To the Editor:
Comparing the xenophobia used by China and Russia against their ethnic/religious populations to critical race theory misses the mark. It does a disservice to a sincere effort to ensure that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are enjoyed by all.
After the passage of the 14th Amendment, in 1867, former slaves went to the polls and elected an astonishing number of their peers to Congress (320 in 1872), as they were the majority in most southern states. You couldn’t win without the Black vote.
Infuriated, former slave owners immediately moved to create a wave of restrictive voting laws and the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize the population. This prompted Grant to send in federal troops.
By 1874, this resulted in the reduction of the majority representation in Congress to 60 seats. By 1884, the Jim Crow laws made an appearance.
Fast forward almost 100 years and the south is still suppressing the vote, so the Civil Rights Act is passed. Federal troops are sent in again, but intermarriage is a local crime.
The list goes on, and as the old song goes: “You’ve got to be taught to be afraid. Of people whose eyes are oddly made. And people whose skin is a different shade. You’ve got to be carefully taught. You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late. Before you are six or seven or eight. To hate all the people your relatives hate.”
Isn’t it time for a new lesson plan?
