No, Critical Race Theory Isn’t About Teaching That ‘Slavery Is Real’

Prominent voices continue to frame the debate over whether critical race theory (CRT) should be taught in schools as a debate over whether we should teach accurate racial history. 

A few days ago, in an interview with Time magazine, Harvard University researcher Donald Yacovone (author of “Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity”) said of the controversy: “…one of the major reactions is this resistance to the teaching of the past. … Slavery is real. Racial domination is real. But they’re doing their best to deny it, to affirm the innocence of whiteness.”

This is a strawman attack. Few Americans of any stripe or generation object to teaching about slavery and Jim Crow. The problem with CRT in schools is there’s a lot more to it than just teaching America’s checkered history of race relations, and it’s this “more” that many parents are objecting to.