The Patriot Post® · In Brief: CRT vs. the Privilege of Being an American
One of the reasons Critical Race Theory is so divisive is that it pits some Americans against other Americans. That’s the wrong formulation, says Art Kleinschmidt, the former Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Instead, he says, we ought to be thankful for the privilege of being American.
As a licensed mental health professional my entire therapeutic orientation was geared toward helping people rise above their unfortunate circumstances to achieve their dreams. It is from this paradigm that I view critical race theory (CRT), and it leaves several unanswered questions. For instance, why is race deemed “critical” if it is the one aspect of a person he or she cannot control? Holding a person accountable to something beyond one’s control is the opposite of empowering, in fact it’s rather shaming.
Perhaps that’s why, beginning with the Barack Obama years, such concepts began making it into the mainstream. First, it was class division via Occupy Wall Street. When that didn’t catch on, the Left shifted to race.
Critical race theory exploded on the scene because African-American unemployment decreased to an all-time low of 6.1 percent under President Trump. A self-sufficient, independent minded, and financially successful African-American population is too much for the Left to withstand, so as this prospect inched closer to realization, something had to be done. Van Jones — who had no problem standing with President Trump while supporting his criminal reform package, the First Step Act — and other TV leftists sounded the alarm and stoked passions because self-determination is a major obstacle to the adoption of the socialist movement.
Something many people forget is that when Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, he did so at the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” King saw employment as the road to self-determination and liberty. But now we are supposed to believe that destroying businesses and offering cash incentives not to work are even better than economic freedom. And the Left refers to themselves as progressive without a hint of irony.
That’s not the only irony, he says.
The CRT folks are happy to scapegoat a population to achieve their ends, and white liberals are the main enforcers of this philosophy that blacks need white liberals to be their saviors.
Moreover, the CRT system is built on emphasizing the worst aspects of human nature.
Instead of designing a system based upon free will and self-efficacy, the architects of CRT created a racial hierarchy where people are ranked according to skin color. Within their blueprint, resentment, fear, blame, and anger reign supreme, and people are constantly pitted against one another. If race were truly the ticket to fulfillment, then why are so many Haitians, Cubans, and Guatemalans flocking to join the American melting pot?
Kleinschmidt concludes, “We are told to ‘Check your privilege,’ but why can’t the privilege, which should be open to all of us, be that of being an American?”