I’m so white that when I walk outside on a day of newly fallen snow, I blend in like a chameleon. I’m part of the privileged class. If anybody should cheer on the current backlash against wokeness, it should be me. Hell, I’m Anglo-Saxon, best I can tell. With blue eyes.
But guess what? I’m no more part of a “master” race than Ronald Reagan’s monkey, Bonzo. I also don’t feel threatened by wokeness, DEI, CRT, or any of that stuff. There’s nothing to worry about here, folks.
I’m much more worried about the opposite. Republicans have taken aim at DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies in the workplace.
They have become a favorite target for Republican governors, and President-elect Trump has promised a nationwide crackdown.
Florida, Texas, Iowa and Utah have banned DEI offices and initiatives at universities. Alabama restricted them.
Institutions in these states are responding with sweeping changes — many of which are broader than what the laws dictate:
The University of Utah and Weber State University in Ogden both eliminated all their cultural centers — including resource centers for Black students, LGBTQ students and women, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
University of North Texas administrators made hundreds of edits to the titles and descriptions of courses to take out references to race and equity, according to the Texas Tribune.
The University of Missouri got rid of its DEI office to pre-empt anti-DEI legislation, notes Inside Higher Ed.
The University of Michigan, which has one of the most ambitious and well-funded DEI programs in the country, is axing diversity statements in faculty hiring and promotion, the N.Y. Times reports.
78 million people voted for Donald Trump. It has become obvious that many more people have bought into the DEI arguments made by the right wing.
They can try to delay the inevitable, but DEI, CRT, and “wokeness” are driven by truth. They will prevail.
So let’s end this grim 2024 with a small dose of education. Sneak this essay onto your crazy uncle’s Facebook feed and let him fret. It’ll all be over soon. The Trump administration will implode, the midterms will usher in a new wave of blue, and we can all get back to the business of repairing what went wrong in the first place and allowed all this to happen.
But it begins with an honest look at race and equality.
A Guide to Critical Race Theory for White Folks
About a year ago I received an email from Barnes & Noble that basically told me that Critical Race Theory is here to stay. It was a promotion for The 1619 Project,2 a historical perpective designed to correct what we learned about slavery as kids.
All I could think of as I read the email was, “Whether they like it or not, this is an unstoppable force.” They are the belligerents against the process referred to in the Axios article, and this is the process for fixing racism.
Inside the email was the following:
In 1619, a ship arrived in Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric system of American slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. This book reframes our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative, weaving together essays, poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle and resistance in every part of American society.
This was a message from corporate America, not some bastion of socialist thought. It’s Barnes & Noble.
When I see a passage like this, I wonder: Is this the kind of stuff that drives divisive proud boy conservatives and the majority of those 78 million voters into a frenzy?3
If so, what about it scares them?
Are they afraid that Black folks will rise up and start murdering them? Someone needs to tell them that this would have happened a long, long time ago if it was ever going to happen. Blacks in America have been enduring their anguish peacefully for 400 years.
Do sane people really think that people who are suddenly given more opportunities will revolt?
Trying to understand the racist mind is a fool’s game, but I’ll play it anyway.
They may say on the outside that Blacks are inferior, or even technically think it.
But my bet is that during the mid-19th century, many white people discovered that the survivors of slavery were smarter and stronger than they were.
They had to be. Think about who could have survived those tragic times. You couldn’t just be stronger than everyone else. You had to be smarter, too. And you had to have a combination of perseverance and faith that must have seemed incomprehensible to white folks of that era.
So I suspect that fearful white men in those days told their children that Black people were inferior when the opposite was closer to the truth. People who were able to survive that kind of life must have been incredibly intimidating on many levels.
Much of this fear was surely passed down.
The survival mechanisms required to overcome hundreds of years of slavery are why I was not surprised that one of my favorite authors became Toni Morrison, whose gift for language is a blessing to anyone who loves literature.
It’s why I am never surprised when I see a Black person excel at something when they are given a fair opportunity, and often when they aren’t.
If you enjoy this essay and others, incuding frequent drops of fiction, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Embracing The 1619 Project without fear
The 1619 Project contains major corrections to what I, as a white person, was taught in school and by my parents. So do lots of books out there. Ta-Nehisi Coates may have written Between the World and Me for his son, but if you’re a white person it’s for you, too.
It’s fair to surmise that The 1619 Project is primarily aimed at white people.
If you are uncomfortable reading it as a white person, this is not a bad thing. Embrace the discomfort. You don’t have to feel bad about what you read if you don’t belittle the brave people who have survived the system that grew out of that original journey across the Atlantic.
But believe me, I still also have my own prejudices. They were bred into me by parents who met the definitions most Black people associate with the disparaging and mean attitudes that most white people carried toward African Americans throughout the 20th century.
I can say, though, that I don’t remember there ever being a turning point for me. I don’t recall ever thinking, “white people are better,” and then changing my mind. Even in grade school, I considered the concept of white supremacy bizarre and strange.
I have also been blessed with an underlying need to understand the Black experience. I don’t know where it comes from, quite honestly.
Maybe it was that shirt I saw a Black guy wearing on a beach in Chicago when I was young that said, “It’s a Black Thang, You Wouldn’t Understand.”
I thought that shirt was awesome.
Maybe it came from the Black friends I had when I was growing up, especially during my high school years. A few of them were very close.
It was impossible not to notice the difference in how they were treated when we went somewhere together.
This made me want to learn about history that wasn’t taught.
So I did.
Critical Race Theory is here to stay
CRT is not going away. Trump’s election doesn’t change that. Those of us who support social justice will dig our heels in harder than our opponents can possibly imagine.
And let’s be clear. The 1619 Project is not directly related to Critical Race Theory. It has a tangential relationship to CRT, but it is mostly about the history of how and why most Black Americans arrived in the United States.
But all of this is ultimately tied together. Racism isn’t something that has simply popped up out of nowhere when Obama won his first term as President. Or when Trump was elected.
It is an inherent part of America, even more deeply ingrained than the conniving repurposing of the word “Patriot,” which has been hijacked by racist Americans and now means, quite simply, “Racist.”
It is more ingrained into our culture than even the Constitution because it is much older. Racism is part of the American ether.
Even someone like me, who claims to be somewhat enlightened, is not free of the prejudices most white people grow up with. Extricating ourselves from these prejudices usually takes overt and real work.
There is nothing wrong with looking at behaviors that various Black writers discuss and saying, “Yeah, I’ve done that.” Or “Yeah, I do that.”
The various rants you see from Black writers on Substack and Medium that you want to tune out don’t have to be excuses for adding to your fears. Instead, consider them workshops.
Because if any of us white people are at all honest, even in our best moments, deleting the racism from the marrow of our bones, which was planted by our ancestors, maybe by our moms and dads, requires a conscious effort.
You don’t have to do this work. You can turn your eyes away from every reminder. That is a choice.
But what you don’t get to do anymore is complain about that choice. You can complain about “woke” culture all you want but trying to belittle progress only makes you look small.
CRT is not going away. Wokeness isn’t, either. This is a good thing. It will help white people embrace the realities of what happened to Black people. Being afraid of it, though, will not make the CRT or wokeness disappear.
While some white people clutch their pearls over wokeness, large corporations are paying huge money to Snoop Dog to be himself as he sells products. Snoop is not your typical ad spokesperson designed to make white viewers comfortable. He’s Snoop. And, hopefully, he’s just the beginning as the Jordan Peeles of the world start filling up the cinema reels and begin to influence advertising directors and producers.
Critical Race Theory is going mainstream
The more prejudiced whites among us have complained in hardened, racist echo chambers like 4Chan and segments of Reddit that too many television advertisements feature Black people or people of color that white people seem to be disappearing.
They’re the kind of people who are appalled at Black elves in Amazon’s “Rings of Power.”
To them, it’s proof of the Great Replacement theory4
No. It’s just a rebalancing. Corporate America has found a money angle they like, and maybe the trend isn’t particularly altruistic, but it’s about time.
It’s about time that Black people see parents on commercials taking their kids out for whatever and to wherever. Or buying insurance. Or selling it (the State Farm and Allstate guys!). It’s about time that Black kids see themselves in situations they see themselves in real life.
Just like it was about time they could look at their televisions every night and see a Black President.
Just like they should have been able to look at their televisions every night and see a smart, intelligent, normal woman of color as president instead of a mean-spirited serial rapist.5
It shouldn’t surprise you as a white person to know that most Black kids aren’t in gangs.
Like it or not, the normalization of Black people, and hopefully all people of color, is seeping into the American mainstream.
When we see outrage over Asian hate, as another example of stuff that gets called out, it’s because we should be outraged over Asian hate. It’s not complicated.
Meanwhile, we’re seeing more movies about the daily lives of Black people and about Black heroes (I point to Black people specifically as opposed to POC in general because this article is really about that). More Black movie producers are getting their stories made. More Black authors are getting their books published. There are more Black editors and newspaper columnists than ever before.
How can this possibly be a bad thing?
If you are afraid that you’ll get crowded out as a writer or editor (or anything else), I can only ask this one question. Whatever happened to your competitive spirit? Just do a better job at whatever you do, or write better books or movies or teleplays or newspaper columns, and you’ll be fine.
Isn’t the American spirit supposed to be about competition?
If your reaction to a more competitive but fairer field is fear, you have a problem, but it’s not everyone else’s problem anymore, it’s yours.
I’m old enough to remember when there were no Black NFL quarterbacks. If you are a white person anywhere near my age, you know why it took so long for Black QBs to emerge, and that it had nothing to do with lack of ability. It is an almost unspeakable reason, but it’s the truth. And it is ugly as hell.
And even still, if one of them tries to take a stand, he’s shut down.
This is where the racist white dude tries to point out that Colin Kaepernick was a mediocre quarterback and his disappearance from NFL rosters was a matter of talent. As a Chicago Bears fan, until Justin Fields came along, I could have made a pretty easy argument against that fallacy:
It’s time for a definition of Critical Race Theory. Let’s borrow the definition from the authors of the book, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction so that we erase any possibility of confusion:
The critical race theory (CRT) movement is a collection of activists and scholars engaged in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power. The movement considers many of the same issues that conventional civil rights and ethnic studies discourses take up but places them in a broader perspective that includes economics, history, setting, group and self-interest, and emotions and the unconscious.
Notice what it does not say: “Critical Race Theory is an attempt to make white people feel guilty.”
Encyclopedia Brittanica describes CRT as
an intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour.
Critical race theorists hold that racism is inherent in the law and legal institutions of the United States insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans. Critical race theorists are generally dedicated to applying their understanding of the institutional or structural nature of racism to the concrete (if distant) goal of eliminating all race-based and other unjust hierarchies.7
The fact that digging deeper into CRT does make some of us feel guilty is not the fault of the theorists or the theory. It is the fault of that first ship that crossed the Atlantic in 1619, and all the people since then who have subjected Blacks and other people of color to various forms of harsh treatment and prejudice.
It’s the fault of a system of governance that emerged, first, to protect the institution of slavery, and later, allowed for white privilege to prosper.
It’s the fault of historians who glorified the growth of Western empire and pretended it wasn’t accomplished with ethnic cleansing.
It’s the fault of the small-town banker who dismisses on sight the small business owner who is looking for a loan but has darker skin.
And it becomes the fault of the shop owner in the coastal tourist town who doesn’t take her eyes for even one second off the young Black kid who walks into her shop. Until he leaves.
It’s even the fault of the Black cop who roughs up the Black kid in a tough neighborhood but treats a white kid with kid gloves.
Racism is a foundational block of our economic system and society.
The system didn’t die out miraculously after the Emancipation Proclamation, in the 1960s, or after Obama’s election. John Lewis was celebrated by white people after his death, but racism didn’t die with him.
Redlining happened as late as the 1980s and is still happening in places where people can get away with it. Land sale contracts and the interstates gutted prosperous Black neighborhoods during the 1950s and 60s. Even your favorite gentrified urban neighborhood with that cute little boutique grocery store has been created by a set of policies that significantly disadvantages our Black brothers and sisters.
Employment prejudices are also an ongoing issue. The list goes on, but I’m not here to discuss that. Interested white people can do their own research. Uninterested white people will not care.
Having said all that, CRT is not designed to make you feel bad. It is designed to ask yourself to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and to reconsider the historical design of the American economy.
What do educators say about CRT?
CRT has traditionally been a focus of university-level curriculums, but thanks to conservative panic, it now looks poised to make its way into mainstream public school curriculums.
In promoting their panic in order to get votes, the far right is actually on the verge of accomplishing what CRT’s proponents have failed to accomplish for 40 plus years: Get it into our public schools.
Let’s take a look at what Education Week says about CRT that attempts to provide an overview of the concept in an article targeting K-12 educators:8
Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.
The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.
A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas.
Today, those same patterns of discrimination live on through facially race-blind policies, like single-family zoning that prevents the building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts.
Redlining and the fallout of gentrification. Coming soon to a public school near you. Like it or not. All thanks to blithering idiots like JD Vance and Elon Musk, who are doing more to promote CRT 40 years after its introduction than a billion-dollar PR campaign ever could.
One of the side-effects of the right-wing’s uintentional promotional campaign is a lot of teeth-gnashing and whining. But all that will pass as CRT goes mainstream.
What’s that they say about how bad publicity is good publicity?
Why does CRT and wokeness freak out some white people?
The reason so many white people object to CRT is that some of them earnestly think, “But I don’t treat people differently, no matter what they look like.”
Well, for one thing, they grossly misunderstand CRT because of the loudmouths.
Still, let’s acknowledge that this is a good way to feel. We should take aim at being able to say things like that.
But the challenge for us as white people is to truly look that statement in the eye and evaluate it. Is it always true? Are there really never times you have made an off-handed comment that had its genesis in your youth and just comes out as second nature?
It’s happened to me, and I’m writing this article about how it shouldn’t happen to you. So if you say, “No, I don’t do that,” excuse me while I roll my eyes.
It happened in the kitchen when I remarked to a friend how I wished I could fold a fried taco shell the way her mother could. I know that already sounds bad, but the context of the conversation had been established and it was an appropriate comment.
What was bad was how I said most Americans can’t roll a taco shell like that.
What????? I didn’t say most other Americans. I said “most Americans,” implying that her mother did not fall into that group.
My friend’s face fell when I said that, and I knew right away what an idiotic statement it was. But it was out. I apologized to her later and she said she didn’t even notice, but I saw that face fall. It hurt her. She was too nice to say anything because she didn’t want me to feel bad, but hurt like that is hard to hide.
Her mom is something like a fourth-generation Tejano in Texas. More “American” than probably 90% of other Americans. Her father was a wildly successful immigrant from Pakistan. That is America, people. It’s a beautiful thing.
When we say stupid things as white people, I think we are hardly ever aware of it. So trust me when I say I’m not lecturing any of you. I’ve done it, too.
It happens because our racism is foundational. Not just on an economic level, but on a cultural and sociological level, too.
My parents' version of Americans was Andy Griffith, not José Francisco Ruiz or Harriet Tubman.
That explains my insane comment, but it doesn’t excuse it.
That’s why I say that ridding ourselves of centuries of racism requires constant work. It shouldn’t. But it does, and there is nothing wrong with acknowledging our failings.
Because there is one truth that those who are in panic mode over CRT have got right: It’s not their fault that their ancestors did what they did.
But we live with more than that past on a daily basis.
We live with deeply burrowed attitudes that generations before us carried around with them. It lives within the marrow of our bones.
No, that’s not your fault.
But it is if you won’t look at it honestly and do the daily work it requires to kill the virus that began spreading 400 years ago.
You think COVID was bad? It was a sneeze in the winds of time compared to the scourge of racism. The reason so many Blacks shrug their shoulders over Trump is that they’ve been watching him for 400 years. He is not a new phenomenon in their lives.
You see increased violent and blatant racism all around you now, right? The far-right hooligans who have decided it’s fine to say whatever they want and violently confront non-whites?
You’ve seen Tucker Carlson gain a national platform for his racist views on a major cable network.
You’ve seen a racist presidential candidate snag 78 million votes.
You see the results of our quiet inaction on a daily basis.
Don’t you?
We can do our part.
It’s not rocket science, and it isn’t designed to hurt you in any way.
Embrace Critical Race Theory. Learn about it. Let it guide you as you carry on with your days.
We can’t change the past. But the future is upon you, like it or not. Embrace that, too, or be miserable watching the world march past you.
We can make the year 2025 what we want to, despite the election results. But it may require a bit of discomfort, first. I guarantee you, though, that on the other side of that brief flash of discomfort can come great joy.
Many low information voters will wail, “I’m not a racist! Stop making this election about race!” I haven’t yet seen a rational explanation for why they chose an elderly, angr,y, humorless white serial rapist over an intelligent, cheerful woman of color. This essay goes on to explain just how deeply engrained our prejudices are, often without our even being aware of it.
Thank you for a thoughtful essay. As far as I'm concerned, America's original sin began when the settlers arrived and tried to subjugate the tribes that already lived here. America's first foray into slavery began not with black people from Africa but with Native Americans. And when Native Americans proved to be unwilling subjects, those white settlers chose to annihilate them. Native Americans were simply the trial run for the great evil that began in 1619. That said, CRT needs to be taught.
The messaging of DEI, CRT, woke, etc. from the left has been all wrong. It comes across as black and white, no pun intended, when it's not so clear. Most people are not overtly racist. That said, we all have hidden prejudices and biases. Everyone, including other races towards white people. So, if everything is racist, then how do you call out the the overt racism?
Policing is a good example. Most cops are not racist. They are simply responding to reports of criminal activity. There is more crime in poorer neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods tend to be black neighborhoods due to Red Lining in the 1950s and 60s. Yet, when progressives focus on the cops using excessive force, the general public sees us defending a drug addiction with a history of criminal offenses. "Defund the police" was so damaging because it made progressives appears out of touch. Even people of color living in poor neighborhoods were shaking their heads at this liberal academic nonsense.
The reality is different. Republicans have done more to cut community resources. If we spoke about building community and empowering young people through housing, education, public health, etc., we would have a better response. Notice that none if these things contradict DEI, CRT, etc. Yet, the messaging addresses systems that everyone can agree on.
People are tired of the token gestures. In 2020, in the wake of the BLM protests and Covid shutdowns, many of the athletes demonstrated anti-racist messages in the quarantine tournaments. Where were they playing? Mostly in Florida, which had one of the worst records for Covid. So,the message was black deaths are bad, but the thousands of Covid deaths are OK.
All of these anti-woke topics are disingenuous issues being manipulated by conservatives. Yet, we fall into their trap time and rime again.
Thank you for a thoughtful essay. As far as I'm concerned, America's original sin began when the settlers arrived and tried to subjugate the tribes that already lived here. America's first foray into slavery began not with black people from Africa but with Native Americans. And when Native Americans proved to be unwilling subjects, those white settlers chose to annihilate them. Native Americans were simply the trial run for the great evil that began in 1619. That said, CRT needs to be taught.
The messaging of DEI, CRT, woke, etc. from the left has been all wrong. It comes across as black and white, no pun intended, when it's not so clear. Most people are not overtly racist. That said, we all have hidden prejudices and biases. Everyone, including other races towards white people. So, if everything is racist, then how do you call out the the overt racism?
Policing is a good example. Most cops are not racist. They are simply responding to reports of criminal activity. There is more crime in poorer neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods tend to be black neighborhoods due to Red Lining in the 1950s and 60s. Yet, when progressives focus on the cops using excessive force, the general public sees us defending a drug addiction with a history of criminal offenses. "Defund the police" was so damaging because it made progressives appears out of touch. Even people of color living in poor neighborhoods were shaking their heads at this liberal academic nonsense.
The reality is different. Republicans have done more to cut community resources. If we spoke about building community and empowering young people through housing, education, public health, etc., we would have a better response. Notice that none if these things contradict DEI, CRT, etc. Yet, the messaging addresses systems that everyone can agree on.
People are tired of the token gestures. In 2020, in the wake of the BLM protests and Covid shutdowns, many of the athletes demonstrated anti-racist messages in the quarantine tournaments. Where were they playing? Mostly in Florida, which had one of the worst records for Covid. So,the message was black deaths are bad, but the thousands of Covid deaths are OK.
All of these anti-woke topics are disingenuous issues being manipulated by conservatives. Yet, we fall into their trap time and rime again.