It's ridiculous to NOT teach CRT. I should not have been 40 years old or whatever age I was to finally better understand the traumas of Black America.

I'm not saying I was blind to it before then, but I had to read books like this to better understand it:

https://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/american-slave-coast--the-products-9781613738931.php

The fact that white Americans cannot possibly understand what it is to be a Black American is the very reason that CRT should be a curriculum requirement.

If it makes white kids feel bad for being white, is that necessarily a bad thing? Wouldn't a little bit of guilt for how my ancestors (and way, way too many of my modern cohorts) behaved be part of the salve that heals the monstrous events that helped build the American empire?

You say that Black kids are not empowered by the fact that their ancestors were slaves, but I would argue that they should absolutely be empowered by it.

Imagine the intelligence and fortitude it must have taken to survive. I bet that is one reason whites are and were afraid of Black people. Surviving slavery resulted in a set of people that were probably so clever and resilient in those days that the survivors scared the living crap out of mid-nineteenth century white people, to the point that they disparaged Black folks in as many ways as possible.

I think Black kids should be wildly proud of their ancestors, and of their parents and grandparents. I doubt I would have had the resilience to survive what their ancestors did.

Great article, thanks.