Editor’s note: This is the second in a series on critical race theory and the Black Lives Matter movement by Anchorage pastor Prince Nwankudu. Read part one here and part two here.

I urge everyone reading this article to take a few minutes and read the full text of the “I Have a Dream Speech.” If Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would certainly denounce critical race theory because it absolutely negates his dream of an America where American children can enjoy a childhood free of racial encumbrances. 

King declared: “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood … I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”

MLK’s dream is that one day no child in America will experience a racial dichotomy or view his or her skin color as a basis of identity. 

Critical race theory (CRT) and the black Lives Matter (BLM) movement are opposed to King’s optimistic dream for children. CRT theorists seek to perpetuate the skin color dichotomy by teaching children that they are either oppressors or the oppressed based on skin color. BLM forces black children to believe that they are living in a country strategically designed with a racial gulf filled with injustice, police brutality, and white supremacy. 

For example, following the teachings of CRT, a Cupertino, California elementary school stratifies third graders (eight-year-old children) into oppressors and oppressed after they are forced to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, and then rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.” Buffalo Public Schools make kindergarten students compare their skin color with an array of crayons with a conclusion that “all white people” perpetuate systemic racism. 

The children are further forced to watch a video that, according to Christopher Rufo, “dramatizes dead black children speaking to them from beyond the grave about the dangers of being killed by racist police and state-sanctioned violence.” Also, the Arizona Department of Education created an “equity” toolkit in which they claimed that the first signs of racism could be seen in babies as early as three months. In it, they asserted that by age five all white children become full racists.

These CRT teachings demonize all whites as racists, and pathetically incriminate all white children as young as three months old as racists who must be deprogrammed from racism. black children are stigmatized in these teachings as oppressed, low achievers who need lowered standards for their educational deficits to be cured. In the case of Buffalo public schools, the young minds of black kindergartners are traumatized with racial injustice experiences they may never encounter in their lifetime and indoctrinated to hate all whites and America as a nation of killer racists.

What a contrast to MLK’s dream that “one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” MLK’s message was that of hope, love and freedom. For him, love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend, and hope is the pedestal for the courage to persevere until his dream is achieved. 

The logical conclusion and livability of CRT cannot be love and harmony. The practical outcomes are all negative from all perspectives. It could either cause depression and hopelessness among black children or it will cause bitterness and hatred of whites. This obvious outcome negates MLK’s dream of a collective brotherhood of white and black children who will one day grow up into adulthood with mutual love and respect for one another. 

MLK’s dream still echoes “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” The American dream MLK emphasizes is where “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” MLK’s dream is an America where racism will be abolished while we maintain our diversity of skin colors and cultural affinities.

However, CRT and BLM are unequivocally opposed to MLK’s dream. CRT wants to eradicate “whiteness” and make “blackness” the center of the American experience. MLK’s hope and dream for his four children are clear, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.” MLK’s 1963 dream for children and future generations is his legacy, and it continues to be the dream of all authentic anti-racists today. This dream is opposed to the divisive CRT and BLM indoctrination of children – ideas with the bleak notion that the U.S. is plagued with irredeemably perpetual systemic racism.

Disclaimer:

To reject the CRT ideology or BLM, is not to deny that racism exists. I do not deny the evil that African Americans have experienced or currently experience in the USA. I have personally experienced racism as a Black man. However, there are better solutions than the methods used by CRT and BLM. There are methods that truly reflect MLK’s legacy, methods that do not only ensure social equality but promote intellectual, economic, and cultural empowerment of African Americans and all minorities. The RACS Bridge the Gap (BTG) Initiative is one of those alternatives. Click here for details.

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