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The debate over critical race theory (CRT) is lighting up media channels across America. Parents are the latest to voice their concerns, telling school district boards that CRT is making their children hate each other on the basis of skin colour.

Those defending critical race theory say its aim is simply to make Americans more aware of the history of racism and slavery in the U.S.

Those opposed have identified CRT as a racist worldview that saddles white people with guilt, black people with a perpetual victim status, and Western nations with sins that can never be erased.

Nevertheless, critical race theory continues to be promoted by corporations, schools, government departments, the military and the corporate press.

The promotion strategy is simple: CRT supporters make use of a logical fallacy known as bait-and-switch. Bait-and-switch occurs when someone presents a partial, appealing truth while hiding an unappealing falsehood. (See also the motte-and-bailey fallacy).

Bait-and-switch began in the retail world when advertisers would ‘bait’ customers into their stores with the promise of a bargain. On arrival at the store, however, the customer would be told the item is unavailable and be given a sales pitch, inducing them to ‘switch’ and buy a more expensive item. This practice is now illegal in many jurisdictions around the world.

But in the world of ideas — and critical race theory in particular — bait-and-switch continues to be used to great effect. Many parents are waking up to this, which is why they have begun to turn the tide against CRT in America’s school districts.

CRT’s ‘bait’ is indeed appealing: that we should understand the racist history of nations like America. Who would disagree? Only by being honest about the past can we learn from it and make progress.

But the ‘switch’ is sinister. Critical race theory also teaches that all white people are racists by default; that white supremacy is the bedrock of Western societies; and that white people today are responsible for the injustices committed by white people in the past.

CRT stands against equal opportunity, individualism, free speech, capitalism, private property, meritocracy and colourblindness, claiming that these all work together to uphold ‘systemic racism’ and keep minorities oppressed.

None of this is ‘conservative spin’. It’s all there in the CRT literature.

If all that weren’t bad enough, anyone who rejects critical race theory is — perhaps predictably — accused of being a racist. It is a mousetrap worldview, and it’s designed to be that way.

With its reductionist categories of white and black, oppressor and oppressed, critical race theory can best be described as race-based Marxism. Its genealogy leads clearly back to postmodernism and 1960s Marxists. Approved by President Joe Biden and now embedded in many U.S. government departments, CRT is quite literally state-sanctioned racism.

In schools, it has been used to tell white teachers in San Diego that they are colonisers on stolen land and that they need to undergo “antiracist therapy”; and to teach children in Portland that they must become race-conscious and immerse themselves in “revolution”.

CRT has inspired Californian school curriculum that calls for the “decolonisation” of America and for students to chant to the Aztec god of human sacrifice; and it has led to kindergarteners in Buffalo watching a video of dead black children warning them about “racist police” who might kill them at any time.

Thanks to critical race theory, fifth-graders in Philadelphia have been required to celebrate “Black communism” and simulate a Black Power rally; while third-graders in California have been made to rank and seperate themselves according to their “power and privilege”.

For obvious reasons, parents are protesting this diabolical doctrine. When they do, they are asked why on earth they would oppose teaching about slavery or racism in America’s history.

But notice the bait-and-switch.

As soon as the conversation turns to CRT’s dark underbelly, its supporters change the subject and once again dangle the ‘bait’ — namely, “we must teach history” — something no one denies.

Don’t fall for it. Identify the bait-and-switch, and call it out. Tell the truth about critical race theory. It does not merely aim to teach the history of racism and slavery. It is a weapon of indoctrination that teaches children to despise their country and each other, and that burdens them with guilt and victimhood which prevents them from succeeding in life and seeing the good in all people.

Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a world where our children would not be judged by the colour of their skin but the content of their character. It is a good dream, and one that Western nations have done a reasonably good (though not perfect) job of living up to. We must stay that path.

We can have diversity without division. We should teach our kids to strive for excellence and overcome the odds to achieve their potential. We don’t need neo-racist theories, race re-education programs, or re-segregated societies.

Learn from America’s brave parents, and put critical race theory where it belongs: on the scrap heap of history.

[Photo by Shirish Suwal on Unsplash]