McLean County Times

An Illinois State University history professor likens all the growing debate over critical race theory to “typical culture wars where the issue itself is not always driving the controversy.”

Andrew Hartman was interviewed by NPR  to discuss the controversy. “I’m not really sure that the conservatives right now know what it is or know their history.”

Hartman, the author of 'A War for the Soul of America: A History of Culture Wars,' went on to  say, "Conservatives, since the 1960s, have increasingly defined American society as a colorblind society, in the sense that maybe there were some problems in the past but American society corrected itself and now we have these laws and institutions that are meritocratic and anybody, regardless of race, can achieve the American dream."

Emotions are at an all-time high on the subject, with radio host and black father Ty Smith recently charging at a school board meeting that  the instruction offers up all the wrong lessons to District 87 students.

“How to dislike each other, that’s pretty much all it's going to come down to,” Smith said in a video posted to You Tube. “You’re going to deliberately teach kids this white kid got it better than you because he’s white. You’re going to purposely tell a white kid all the black people are down and oppressed. How do I have two medical degrees if I’m sitting here oppressed? No mom, no dad in the house, I worked my way through college.”

All across the country, the issue of critical race theory has sparked a national debate about the role of race and racism in school districts. Often compared by critics to actual racism, CRT is a school of thought that generally focuses on how power structures and institutions impact racial minorities.

Smith has been clear about where he stands, at one point blasting the whole concept of a race-based curriculum as a "bunch of nonsense."

He later added, “what’s sickening about all this is what you are doing right now is something I already do in my community because black folks are being told by other black folks you can’t do anything out there in the world because white folks aren’t going let you get nowhere. How did I get where I am right now, what kept me down, what oppressed me?”

Smith said he is hoping everyone comes to realize one thing.

“It all comes down to the ones that are going to be hurt from this being the kids,” he said. “This is something to talk about right now.