Opinion: Pence Lies About Critical Race Theory To Incite Racist Rage

Republicans would never win another election if they abandoned their favorite practice of pitting Americans against each other as part of their storied “culture wars.”  Now they are going all in to create deeper racial animosity among their Aryan supporters to widen the racial divide in America. Their strategy is straight out of Trump’s playbook to appeal to the white supremacist cult he elevated, emboldened and encouraged.

 In a normal world, it would be unfathomable that a university level academic subject would become a cause célèbre and tool for a political party to divide the American people; but this is 21st Century America and after four years of Trump nothing is unfathomable.  

 What is even more unbelievable is that Republicans, evangelicals, and conservative pundits have no concept of what “critical race theory” entails, but they have embraced the three word academic theory as a cudgel to beat their racist acolytes into a rage.

The latest outrage for Republican racists came courtesy of Trump’s former second–in–command Mike Pence and as usual, he lied by claiming the academic subject CRT is “state sponsored and state-sanction racism.”

Seriously, he really said it and claimed it had to be eliminated because it, like the 1619 Project, is a nefarious plot and effort by somebody to “rewrite American history;” even though both subjects simply study long-established and factual American history.

What Pence does know is that CRT and the 1619 Project examine the recorded facts that occurred in American history as they pertain to public policy regarding race. It is almost certain the Republican base is unaware of anything related to American history that isn’t false according to conservative and religious propaganda.

The aspiring preacher Pence was speaking to Republicans at the Ronald Reagan Library where he told the audience a boatload of lies about a university level academic subject. Pence said:

 “The Republican Party in the years ahead must work to make school choice the right of every American family, and Republicans must stop the efforts to rewrite American history through initiatives like the 1619 Project.

Critical race theory teaches children as young as kindergarten to be ashamed of their skin color. It represents a full-throated assault aimed at the heart of the American experiment. It is nothing short of state-sponsored and state-sanctioned racism. Our party must ensure that critical race theory is expelled from our schools, our military, and our public institutions.“

For dog’s sake, as a person intricately involved in public education for a couple of decades, this author can attest that there is no such thing as critical race theory as part of any public school curriculum. It is a university level academic subject. Pence is a filthy liar and attempting to frighten the GOP’s base into racist frenzy.

Earlier in June, during a speech in New Hampshire Pence again took aim at the theory and stood there with a straight face and said “America is not a racist nation.”  

Ted Cruz, that dirty Republican senator from Texas, proclaimed earlier in June that critical race theory, an academic study of history as it pertains to race in politics, law and society, “is every bit as racist as the Ku Klux Klan.”

Also this month, evangelical hate monger and anti-LGBTQ monster Franklin Graham urged good and righteous Americans to infiltrate local school districts and “pray for the Christians who are fighting against the godless socialist agenda critical race theory.”

The truth about critical race theory is that it has been around since the mid-1970s in academic circles related to “how racism and disparate racial outcomes can be the result of complex, changing and often subtle social and institutional dynamics, rather than explicit and intentional prejudices on the part of individuals.”

It is not an agenda by any means, and it is not  socialist or godless. And, Republicans did not give it any attention whatsoever until Americans began protesting that African Americans were being murdered by white police officers.

CRT is fundamentally careful analyses to aid legal scholars and lawyers desperate to “understand why civil rights era victories had stalled and were being eroded.”

Republicans know why those civil rights victories were eroded and they know they were, and still are, responsible for decimating the civil rights of more than just African Americans.

Republicans are also well aware that children are not being exposed to CRT and that it is wholly unrelated to “state-sponsored racism or state-sanctioned racism,” and that it is not “every bit as racist as the Ku Klux Klan.”

It is a university level academic study that exposes the institutional racism driving the Republican movement to continue robbing people of color in particular, and minority groups in general, of their Constitutionally-guaranteed civil rights.

The GOP, conservative pundits, and evangelicals know the only harm from academics studying CRT is exposing the endemic racism that is driving voter suppression laws in Republican states, as well as the Republican-approved extra-judicial executions of African Americans by law enforcement. What is stunning, really, is that whatever the academics studying critical race theory conclude regarding the institutional racism plaguing America, nothing good will ever come from their discoveries. The racist Republican outrage surrounding CRT today is proof of that sad reality.

The Republicans using CRT as a divisive instrument could not care less what academics are studying in universities; they care about propagating racial animus among their base and further dividing the American people. Because without a divisive issue to rile up the base, Republicans have nothing to offer the American people and they know it.

Mike “Preacher” Pence, like his ex-boss Trump, Franklin Graham, and Ted Cruz, is a nasty piece of work and epitomizes his racist fascist party; a party so hungry for ultimate power they are willingly inciting more racial animus among their white supremacist base that at some point will turn violent. Sadly, it seems that is what they have been hoping for and they will likely see their hope fulfilled.