Horse 2929 - No, Critical Race Theory Is Not Being Taught In Schools

A column in The Australian on Friday 5th of November by Dr Bella d'Abrera, who is the Director of the Foundations of the Western Civilisation Program at the Institute of Public Affairs and regular spokesborg on Sky News Australia, yet again made the assertion that Critical Race Theory was being taught in schools in Australia. There was actually no checkable suggestion as to what aspect of Critical Race Theory was being taught in schools in the article and so it just appears that this is being used as a corporate line, for a designated enemy which the audience can direct their hate at. It simply isn't worth the effort to link to the article, partly because I would prefer that no advertising revenue goes to News Corp and partly because if there is no actual checkable concept, then it's really hard to examine the content. If you refuse to explain what you base an opinion on, then I can hardly make any sensible critique on the truthfulness of that opinion.

The concept of Critical Race Theory is the latest in a long line of vague enemies which News Corp and conservative media has decided upon. The older enemies of communism, drugs, the unions, terrorism, have all been more or less neutralised in the long cultural war that the economic right likes to wage in its tower defence game. It shows that in principle, News Corp believes that the Australian public is either too lazy or too stupid not to swallow its undigestible right wing formula and so it recycles arguments and culture war ideas from the United States and Britain; all while the public unquestioningly regurgitates what it has just swallowed, before taking its unthought opinions to the ballot box and returning politicians who actively make policies with harm them in the long run.

So why now? What is it about this moment in time that makes the Australian media want to attack Critical Race Theory. Clearly News Corp either sees it as a threat which must be dealt or as a sockpuppet issue which can be brought out and manipulated, like the other puppets that they have to distract the kiddies when their players and actors act in beastly ways. There could be some element of poisoning the ground in case some elements of the Uluru Statement From The Heart are taken up if a Labor Government happens to win office in 2022, or perhaps yet again the prime audience of Sky News Australia actually isn't Australia but the United States; where the right wing commentariat can point to Australia as supporting their views because of the allure of exoticism, when in actual fact it is the same set of opinions coming out of the same newsdesks.

If it is the latter, then Critical Race theory came under conservative media's watchful eye almost immediately after Barack Obama was elected to the office of the Presidency in 2008. Within a fortnight there was a pivot by the media in the United States to revert to playing almost explicitly racial politics except by name. It wasn't immediately obvious with the rise and fall of the Tea Party faction from 2010-12 but it certainly found a new voice in 2015 and 2016 when immediately after America had it's first black President, it elected the first explicitly white President since Andrew Johnson.

I mention all of this by way of background because comments from people like Dr Bella d'Abrera in the Australian and on Sky News Australia, are trying to push the idea the somehow Critical Race Theory is being taught in schools in Australia. It is not only a straight up lie but to spruik this lie repeatedly, preys upon the lack of curiosity and knowledge of the audience. Readers of The Australian are primarily the commentariat and bureaucratic class of Canberra and the audience of Sky News Australia is mostly the already convinced people who would have voted for either the Liberal Party or the National Party anyway. The pumping of Sky News Australia into regional Australia is essentially a loss making venture but is designed to swing regional voters into voting for the National Party and the LNP, upon the basis of similar kinds of a prejudices as has worked in the United States and that includes racial prejudice.

The bottom line is that Critical Race Theory isn't being taught in schools. It isn't being taught in schools in the United States either, which is where this idiotic line of argument was imported from. However, to properly address why I can make such an assessment, it is necessary to explain briefly what it is.  

Critical Race Theory is the application of critical theory to the specific issue of racial justice and inequality; as it relates to various subjects such a cultural, social and especially legal issues. Critical Race Theory looks at how race and racism which stems from the operation of law, actually affects people. Granted, there are civil-rights scholars and activists who work in this field but that is to be expected when you have inequality. It stands to reason that the people who already possess advantage aren't very likely to challenge and or remove the structures and mechanisms which that advantage in the first place.

As with a lot of humanities research and publication, Critical Race theory is concerned with outcomes; and this means looking at classes of people in the aggregate, institutions and how policy is enacted, rather than the simple raw abuse that individuals may have exacted. One person's experience while interesting, of itself is actually just a data point. This isn't about one person's complaint but rather, looking at how entire institutions operate.

One concept that keeps on popping up is that horribly unwieldy term "intersectionality"; which if you imagine a Venn diagram various social identities (race, class, gender, nationality etc.), looks at how these various concepts affect each other. The idea of intersectionality is borrowed from mathematics and logic, where you have various kinds of unions and intersections within fields; all of which might interact through various gates such as AND, NOT, XOR, XNOR etc. 

When vied in these terms, Critical Race Theory looks at these fields and then tries to work through the logic; examining these things critically (hence the name) and then tries to work out if outcomes such as economic advantage, political power, and other social outcomes such as racism are the result of these things. Particularly in the United States which has a history of slavery and white supremacy, Critical Race Theory examines how these things actually shape politics and policy. Only an unthinking person would come to the conclusion that supposedly colorblind laws do not racially discriminatory outcomes. Practically all of human history has groups of people arranged in factions and all fighting for some kind of control or at very least for that control not to be wielded with explicit cruelty.

It should be pretty obvious by now that what we're looking at is rooted in political philosophy and sociology, and given that we are this late in time, it should be pretty obvious to see where it fits. Philosophers have long kicked against the ruling classes. As long ago as 399BCE the people of Athens didn't like Socrates because they also thought that he was corrupting the minds of the youth and convincing them not to believe in the gods of the city-state (sounds familiar, Doctor?) and they made him drink hemlock until he died. I would have thought that a  Doctor and Director of a "Foundations of Western Civilisation Program" should be well versed in political and philosophical history; especially the traditions of dissent. 

Critical Race Theory is purely an academic pursuit, looking at social and political philosophy, and stands in a very long tradition of arguing that knavish ideology is the principal obstacle to human happiness and liberation from want. The assertion that it is being taught in schools is stupid and anyone who pushes this line of knavery deserves to be held up to the light. Sunlight is a brilliant disinfectant of manure.

Of course it isn't being taught in schools. Primary school children might have some inkling of what the parliament is and how laws are made but Geography classes will be more concerned with pointing out where the rivers and cities are. The idea that there are different states and countries might very well be new to primary school children. In high school classes, possibly there will be themes of racism in English literature classes and perhaps there might a look at racial injustice in a History class but subjects like Philosophy and especially Political Philosophy are never going to be taught in schools. If anything, Critical Race Theory is a second or third year politics/law subject and the suggesting that it is taught in schools is a lie.

The suggesting that Critical Race Theory is being taught in schools is mostly made by people who don't actually know what Critical Race Theory is. When politicians who want to stay in office, or media groups like News Corp who have a very long history of race baiting say that Critical Race Theory is being taught in schools, they do so because they are going into bat for the people who have advantage and power and want to keep it. These are the same kinds of people who perhaps within living memory actually beat people with clubs to make them do things. It is one thing to blame immigrants, asylum seekers, black people, first peoples, poor people, for all the woes of society but to turn around and then accuse them of conducting a complex academic campaign, is like the school bully punching you in the face and then telling you not to hit yourself.

Also, I have reached the point where I am also not prepared to accept apologists on this subject. There are those who will say "that's not what they mean" (being the people who are pushing this line of argument). No, it's exactly what they mean. Interested parties will tell straight up lies if it means that there are votes in it. That shouldn't be apologised for.