Trump’s administration attempting to ban the Critical Race Theory is intolerant and unjust

As the country is fighting a pandemic, dealing with the worst economic crisis since the depression, battling unprecedented fires and smoke, the Trump administration is focusing on an attack on critical race theory.

On Sept. 4, the director of the Office Management and Budget, at the direction of President Trump, banned any training within the federal government related to critical race theory, calling it “anti-American propaganda.” The Office of Management and Budget said that critical race theory is “contrary to all we stand for as Americans and should have no place in the federal government.”

Two days later, on Sept. 6, President Trump issued a tweet that said the US Department of Education would investigate whether California schools are using the New York Times’ 1619 Project in public school curriculum.

“Department of Education is looking at this. If so, they will not be funded!” tweeted the president.

My guess is that most people have not heard of critical race theory or the 1619 Project. Critical race theory began in law schools in the 1980s and then became part of other social science disciplines. It focuses on the way white supremacy and racial power are maintained over time, and especially the role of law in this regard. It focuses on how race and racial oppression shape law and society. It seeks to end anti-Blackness and racism in society.

The 1619 Project, for which N. Hannah-Jones won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019, is a collection of materials prepared by the New York Times that reframes American history around the date of Aug. 1619, when the first slave ship arrived on America’s shores. It is a powerful presentation about the role of slavery and race in American history.

It is astounding that these have become the targets of the Trump administration. Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, instructed heads of federal agencies to dramatically alter racial sensitivity training programs for employees, deeming them “un-American propaganda.”

Is it un-American to say that racism has been a problem for the United States since its founding? Is it un-American to say that racism continues to exist? We live in a society where 45.8% of young Black children (under age 6) live in poverty, compared to 14.5% of white children. Although 9.9% of whites live below the poverty level, 27.4% of African-Americans live in poverty.

In 2016, Black males aged 15-34 were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by law enforcement officers. They were also killed at four times the rate of young white men. Hispanic men are nearly twice as likely to be killed by police as white men. The United States Civil Rights Commission concluded that “while people of color make up fewer than 38% of the population, they make up almost 63% of unarmed people killed by police.”

These statistics are not a coincidence. They reflect the racism that has been part of this country from its inception. That is the point of critical race theory and I am proud of my colleagues who engage in this scholarship. There is nothing un-American about it. Quite the contrary, free speech, including criticizing aspects of society, are very much what America is about.

The attack on the 1619 Project makes no sense. Is the Trump administration trying to erase the existence and horrors of slavery? It is not clear what it finds objectionable, other than it focuses on the history of racism in the United States.

In terms of the Constitution, the president and the executive branch can decide what they want to fund in training federal employees. But the president has no authority to cut off federal funds to schools based on the content of what they teach. Also, suspending federal funds to schools that teach the 1619 Project would likely violate the First Amendment by trying to control the speech of teachers. When Arizona adopted a law prohibiting ethnic studies classes, this was declared unconstitutional.

But beyond the Constitution, the actions of the OMB and President Trump are reminiscent of the McCarthy era and the Red Scare. Then, too, the government tried to label ideas as “un-American.” It is profoundly anti-intellectual and just wrong for the government to try and get rid of the ideas it doesn’t like.

President Trump has engaged in race-baiting in a way that has not been seen in the United States in decades and perhaps never by a president of the United States. The attack on critical race theory and the 1619 Project must be understood as yet another sad example of President Trump appealing to make a racial appeal to his base.

This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Trump’s administration attempting to ban the Critical Race Theory is intolerant and unjust."