Opinion: Critical race theory panic is largely about white parents holding on to mythologies – By Zach Stafford (MSNBC Opinion Columnist) / Nov 8 2021
Classrooms are more diverse, and students need to have the tools to coexist with one another.
A September report from NBC News looked at 33 cities and counties where white parents have fought their school systems to address racial equality or other topics that have been mislabeled as critical race theory and found that over the last 25 years, those school systems have become less and less white.
That suggests that conversations related to racism or other kinds of oppression aren’t being kicked off by teachers just because. Rather, those teachers are responding to the realities that the students in their classrooms are facing. Classrooms are more diverse, and students need to have the tools to coexist with one another.
As the world changes, it’s normal for parents to be concerned with how exactly these changes are being communicated to their own kids. Issues that include racism and how much it factored into the founding of our country and how much it factors into today’s society, issues that include LGBTQ people and their rights. After school shootings, even discussions about guns and where people should or shouldn’t be able to carry them can be explosive.
Many parents are probably not well equipped to fully upack these topics with their child or teenager, and they worry about how a teacher might approach these issues. I remember coming home having learned something at school about sexuality, or even racism, and asking a parent about it only to see them panic on how to answer appropriately.
