CRT ban seeks to bury lessons of history

Governor Jeff Landry’s newest executive order JMIL 24-132, issued on last Tuesday (August 27), maintains that “inherently divisive concepts, like Critical Race Theory (‘CRT’) and its progeny instruct students to view the world through the lens of race and presume some students are consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist, or oppressive and that some students are victims.”

The order bans the use of critical race theory in Louisiana’s K-12 public education system: “these inherently divisive concepts are antithetical to America’s founding ideals of liberty, justice, equality, opportunity, and unity among its people.”

Such would be a wonderful concept of equality if no one bothered to ever teach Louisiana history. CRT stands as nothing more than acknowledgment that 46.85 percent of the Louisiana population was enslaved at the dawn of the Civil War in 1860, and for a century afterwards, the descendants of those who were in bondage subsequently were denied even the most basic human rights.

Apparently, Governor Landry and his GOP allies are unaware that CRT does nothing less than historically acknowledge the ideological racism which kept entire population in literal – or effective – bondage for over 200 years. In point of fact, it’s impossible to accurately teach the history of the Pelican State without teaching the reality of slavery and racism. One cannot achieve equality and liberty without remembering the circumstances which lead to domination and oppression, as well as the chauvinistic attitudes which underpin our Southern society and raise the danger of their ugly opinions returning. As writer and philosopher George Santayana put it, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

In his executive order last week, Gov. Landry achieves the precise opposite of his stated intention. By banning CRT, he only silences educators willing to teach an accurate portrayal of history – and how it affects our society to this day. American history banned of teaching race quite literally whitewashes truth. This gubernatorial prohibition amounts to a massive coverup which insults the hundreds of thousands of heroes who suffered and died to end the dual evil institutions of chattel slavery and Jim Crow.

Landry’s mandated silence fosters an ignorance upon the next generation which would blind us to racism still alive today and would bury the awareness of budding oppression tomorrow.

This article originally published in the September 2, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.