Hiding Violently From the Reality of Racism

 CRITICAL RACE THEORY, awkwardly misnamed, is not "theory", but simply fact. It is the study of systemic racism, past and present, which means historical scholarship, research, and analysis. This of course is predicated upon critical, factual analysis of how systemic racism has influenced, and been influenced by,  American culture and history, within traditional American institutions. Critical race theory is nothing other than honesty abut racism, which is and has always been deeply embedded within those institutions, despite efforts by some to vanquish it, by others to perpetuate it, and by yet others to deny its existence altogether. Only the effort to vanquish it have thus far proven ineffective. The progressive movement is working to change that, the conservative movement is working to deny and perpetuate. The conservatives who perpetuate racism perpetuate it by denying its existence, as well as by promoting white supremacy. For most conservatives, the United States ended slavery long ago, then later ended Jim Crow and segregation, thus ending racism, case closed. This, of course, is simplistic hagiographic, self congratulatory nonsense, intended to assuage guilt and responsibility for todays' enduring racism, personal and systemic. "Critical Race Theory", which emerged as an area of scholarship in American universities in the nineteen seventies, is now receiving renewed attention  in the media an among the general public in the wake of the social unrest precipitated by the smart phone recording of George Floyd being murdered, and the consequent enhanced societal awareness of systemic racism, past and present. (Smart phones are proving to be valuable historical tools). Racism is now being generally broached in America's public schools, for the first time, and this is causing America's right wing to pitch a fit, so to speak, a typically false fit of righteous pseudo patriotic indignation. The conservative community is therefore currently engaged in a highly organized project to eliminate the study of racism in public schools. President Trump, himself a confirmed racist, actually signed an executive order forbidding it, with the the absurd justification that teaching students the truth about America's racist history and contemporary culture is both divisive and somehow unpatriotic. but President Biden reversed it, just as Biden has been steadfastly going about the business of undoing much of the damage done to the country by Trump and his gang-like supporters.  By so doing Biden spared Trump yet more lawsuits, which the former president can ill afford to contest. Angered and discontented by Trump's election defeat, refusing to accept either the reality of that defeat or of racism's traditional and continuing insinuation in American society, thousands of conservative groups at the local level are trying to remove progressive school board members from their elected positions, often by harassing them with threats of violence. This is hardly surprising; America's right wing is comprised largely of thugs.