I am a law professor, and while I don’t teach Critical Race Theory, I have experience as an academic and practitioner with human rights, civil rights, and the constitutional implications of race.
The central principles of CRT and of the 1619 Project are undeniably true:
- Enslavement of millions of Black people was a crime with millions of victims, that caused fathomless suffering, and that exploited unpaid labor
- The work of enslaved Black people helped build this country.
- After slavery, decades of Jim Crow era laws and institutions enforced racism that hurt Black people in every aspect of life.
- The racism of enslavement and Jim Crow eras shaped present-day laws, institutions and perceptions.
- The cumulation of racism in our history means that there is systemic racism in our country today.
- It is the work of all Americans to understand this history in order to end racism and begin to heal its wounds.
None of this is “ahistorical.” And it is not vile to speak these truths. It is vile to ignore them and it is vile that racism continues.
As to the wrong-headed argument offered by some critics that CRT is “Marxism,” one of the nation’s leading CRT professors used to be a corporate lawyer (he worked for the same big corporate law firm that I did). Both of us are capitalists.
Some of the leading figures in CRT and the racial justice movement are successful financially, and they have earned this success the old-fashioned American way — by working hard and being good at what they do. We don’t want Marxism. We just want racial justice and equality.
The authors of an opinion piece from the Heritage Foundation are wrong to argue that CRT and the 1619 project are “anti-American” and reject American human rights principles (The Capital, May 19).
The lead author of “1619,” Nikole Hannah-Jones, described America as “a terribly flawed but miraculous country.” She also said that Black Americans have been “the perfectors of American democracy” because they believed in and fought for the freedom and equality promised in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution even when those rights were violently taken from them.
That is not hating America and its principles. That is loving America and making those principles come true.
CRT, “1619,” and the racial justice movement are continuing a human rights journey that started with the Declaration, continued with the Constitution, followed by the Bill of Rights, post-Civil War civil rights amendments, and the 1960′s civil rights laws. All of these things have grown our country freer and stronger.
The charges leveled by the authors of the op-ed are dangerous. They wrongly cast advocates for racial justice as anti-American because they want to shed light on the truth of racial injustice and the need for repair. This turns good people into hate objects and has very real and awful results.
Racial justice advocates in public office, journalism, and academia get death threats or called the “n-----” slur. Teachers are forced to take their emails off public sites, and worry about the safety of their spouses and their children.
Those of us who are White should be mindful that there is a long and horrible history of wrongly accusing people of color with being disloyal to the country or its values when they stand up for their rights.
The authors of the op-ed wrote to call for opposition to a Biden administration education regulation. This regulation calls for education about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, teaching about the contributions of Black Americans, and improving racial equity in education. These are all worthy goals.
No one is calling for canceling the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, or Founding Fathers. Though the op-ed authors try to spread alarm about the Biden administration and its “woke allies” and accuses them of believing that the “government should racially discriminate,” the regulation itself is the model of racial equality.
Here is what the preamble to the regulation actually says (quoting racial justice scholar, Ibram X. Kendi): “there is nothing right or wrong with any racial group.”
If you love something, you can’t just love it when it’s right. You have to love it when it’s wrong. The way you do that is by fixing what is wrong.
Nothing is more wrong in our country than racism. CRT, “1619”, and the racial justice movement are speaking out and calling on us to face the truth about racism in our country, together, and to end that racism, together. Nothing is more American than that.
Charlie Martel is a visiting professor of Law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. He previously served as investigative counsel with the Senate, focusing on homeland security, counter-terrorism, and disaster response. He lives in Annapolis.