History

Adapting Critical Race Theory into History Classes

"Curriculum, Conflict, and Critical Race Theory"

*Click the title to view the article*

The article above discusses the importance of incorporating Critical Race Theory into the curriculum of History classes. Furthermore, the article focuses on the conflicts that arise when educators attempt to change the curriculum. 

Critical Race Theory (CRT) serves as a crucial tool in an history classroom as it allows the students to view history in a certain lens. Studying history through a racial lens is significant as students must understand how the governmental policies and laws have shaped the United States over the last eighty years.  Throughout history, there have been numerous events where race has played a role as to why a certain party within the event acted in a particular way. Educators would be remiss to not provide the students to have an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of why some historical events or policies unfolded a certain way. The history classes would still be teaching the same topics as it is now, however, the lens that the students would be examining the various events would shift. Currently, the students are taught the event and have to learn the details of the event. There is very little teaching on how the event or policy would affect different races. CRT is meant to allow the students to examine certain topics through various perspective that they might not have considered before.

Critical Race Theory can be adapted in a history classroom by viewing current and past policies on housing, poverty, and other societal problems. A history classroom is a perfect place to implement CRT because, as mentioned above, the curriculum with certain events and eras would not change, but there would be a shift in perspectives when studying these topics. As the article points out, racism is less evident today as it was during the Jim Crow Era. There are no separate bathrooms or water fountains for white people and people of color. However, based on data, the United States continues to be “plagued by racial bias and that the racist ideas, laws, and practices of the past continue to inflict harm in the present.” For example, when students are taught the policy redlining, they are only taught the details and how the policy was formed. What students are not taught is how this policy greatly affects persons of color and they are the ones that are negatively affected by it. By implementing CRT, students would be able to view this policy from a racial lens and understand how this policy is extremely beneficial to white people and detrimental to people of color. Furthermore, this is a policy that still exists today and while it is not as blatant as Jim Crow Laws, it demonstrates that racism still occurs in the United States to this day. It is a must for students to examine history with the thought of race as the forefront of their studies. Students will be unable to fully understand the policies and laws in today’s United States without examining the racial roots of the policies. There is a saying that is spoken a lot in schools: “be the change you want to see in the world.” However, if students are unable to understand the foundation of the racism in the United States or the racism that still occurs today through policies and laws created by the United States Government, it is nearly impossible for the students to fight these laws and create a fair system regardless of race in the United States.

This is an example of red lining. This is a map that was released in National Geographic in September 2021. As you can see, downtown Atlanta is in the red while the suburbs are in the green. The red area dictates a "hazardous community" while the green dictates neighborhoods that are the "best". Downtown Atlanta is largely populated by persons of color while the suburbs is populated by a lot of white people. This is a current day example of how racist policies still occur in the United States. 

The rest of the article is linked below.

MapMaker: Redlining in the United States | National Geographic Society