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Murphy – The Cherokee County Board of Education has taken an official stance on critical race theory.
Board member Jeff Tatham hopes a resolution he crafted, which was passed unanimously by the board during its May meeting, will ease some parents’ concerns over the issue.
The topic of CRT has been ushered to the forefront of the United States’ partisan culture wars in recent years. After decades of limited attention, CRT experienced a dramatic spike in number of mentions across various media outlets in 2021 in particular, fueling heated confrontations at board of education meetings and other public venues across the nation.
“This issue has kind of been on the burner for quite some time on the national level, and we have had a lot of parents that are very concerned reach out to us,” Tatham said. “I felt like there was a need to maybe do some type of resolution or something so parents knew the board was taking a very clear-cut stand on the issue to hopefully put people’s minds at ease.
“We had kind of talked about that for the last several months, but hadn’t really done anything on it. Really, the resolution, it doesn’t really put a lot of parameters in place or anything of that nature, it just kind of lets everyone know philosophically where we stand.”
The resolution reads, in part, “The Cherokee County Board of Education uniformly believes that divisive theories such as critical race theory have no place in Cherokee County Schools.”
Board Chair Arnold Matthews offered the only comment by a board member after Tatham read the resolution.
“I appreciate Mr. Tatham bringing that to the board,” Matthews said. “In my opinion, I think it is definitely needed and appropriate, and I do agree with what this resolution says.”
Encyclopedia Britannica defines CRT as an “intellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of color. Critical race theorists hold that the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans.”
Individuals in favor of CRT may argue that it does not attribute racism to white people as individuals or groups of people. Rather, it contends that U.S. social institutions – such as the criminal justice system, education system, housing market and health-care system – are infused with long-standing racism in laws and regulations, leading to differential outcomes by race. Those opposed to CRT often argue that it serves to do little more than sow division between minorities and whites.
“With any issue, whether it’s CRT or whatever it may be, I always try to do my own research,” Tatham said. “I never want to take any one person or any one group’s word for anything, and this issue definitely falls in that category.”
Even the presence of CRT in public schools – or lack thereof – is often one of the biggest points of contention between the two sides. Individuals on one side of the ideological aisle have argued that it is merely being used as the latest political bogeyman, having very little or no actual presence in public grade schools, while detractors contend that elements of its teachings are woven into public education in more subtle ways.
“You do hear one side that says it’s only like college curriculum, specifically law school, and so there’s no such thing as CRT taught at this level, like high school level,” Tatham said. “It’s very complicated, I will admit that.
“I don’t have enough information to say that’s not a true statement. But I do feel very strongly that there are elements of it that are being filtered into public schools – not necessarily here, but it is.”
According to a study by left-leaning nonprofit organization Media Matters, Fox News alone referenced “critical race theory” more than 1,900 times in its programming over a three-and-a-half month period in 2021. While CRT is often not mentioned by name, Republican legislators in more than 30 states have proposed legislation in recent years aimed at limiting the teaching of issues related to racism and their impact on modern American society. Multiple states have signed such bills into law.
Tatham said he feels there is a “balancing act” between exposing students to different viewpoints while maintaining the values of a community.
“We have to be very careful when we start talking about banning books and certain things like that,” he said. “I believe in the Constitution, so I believe in First Amendment rights. But at the same time, being a native of this community, I also understand the need or desire for what our kids are taught to reflect our culture, and being a parent I feel the same way.”
Tatham also said that while he does not believe in whitewashing history, he is a proponent of American Exceptionalism – an idea contending that America’s values, political system and history are unique and worthy of universal admiration.
“I’m a big proponent of American Exceptionalism, but that doesn’t mean we’re perfect,” he said. “You can just look at slavery, segregation, the Trail of Tears – the list goes on and on.
“I think our kids should be taught the facts, and there’s value in that because that helps us avoid repeating the mistakes of our past. At the same time, I have a fundamental problem with the idea that our nation is inherently racist and that because of a student’s skin color or gender or cultural background, that they are just inherently holding back a student who might be of another gender, ethnicity or background.”