Why are some people so very frightened of something called Critical Race Theory (CRT)? At a recent meeting of the Hampden-Wilbraham School Committee the discussion of an equity audit which would measure the present status of the district to provide an educational experience that would be equitable for all students, the discussion turned to CRT, which is the latest in a line of hot button topics for many people who would called themselves conservative.

It developed into such a discussion the adjective “Marxist” was tossed around.

Really?

The all-knowing Wikipedia defines CRT as “a body of legal scholarship and an academic movement of civil-rights scholars and activists in the United States that seeks to critically examine U.S. law as it intersects with issues of race and to challenge mainstream American liberal approaches to racial justice. CRT examines social, cultural, and legal issues primarily as they relate to race and racism in the United States … CRT scholars also view race and white supremacy as an intersectional social construction which serves to uphold the interests of white people at the expense of marginalized communities.”

CRT is not new and has been around since the 1970s. It has gained greater attention as part of CRT is examining history and looking at events and laws that have caused situations with which we are still dealing today.

Several of my friends enjoyed the second “Watchman” adaptation – as did I – but were gobsmacked about the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 that opened the series. Yes, that was a very real and very shameful episode in American life.

It wasn’t in your school’s history books, was it?

Did you realize there was an active Nazi movement in this country prior to WWII?

How about the internment of American citizens of Japanese heritage during the war? That may be a fact familiar to more people because of increased attention about that group of citizens.

Hey what about how African-American vets were treated after WWII? From History.com, “While the GI Bill’s language did not specifically exclude African-American veterans from its benefits, it was structured in a way that ultimately shut doors for the 1.2 million Black veterans who had bravely served their country during World War II, in segregated ranks.”

Again, was that part of your history lesson? Probably not.

I’ve heard people say they don’t want their children to feel guilty about being white. How about this: we want people to understand history so they don’t repeat it.

I will never understand why people want to ignore history because it may make them feel bad. You cannot change history. You can learn from history in order to change the present and hopefully, that will affect the future.

You think CRT will make you feel guilty? What you do, what you say, what you believe and how you act should be the only things for you to feel guilty about.

Now every single time I write something such as this, I get some emails criticizing me. I’ve seen that if I criticize the police then I’m anti-police. If I toss an opinion out that may bruise an elected official, I’m some sort of bomb thrower. If I seek to challenge any American institution, then I’m not a patriot.

In fact I’ve been called a “communist” more times in my 21 years at Reminder Publishing than in my five years on talk radio – and that was when I was the house liberal during the Reagan years. I received absolutely the most virulent hate mail back then.

Why? Because I was expressing an opinion counter to those held by some of my listeners. That was my sin.

Here is my view for what’s it worth: If you want to get along with someone it helps to understand them. Understanding the history of this nation is one way of gaining the context for that understanding.

I believe patriotism isn’t just the blind love for your nation. If you truly love your country you want it to be the very best it can be. You want it to live up to the potential it has. You have a duty in your own small way to make changes that will make the American dream something for everyone who lives here.