The Critical Race Theory Debate

Jeremy YoungThe battle over critical race theory raging across America in recent years is most often fought in the realm of K-12 education, where white parents have asserted newly discovered rights to prevent their children from being taught aspects of American history that might make them feel guilty. But the fight to ban the idea that racism is not only a product of individual bias but is embedded in legal structures has also hit higher education, where academic freedom is traditionally more protected and where concepts derived from critical race theory are more likely to be taught.

According to the PEN America Index of Educational Gag Orders, a weekly updated report that tracks anti-critical race theory legislation, 28 states have introduced 73 bills banning critical race theory in public colleges and universities since 2021. Seven states have passed them, including Iowa, Oklahoma, Idaho, Tennessee, South Dakota, Mississippi, and Florida.

Colleges and universities are increasingly being drawn into the anti-critical race theory fray. According to Jeremy Young, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America, only a quarter of anti-critical race theory bills that became law affected colleges and universities in 2021. The percentage jumped to 57% in 2022 with significantly more bills introduced.

“Higher education is an important and increasingly significant secondary target,” he says.

Many of these bills do not ban critical race theory directly. They ban teaching “divisive concepts,” such as that members of one race are morally superior to those of another, or that an individual must feel anguish because of the past actions of others of their race — a “paranoid fever dream of what opponents think [critical race theory] is,” as Young describes it.

While some bills may appear absurd, they are no less pernicious, according to Young.

“It’s nonsense,” says Young. “But it’s nonsense that can be misused by whoever is enforcing the policies.”