McLean County Times

The Big Con, a group whose mission is 'Exposing the danger of science denial and anti-science propaganda,' posted on its Facebook page the words of Illinois State University professor Andrew Hartman who said about critical race theory, “I’m not really sure that the conservatives right now know what it is or know its history.”

The issue of critical race theory has sparked a national debate about teaching 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 affect racial minorities

Hartman, the author of 'A War for the Soul of America: A History of Culture Wars,' has left no doubt where he stands on the issue, recently saying in an NPR article "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."

Radio host and black father Ty Smith has been just as adamant in defending his position, taking the microphone at a recent District 87 school board meeting to argue the teachings only stand to teach children “how to dislike each other.”

He said, “that’s pretty much all it's going to come down to. 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.”

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."

Smith said he is hoping everyone can come to agree on what he sees as the most important point.

“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.