From: Julia Stumpff
Columbus
I am writing in response to Kathleen A. Smith’s April 21 letter to the editor (“Critical race theory divides us, based on color of skin”), and my initial response is, “What?” Smith asserted many things in her letter that are not backed up by examples, citations or statistics. She states that critical race theory “is being practiced on our children, in our schools.” I am not clear how a theory can be “practiced on children,” or on anyone, and no examples of this are provided in the letter.
Critical race theory (CRT) is a theory. It is one way to explain why certain inequities exist in our society, such as:
• The poverty rate of Black Americans is 19.5% while the poverty rate of non-Hispanic white Americans is 8.2%. (2020 US Census Data)
• Black people make up 38.3% of the federal prison population but only 13.4% of the US population. White people make up 57.7% of the federal prison population yet comprise 76.3% of the US population. (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2022 and US Census Data, 2020-2021)
• Black children have substantially lower rates of upward mobility than Hispanic, non-Hispanic white, and Asian children (longitudinal data covering nearly the entire U.S. population from 1989-2015, census.gov)
The above statistics make me uncomfortable. I am a privileged white woman and rejecting theories like CRT could help eliminate my discomfort at being the beneficiary of white privilege. However, CRT or no CRT, the statistics above still stand.
We have inequities in our society. CRT is one way to understand the inequities so we can work to eliminate them.
