The debate over critical race theory continues

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Critical race theory (CRT) was in the news last week. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration blocked an Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools.

Whitehouse press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that Florida and DeSantis’s actions were rooted in racism. 

DeSantis defended his state’s stance saying that the high school course violates state law and is historically inaccurate. He argued that Florida wants “education, not indoctrination.” And added that the course was riddled with “radical” political perspectives that don’t capture the spectrum of black public opinion on various issues, including criminal justice.

Critical Race Theory and the 1619 project

According to Christopher Rufo, critical race theory is an academic discipline, formed in the 1990s on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism. 

For many years it was ignored except in obscure academic journals. But now the ideology has made its way into U.S. public institutions over the past decade. It has been injected into government agencies, public school systems, teacher training programs, and corporate human resources departments in the form of diversity training programs, human resources modules, public policy frameworks, and school curriculums.