Does Time Actually Move “Forward”?

Tennessee school board member freaks out over anti-racism lessons: ‘You hate white men and white little boys and Christians’ https://t.co/WGvHmbHW5R

— Raw Story (@RawStory) June 21, 2021

Before we get to that, a nice summary statement of just what "critical race theory" is, and how it isn't "racism."

The [Ku Klux] Klan worked to put its racist beliefs into action through Jim Crow laws in the South and immigration restrictions for the nation as a whole; critical race theorists have devoted themselves to identifying the remainders of that racism in the law and rooting it out.

And, most obviously, the KKK was a terrorist organization responsible for decades of white supremacist violence that included thousands of murders, mutilations and bombings of African Americans and other minorities. The law school professors behind critical race theory are not.

What brought that explanation on?  Why, the Junior Senator from Texas, of course, who apparently has nothing better to do with his government-funded time:

Despite the vast differences between the Klan and critical race theorists, Cruz twisted himself into knots insisting they were the same by grossly misrepresenting the scholarly field. "Critical race theory says every white person is a racist," the senator asserted. "Critical race theory says America's fundamentally racist and irredeemably racist. Critical race theory seeks to turn us against each other and if someone has a different color skin, seeks to make us hate that person."

To say I've heard this shit before would be an understatement.  I grew up ON this shit.  I learned, early on, that racists were knuckle-draggers who hated "ni**ers" and used that ugly word freely.  In fact, the best way to determine who was a racist was the people who used that word.  Then there were those who were "just" "prejudiced."  As in, "I got nothing against 'em, I just don't want my kid goin' to school with 'em."  Then there were the true liberals, exemplified by Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as a movie couple who find out their daughter wants to marry one; which was, among non-liberals, an acceptable form of not being racist or prejudiced.  I mean, after all, miscegenation was illegal!  (It wasn't by 1968, but anyway....).

I've limned this problem before: it's all racism.  It's just that some of the racism is acceptable, and some of it isn't.  It still isn't.  Which is what's causing Cruz to squeal like a stuck pig.  Even though he's a racist.  I have no trouble saying that.  I'm a racist, too.  Not because I hated non-whites (whatever that means), but because I've been taught the fictional category of "race" until I can't not think in racial terms.  I am tainted with America's original sin, in just the sense Augustine meant the more Christian term:  I was born into it, and I can't escape it now.

And I equally grew up with the ideas Cruz is just parroting here; there's nothing original in what he says.  He picked it up as a kid, too.  He just didn't have the good sense to put it down again.  With or without critical race theory, I'll say it:  every white person in America is a racist.  Everyone who thinks in terms of race, is a racist.  It has nothing to do with power or lack thereof; if we identify people by skin color or genetics or appearance ("racial characteristics"), we're engaging in racism.  It's that pernicious.  Own it, or you can't do anything about it.

Jesus said love your neighbor; and to be first of all, you must be last and servant of all.  Jesus also said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven; and that despite his Father's house having many mansions, at the end you'll be judged on who you showed kindness to, because in serving them, you served God directly.  There's as much harsh as there is kind in Christ's teachings, as much seemingly exclusionary as there is inclusive.  "Lord, when did we see you?" is the plaintive cry of the lost who realize it's too late now.  Recognize that, Matthew means; or you'll wish you had.

Recognize the original American sin of racism; or we'll never do anything about it.

Rather than believing America is “irredeemably racist,” critical race theorists have stated that their reckoning with the submerged role of racism in America is a path to redeem the nation and fulfill the promises of emancipation and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Critical race theorists also do not seek to turn Americans against each other, but rather to help them understand the actual history of the nation they share as citizens.

While Cruz’s claim that critical race theorists are “every bit as racist” as Klansmen is laughable, it notably fits into a larger historical pattern in which white southerners asserted that the critics of white supremacy were just as bad — or worse — than the defenders of white supremacy.

Exactly.  This is an old, old song.  Cruz is not an original; Cruz is a mouthpiece.  Then again, so is this guy:

 "Thank you for sharing what you really have in your heart," Cash wrote. "You hate white men and white little boys and Christians. I hope I didn't miss anything. My family has crossed cultural lines for many years. Including Hispanic, Black and family members from Malta. And I must say of all the conversations we have had knowone (sic) has ever demonstrated the amount of hate that I see in this email. I will pray that you look at people as individuals rather than by race and look at the content of their character vs what has happened before. Focus on all the great accomplishments we have had in race relations in our Country."

That is a school board member, writing to a parent of children in those schools. The defensiveness is part of the argument; as it is for Cruz.  It's an attempt to negate argument, to refuse to consider alternatives, to demonize the other so no conversation is necessary, or even possible.

I grew up with this shit.  Time is not even a flat circle.  Time is just a smear; of tar, or molasses, I still haven't decided.  I know better than to say this shit is from everlasting to everlasting; but it sure does feel that way sometimes.