GOP attacked critical race theory and tried to paint Ketanji Brown Jackson as subversive. They failed | Opinion

As U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson sat in for Senate questioning this week, she had to field questions such as this one from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee:

“Is it your personal hidden agenda to incorporate critical race theory into our legal system?”

Jackson also had to clarify whether she believes “babies are racist.” That came from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, regarding her serving on the board of trustees for the Georgetown Day School, a private school where he claims the curriculum, over which the board has no control, “is filled and overflowing with critical race theory.” He held up an example of such subversion is his hand: the children’s picture book “Antiracist Baby.”

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee tweeted out a GIF with Jackson’s photo and initials being crossed out and replaced with “CRT.”

President Joe Biden’s nomination of Jackson, a Miami Palmetto Senior High alumna and first Black female nominee, is historic. But for others like Cruz and Blackburn, this is an opportunity to paint Biden’s pick as a Trojan Horse, out to subvert the country’s highest court with what they consider anti-American values like critical race theory — and despite her saying she hasn’t used it in her legal work.

This false portrait of Jackson only feeds the GOP fixation with CRT. Cruz and Blackburn act like good patriots, but further divide Americans on the issue of race.

Gosh, is that effective.

It’s happened throughout history, but why pick on CRT, an academic theory most of us had never heard of just a year ago? Florida is Ground Zero for that Republican experiment. Gov. Ron DeSantis banned CRT from K-12 public schools, even though districts say it’s not part of their curriculum.

Critical race theory was developed in the late 1970s by law scholars who believed racism doesn’t manifest itself only through personal prejudices, but also can be embedded in laws and institutions that appear to be color blind. It talks about how racism is part of everyday life and how people of all races who don’t intend to be racist can nevertheless make decisions that fuel discrimination.

GOP fixation

The anti-CRT trope resonates with a lot of people because — as is the case with most demagoguery — there’s a grain of truth in what DeSantis and conservatives are saying. It taps into what many conservatives have been railing about and many liberals are too afraid to admit.

Discussions about race, gender and sexuality can feel like a minefield, especially on social media. One wrong word, and you’re quickly ostracized as the “oppressor.” Your intentions don’t matter if the outcome is deemed racist. If you’re a white middle-aged male, anything you say will be deemed out of touch. If you’re a white middle-aged woman who asks to “please speak with the manager,” you’re a “Karen.” Tearing down Confederate statues leads to calls to also do away with monuments honoring Founding Fathers.

We generalize groups of people and then complain about groups of people being generalized.

But what’s truly behind the anti-CRT craze is the fight over narrative control of who we are as a country and a lot of anxiety about how quickly society’s views on race and racism are changing.

White-privilege backlash

In 2017, I wrote a column for the USA TODAY Network titled “I’ve used my white privilege as an immigrant.” I got angry emails from people who said they weren’t “given” anything for being white and were victims of “reverse racism.” I was told to go back to my native country, Brazil, where, ironically, we also have white privilege.

Many people have a hard time accepting that they somehow benefited from a particular racial structure. That they aren’t just a product of American values such as hard work and meritocracy.

Of course, being white won’t automatically lead you to success and a life free from adversity. It doesn’t mean harmful stereotypes about white people who are poor, for example, don’t exist, nor does it erase the discrimination Irish immigrants faced in the 1800s and 1900s. But it means the descendants of those immigrants don’t have to worry about having Irish surnames on their resumes as people with Black-sounding names do, for instance.

Americans vs. Americans

In a polarized society, politicians like DeSantis, Cruz and Blackburn place you in the camp of those who believe in a color-blind benevolent nation versus those who hate America (hence, the “Go back to your country” comments I received).

Without the nuance needed for this debate, it’s easy to weaponize CRT without having to engage in a substantive discussion about its merits and flaws. In a world of sound bites, Republicans know that if they can attach a CRT label to Jackson they’ve won.

Blackburn confidently asserted that Jackson has “made clear” she believes judges must use CRT during sentencing. According to an Associated Press fact-check, Blackburn seemed to be twisting Jackson’s words during a speech in which she told students federal sentencing policy is an academic area of study that “melds together myriad types of law,” from administrative law to critical race theory.

Blackburn didn’t care to note the difference between supporting CRT and saying that CRT is one of many approaches to sentencing. Why would she?

Because the fight against this theory has little to do with the theory itself.

Isadora Rangel is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board.

This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 2:03 PM.