LETTER: Critical race theory isn’t a theory or propaganda
Victor Joecks’ referencing critical race theory as propaganda caught my eye in his Sunday column. The only deception here is the word “theory” in its definition. No true history should be defined as a theory, and it’s certainly not propaganda.
The facts are, white people attacked a nation of Native Americans, using the excuse that the native occupants were savage, uncivilized and deserved to be conquered. These same white people kidnapped residents of Africa and made them slaves, claiming black people were less than human, savages and uncivilized.
The definition of uncivilized is: A place or people not considered to be socially, culturally or morally advanced. It is not propaganda to accept, and teach that it was not the Native Americans nor the people in Africa who were uncivilized. It was the aggressors who committed these horrendous crimes against humanity.
The German people accepted and faced their history. They have come to terms with the savage, uncivilized actions of their past. They are the better for that. Here, in the United States, we have not faced our past and excluded that past in educating our children. Unfortunately, we have not dared to look back at these atrocities. We will never advance as a nation, nor become truly civilized, until we take on our history, accept it and then become truly civilized.