Discussions about the 2022 midterm elections are already the norm, and a core issue has emerged that impacts policy-makers and public-schools alike: Critical Race Theory (CRT). If you haven’t heard of it yet, you will soon. CRT is built on a simple idea: as a country that was founded while race-based slavery fueled the economy, the United States still has laws, institutions, and customs that harm Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
In September of 2020, former President Trump signed an executive order preventing government agencies, nonprofits, and federal contractors from hosting diversity trainings that teach CRT principles. And on President Biden’s first day in office, he rescinded the order. Much of this attention came out of the much heralded 1619 Project lead by Nikole Hannah-Jones at the New York Times, and the attacks on CRT were seen as a more workable path forward for those on the right who rely on culture wars to keep their supporters engaged (we would highly recommend listening to the New York Times Daily podcast about CRT from July 2nd, 2021 where they show how the outrage over CRT is fabricated and is being used as a social wedge by the right – and the leaders of this effort are quite clear that this is the case). Short version is that this is a manufactured issued focused on a theory of thought that was a class at Harvard Law School. There are zero schools at the K-12 level that were, or are, teaching Critical Race Theory or using it as a foundation of their teachings.
Regardless of the source of the outrage, it is here and schools are having to deal with it. With that being said, there are some key questions that politicians and schools will have to deal with. These include: should public-school teachers incorporate the lasting impacts of slavery on Black people in the United States today in their curricula? Will politicians pay a price if they advocate for it during their campaigns? What is the best way to form an argument in favor of these teachings?
To answer these questions, Lincoln Park Strategies surveyed 1,000 American adults on CRT. In the survey, we broke the respondents into two groups. We asked the first group three questions about what should be taught in schools – the causes and history of slavery, its impact on Black people in the United States today, and its impact on institutions and laws today. The second group received the same questions, but also were asked the same set of questions as they relate to education around the Holocaust in Europe.
As we see in the graph above, when people are asked about teaching the impact of slavery on modern times in schools without any additional context, the average support is 52.9 on a 0-100 scale when it comes teaching “the impact of slavery on institutions and laws in the United States today” – in other words, Critical Race Theory. This is slightly higher than teaching the impact of slavery on Black people (52.6), and almost six points lower than teaching the origins and history of slavery in the United States (58.7).
Looking past the averages, 56% of Americans support the teaching of the origins of slavery (including 36% who feel so strongly), 53% support teaching the impacts of slavery (33% strongly), and 50% support teaching CRT (our short description of it) including 32% who feel so strongly.
For the second group we first asked the same questions about the Holocaust before asking about slavery in the United States. As the chart above shows, there is a higher level of support for teaching the Holocaust in our schools (more so than teaching the origins of slavery), but what is interesting is the increase in the level of support for teaching the origins and history of slavery (+2.8 higher average), the impact of slavery on Black people in the US (+3.9), and the increase in supporting the impact of slavery on institutions and laws in the United States (+4.1).
We also see the effect of adding the context of the Holocaust on the distribution of the responses.
Since this is a made-up partisan issue in the first place, it is not surprising to see that supporters of former President Donald Trump are much less likely to support teaching anything about slavery than those who supported President Joe Biden. Indeed, 71% of Biden supporters support teaching the origins of slavery when asked without the added questions on the Holocaust, compared to just 42% of Trump supporters. The difference is even more pronounced in our shorthand of CRT where 68% of Biden voters support teaching the impact of slavery on institutions and laws in the U.S. compared to 33% of Trump voters.
A few months ago, the Democratic Strategist Group released a memo suggesting that a winning strategy in 2022 would be to pivot away from Critical Race Theory debates and define them as a distraction from real issues. They suggested that this was a nothing issue and that Democratic candidates should pivot away from CRT and instead talk about historic figures. Their suggested language was:
“I don’t believe this and neither do the people who vote for me. I’ve had my staff check and there is not a single school in my district that teaches this nonsense so let’s stop talking about utterly false issues. Instead, let’s talk about the real issue. What should our children be taught about race?
Here’s my answer. I believe our children should be taught to honor three great Americans – Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. They should be taught to honor Thomas Jefferson because he and the other founding fathers created the magnificent American creed – the ideals of freedom, democracy, equality and justice that we still support today. They should be taught to honor Abraham Lincoln because he ended the injustice of slavery and made America live up to its creed. They should be taught to honor Martin Luther King because he led the campaigns that ended segregation, legal discrimination and disenfranchisement, moving us closer to a world of true justice and equality.”
And we are shocked that Democrats are bad at winning elections?
First of all, referring to CRT as nonsense is probably not a great place to start. Second, might we suggest that if you are talking about teaching race through individuals, that two of the three people you use as the bedrock for teaching race are not (for lack of a better term) white dudes?
As our friend Jason Stanford pointed out recently in a piece called “The New Tea Party”, this issue is being used in specific areas of the country. Not cities like Austin, TX or inner (i.e. Democratic) suburbs like Arlington or Alexandria, VA but in outer/exurbs where the GOP is trying to bring back white voters. They know they have no real issues to run on, and are concerned that interest in the election will wane with Trump not on the ballot in 2022. Therefore, they are purposely ginning up anger to motivate people to vote, and vote scared. Just ask any school board member in these areas how effective this is.
Instead of walking away from the issue, and pivoting to the greatness of white dudes, Democrats cannot just ignore the issue and continue to allow Republicans to manufacture false narrative after false narrative. We do agree with the Democratic Strategist that this issue comes down to one major component: framing the debate. As the GOP ramps up efforts to legislatively ban Critical Race Theory from classrooms through state-level legislation (again they are banning something that does not exist), Democrats will have the upper hand if they can clearly define the issue, provide a simple and easy framework around it, and advocate against such laws and the overall efforts of the Republicans trying to divide our country in order to maintain the power of minority rule.
In the past couple weeks, a school district in Texas came under fire for naming the Holocaust as a “two-sided” issue. The district interpreted a new Critical Race Theory law – requiring educators to present multiple sides of race-related issues – as a requirement to present historical events, which are typically regarded as atrocious, in a positive light. Our survey suggests that this, too, would be unpopular. Over two-thirds of Americans support teaching about the impacts of the Holocaust, rather than concealing from students the genocide of Jews and other identities in Europe. But we probably didn’t really need a survey to tell us this.
Overall, those seeking to pass laws against Critical Race Theory are in the minority. Most Americans do not want to see slavery or the Holocaust brushed aside in public schools. They believe we owe it to future generations to teach them about these historical events and their continuing impacts today.
When it comes to Critical Race Theory, Democrats should 100% support any law student at Harvard taking that class, because it is just about the only place where this specific theory is taught. In the meantime, we have a choice: we can either continue down the road of deleting the history of slavery, the Holocaust, and whatever other issues Republican operatives want to use to try to win elections, or we can continue to teach and learn from history, and not ignore modern systemic racism. The choice is ours, and there are very few success stories when it comes to civilizations and political movements based on book burning and telling teachers what they can and can’t teach.