William Marvel: Tolerance

Eaton’s doctor of diversity comforted us recently with his opinion that no high school teacher in New Hampshire is “actually teaching” critical race theory. Perhaps he was merely parroting the panicked denials of Democratic social-justice crusaders who have begun to feel the political backlash to their depiction of the United States as endemically racist. Probably neither he nor anyone else who buys those denials has the slightest idea what’s being taught in our schools, especially with public visitation effectively prohibited in our educational fortresses on successive excuses of safety and health.

Consider how the CRT story has changed in Education Week articles. In May of 2020, that fount of edubabble published a story headlined “The 1619 Project Enters American Classrooms” — the 1619 Project being one radical journalist’s recasting of America as racist root and branch. After nationwide protests against some of the country’s most pathologically progressive school boards, Education Week backtracked with a piece claiming “More Than 9 of Every 10 Teachers Say They’ve Never Taught About Critical Race Theory.” Yet one need not teach it by name to transform our historical narrative from that of a rough and bloody but determined march toward equality into an unrecognizable parade of triumphant white supremacy.