusively of African-American origin and descent, and are most readily identified by their physical features, most notably being their skin color, hair texture, and facial characteristics. They are called by many as “Black,” though there are other names used to denominate them, not all of which are pejoratives – though it depends upon the context in which they’re used, to determine whether it’s being used insultingly, or not.

In this context, we will use the terms Black, African-American, Negro, and mulatto interchangeably, to identify the people group who are of African origin, which will also include their progeny and issue (children, grandchildren, etc.).

So Many Damn Laws!

At the Federal level, let’s consider the proliferation of actions, laws, and matters dealing with, pertinent to, and affecting Blacks either directly, or obliquely. This is by NO MEANS an exhaustive list.

• Three-Fifths Compromise, 1787

• An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, (aka “Northwest Ordinance” or “The Ordinance of 1787“), prohibited slavery in the territory, though provided for the return of runaway slaves

• Slave Trade Act of 1794, March 22, prohibited American ships from engaging in the international slave trade

• Slave Trade Act of 1800, May 10, forbade American participation in international slave trade

• Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807, prohibited importation of new slaves, effective 01 January 1808

• Underground Railroad 1810-1850; Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)

• Act to protect the commerce of the United States and punish the crime of piracy, 1819, statute prohibiting piracy, amended in 1820 to include participating in the slave trade or robbing a ship to be piracy. Nathaniel Gordon the only American slave trader to be tried, convicted, and executed “for being engaged in the Slave Trade” under the law; denied a Presidential pardon by Abraham Lincoln, hanged in New York CIty, NY, February 21, 1862.

• 1820 total slave population 1.54 million; 1.52 million were in Southern states

• Missouri Compromise, March 6, 1820

• lynchings in South start c.1830

• Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, September 18

• 1850, the population of enslaved persons in the nation had doubled to 3.2 million.

• Kansas–Nebraska Act May 30, 1854

• Supreme Court decision Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857, holding that the Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship for people of African descent, regardless whether they were enslaved or free, so the rights and privileges conferred by the Constitution upon American citizens could not apply to them

• 1860, Montgomery, AL was the capital of the state’s domestic slave trade, one of the two largest slave-owning states in America

• Clotilda July 7, 1860, smuggled 103 enslaved Africans into Mobile Bay, AL, the last known occurrence of importation of enslaved Africans in the U.S.; ship owner Timothy Meaher, a wealthy slave-owning planter and ship builder, boasted that he could smuggle in a ship full of slaves, the last of an estimated 389,000 Africans delivered into bondage in mainland America from the early 1600s to 1860; the traffickers deliberately burned the ship to avoid its discovery; discovered in the Mobile River 2018. Descendants of those enslaved aboard have formed an association to tell the story.

• Confiscation Act of 1861 August 6, 1861

• Civil War, 1861-1865

• Confiscation Act of 1862, July 17, 1862

• Morrill Act of 1862 (codified as 7 U.S.C. § 301 et seq.), aka “Land Grant College Act” established colleges/universities in order to promote “agriculture and the mechanic arts”  through gifting of land

• Gettysburg Address President Abraham Lincoln, 1863, November 19

• 13th Amendment, Congress passed January 31, 1865; ratified December 6, 1865

• President Lincoln assassinated (1809-1865) April 15, by John Wilkes Booth, Confederate Secret Service spy

• Memphis massacre of 1866, May 1-3

• New Orleans Massacre of 1866, July 30

• 14th Amendment, Congress passed June 1868, ratified July 9, 1868

• 15th Amendment, Congress passed February 25, 1869, ratified February 3, 1870

• “Jim Crow” laws proliferated 1870s-1954 in predominately Southern states, laws discriminating against Blacks

• 4400 documented lynchings of Black people 1877-1950, per Equal Justice Initiative

• 4743 lynchings in the U.S. 1882-1968, per NAACP records

• Morrill Act of 1890, aka “Agricultural College Act of 1890” (26 Stat. 417; codified as 7 U.S.C. § 321 et seq.), required former Confederate states to establish universities for Blacks

•  Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 “separate but equal” Supreme Court decision sanctioned “Jim Crow” laws in the South, 7-1 majority, 1 Justice not voting

• Atlanta, GA Race Riot 1906, September 22-24

• Tulsa Race Massacre 1921 May 31-June 1

• “Last Mass Lynching in the United States” 1946

•  Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 1954 Supreme Court decision unanimously rescinded Plessy

• Emmett Till (1941-1955) kidnapped & murdered, August 28, Drew, MS, his 14-year-old maliciously brutalized body laid in state in an open-casket funeral at his mother’s request to show the world; Roy Bryant and half-brother J.W. Milam were accused, both acquitted by an all-White, all-male jury; both later confessed to the crime in a 1956 interview with Look magazine

• Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-1956 & Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

• Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth’s (1922-2011) Bethel Street Baptist Church & parsonage bombed by KKK Birmingham, AL 1956, Christmas Day

• Arkansas “Little Rock 9” 1957, September 4 Central High School integration crisis

• Lunch counter sit-ins, 1958-1963 (peaceful protests of segregation, Dockum Drug Store, Wichita, KS; Katz Drugstore, Oklahoma City, OK; Woolworth’s, Greensboro, NC; Woolworth’s, Jackson, MS; Walgreen’s, Harveys Department Store, Cain-Sloan’s, Nashville, TN; Loveman’s, Chattanooga, TN, etc.)

• Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth’s Bethel Street Baptist Church Bombed 1958, June 29

• Freedom Riders, May – December 1961, bus burning, Anniston, AL Sunday, May 14, Mother’s Day by KKK

•  Medgar Evers (1925-1963) murdered June 12, Civil Rights worker, Jackson, MS

• “Children’s Crusade” Birmingham, AL May 1963, children attacked by Police Commissioner Bull Connor’s police dogs and fire hoses

•  “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” Foster Auditorium, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa Governor George C. Wallace, June 11, 1963

• March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom August 28, 1963, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech

• Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham AL bombing September 15, 1963, by KKK bombing kills Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley

• “Mississippi Burning” June 1964 KKK murders of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney

• Civil Rights Act of 1964 made “Jim Crow” laws illegal; outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, required equal access to public places and employment, and enforced desegregation of schools and the right to vote

• Selma to Montgomery Marches, 1965 “Bloody Sunday” March 7-AL State Troopers attacked marchers crossing Edmund Pettus Bridge; “Turnaround Tuesday”-March 9; Injunction-ordered March 21

• Voting Rights Act of 1965, August 6

• Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike February-April 1968

• Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) assassinated civil rights leader

• “school-to-prison-pipeline,” c.1975 to date

• inversely proportional, inequitable, disparate incarceration rates, c.1980 to date – From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander

• Michael Donald lynched in Mobile, AL March 21, 1981 by KKK, reportedly one of the last U.S. lynchings, others may have been unreported

• “redlining” deliberate destruction, or disinvestment of neighborhoods by exclusion from financial resources, or by planning & directing construction projects, such as highway thoroughfares, through them

• Pigford v. Glickman class action racial discrimination lawsuit against USDA 1999

•  Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, et al., numerous wanton murders by law enforcement authorities, and others, of otherwise law-abiding predominately Black men throughout the United States

These are merely the sick highlights of a maliciously abusive history.

And then, there’s the “40 acres and a mule” story.

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After reading through that VERY SHORT list, you SHOULD HAVE NOTICED a similar thread, a common denominator unifying every enumerated item. And, it is this: WITHOUT EXCEPTION, they are EVERY ONE laws dealing with how to treat racial minorities, most notably, Blacks, though Native Americans are mentioned, as well.

It All Boils Down To This… This What?

If one were to pick just a handful of them, say 5, or 6, to characterize them all, they might be the 13th , 14th, 15th Amendments, the Dread Scott decision, the Brown v Board of Education decision, the various Civil Rights Acts, and the most modern example, the Pigford v. Glickman class action racial discrimination lawsuit against the USDA in 1999.

In each, and every one of the laws, they either specifically HAD to mention that African-Americans HAD equal rights, and HAD to be treated EQUALLY IN ALL MATTERS, or, they were concerning the horrors of enslaving people, and the official Federal Government’s stance upon the matter.

So clearly, America has had a long-standing problem with Negroes – at least insofar as they have, for A VERY LONG TIME subjugated them, ranging from enslaving them to forbidding them equal rights and opportunity under law, and otherwise mistreating, maltreating and abusing them in almost every way conceivable – including economically.

Or instead, should that be “America has a long-standing problem with people who are NOT White”?

There are some terms that it’s also important to include in this, and any discussion about the matter of inequality, so here two: 1.) Race, and; 2.) Ethnicity.

Exactly what is “race”?

I’m human and belong to the human race, as do Blacks, Asians, American Indians/Indigenous people, Hispanics, etc. So, what’s the difference? We all have red blood, lungs, internal organs, and all the same “equipment.” Sure, some look different. But LOOKS are NOT any reason to disqualify anyone for anything for any reason. And LOOKS are NOT “race.” White folks can be from South Africa. And Black folks obviously can be from America. So there’s that.

Further, race has long been acknowledged as being an artificial construct, one which is not based upon any broadly-agreed upon definition or terms.

“Race has been documented as a concept developed in the 18th century to divide humans into groups often based on physical appearance, social, and cultural backgrounds. Race has been used historically to establish a social hierarchy and to enslave humans.

“Race is a fluid concept used to group people according to various factors including, ancestral background and social identity. Race is also used to group people that share a set of visible characteristics, such as skin color and facial features. Though these visible traits are influenced by genes, the vast majority of genetic variation exists within racial groups and not between them. Race is an ideology and for this reason, many scientists believe that race should be more accurately described as a social construct and not a biological one.”

And what about ethnicity?

Well… ethnicity is defined as being characterized by being a “member” of any group of people who share any set of common cultural denominators, such as place of birth/residence, religion, or cultural group, including – but not limited to – education, age, or any other variable.

So, do any of those “disqualify” anyone from being treated equally under law?

No.

Not even if they’re “handicapped,” or have some type of disability or limiting factor, physical, or emotional?

No.

Equal means equal.

So, what is it that some people (mostly conservative, Republican types) have against Critical Race Theory?

It’s Marxist, some claim.

Baloney.

It’ll rot your kids brains.

Phony baloney.

It teaches kid to be lazy.

Most western kids are already naturally lazy.

It’s racist.

Good try… NEXT!

In all seriousness, there is NO GOOD REASON to oppose the theoretical exploration of ideas, for to do so, in that process, one becomes…

The Thought Police.

And THAT’S a police state that NO ONE wants.