So who are the “snowflakes” now? That’s the term that conservatives have long used to denigrate liberals for being overly sensitive about exposure to opposing views. But those same conservatives today demand that schools don’t expose students to unpleasant facts or controversial opinions, especially regarding America’s complicated racial history.
The right’s obsession with stamping out “critical race theory” from public schools is odd for two reasons: One, the premise of that theory — that centuries of slavery have so engrained racism in American culture that Black Americans today remain at a disadvantage in our laws and institutions — would seem to be common sense. And, two, that theory is the purview of graduate studies and is almost never taught in public school education.
Nonetheless, conservative parents and the politicians who pander to them are all worked up about not just critical race theory but any topic that touches on race or other cultural issues that make conservatives squirm. How many of these folks are the same people who have bristled at the free speech restrictions that college campus liberals have supported in recent years?
