With swirling confusion, Mecklenburg leaders talk Critical Race Theory 

Influential Black community members in Charlotte met on Tuesday morning to discuss what’s become a controversial topic for schools across the country: Critical Race Theory.

The Tuesday Morning Breakfast Forum — a decades-long-running local program that hosts weekly conversations — featured former school board chair Arthur Griffin and current Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners Chairman George Dunlap.

At the forum, the two leaders broke down Critical Race Theory, seeking to clarify a topic that’s drawn great pushback, particularly from some North Carolina Republicans who say they don’t want the subject taught in schools.

While Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has not directly adopted Critical Race Theory in its K-12 curriculum (the theory has historically been studied predominately in law schools), school officials have said they want to scrutinize CMS policies and classroom activities to challenge systemic racism.

Critical Race Theory looks at the intersectionality of race and law, Griffin said. It’s a collection of legal research and academic scholarship that looks at what laws or policies in society have perpetuated racism and driven inequities.

“This theory was created as a way to try to explain why racism is so persistent,” Dunlap said.

In the 1980s Critical Race Theory was coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw. Today it has become a polarizing term.

“Because race is involved, some people see it from a negative perspective,” Griffin said.

CRT at CMS

Critical Race Theory is not taught at CMS schools, but it has been a topic of discussion among the public. At a CMS School Board meeting in mid-July, more than 80 people spoke out on Critical Race Theory.

School Board member-at-large Jennifer De La Jara was present at the forum Tuesday.

She said that CMS has undergone a review of its high school curriculum and will start implementing more culturally-relevant materials in ninth grade English classes. Next year, she said the other high school grades will also have new curriculum.

“Our curriculum is part of our broader look at our policies and practices that maintain racial disparities,” said school board member Carol Sawyer who also attended the forum.

De La Jara said that professional development around the new curriculum is also important and has been ongoing in CMS schools.

“That includes asking our teachers to evaluate their bias, their race, their power,” she said.

In early June, CMS hosted Ibram Kendi for a keynote address to district and school leaders on anti-racism that briefly discussed Critical Race Theory. CMS paid $25,000 for the training during its Summer Leadership Conference.

Pushback against Critical Race Theory has been apparent at school board meetings in the past. One critic, Melanie Holland, said Critical Race Theory is “racism you can feel good about,” WFAE reported.

Moving forward, Dunlap said that demands need to be made of elected people to eliminate systematic issues that have perpetuated racism in Mecklenburg County.

“It is the institutions and the systems that actually create racism,” Dunlap said.

It all comes down to education, Griffin said.

“We have to make sure that the inconvenient truths and the uncomfortable truths are said or taught or written so we don’t repeat that history,” he said.