Woke is not a dirty word

It wasn’t particularly surprising when Governor Ron DeSantis made Critical Race Theory (CRT) enemy number one in the culture wars.  That is precisely the kind of reaction that CRT predicts as part of the systemic racism of our institutions.  To be clear, it is fair to debate whether CRT is a valid theory that accurately depicts the history of racism in our society just as one might debate whether quantum theory accurately depicts what we know about physics.  That is what education is for.  Most in this country do not support Marxism, yet we do not ban the teaching of Karl Marx.  So I have to ask, why fear the teaching of CRT?

In her response to President Biden’s State of the Union address, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, citing CRT, claimed that “our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race.”  Hello. Teaching the truth about racism in our history is not teaching hate.  To the contrary, the failure to teach that truth is to be silent on what the Rev. Jim Wallis calls America’s “original sin” and only perpetuates systemic injustice. 

Most theories that challenge the status quo create controversy, so the pushback is not surprising.  I was surprised, however, when this particular cultural war expanded to include DEI programs (diversity, equity and inclusion).  DeSantis has proposed not only to ban CRT from all public schools in Florida, he is now going after DEI programs.  This politicization of DEI is both alarming and disturbing.  Racism does not care if you are Republican or Democrat.  Ignoring it will not make it go away.  Pretending that we can all just be “colorblind” and treat everyone the same does not correct the enormous imbalance from centuries of systemic racism.  DEI programs are absolutely essential to begin the healing of racism’s scourge on society.

Two examples from my own personal story of why we need DEI programs especially in schools.  I grew up in Albany, just 45 miles north of Eugene.  I thought I had a good education.  What did I learn about Native Americans in Oregon?  For all I knew, they all lived on the Warm Springs reservation.  (My sister remembers from that period that Native Americans lived in Yakima, but that is because of the mission program supported by our church.) That there remained a significant Native American community in the Willamette Valley was never mentioned.  Worse, the big event of the Oregon trail involving Native Americans that I was taught concerned the massacre of the Whitmans in 1847.  No mention was made of the mistreatment of the local people by those missionaries.  Nor did I learn that three of those eventually executed for the massacre were not even involved in it and volunteered themselves to the regional authorities in an effort to make peace. The Army and Navy Journal published this account from their Washington correspondent on Nov. 1, 1879, of their hanging:

“Governor Jo. Lane [namesake of Lane County] had been sent out as Governor in 1849, and he doubtless thought it would be a good thing of him politically to humor the people of the Territory. Lane was a vigorous, resolute, western man, who had been a General officer during the Mexican war, and he then had Presidential aspirations. So the Governor came to Fort Vancouver, where the Headquarters of the Department were established, … and procured a small escort, with which he proceeded to hunt up the Indians concerned in the massacre, and demand their surrender. By this time the Indians had begun to comprehend the power of the Government, and when the Governor found them and explained the nature of his mission they went into council to decide what was to be done.

“After due deliberation they were convinced that if they were to refuse to come to any terms they would be attacked by the soldiers, of whom they then had deadly fear, and obliged to abandon their country forever. So they met the Governor, and the head chief said that they had heard what he had to say. It was true that his people had killed the whites at the mission, but that they did so for the reason that they really thought that a terrible disease [measles] had been brought among them by the whites; that they had begged them to go away from them, for they did not wish to kill them, and that they only killed them to save their own lives, as they thought. He said that for this the whites from down the Columbia had made war up on them [the Cayuse War] and killed many more of their people than had been killed at the mission, and they thought they ought to be satisfied. As they were not, three of their principal men had volunteered to go back with the Governor to Oregon city to be tried for the murder. This satisfied the Governor, and the men bid farewell to their wives and little ones and to all their tribe, for they very well knew that. they would never see them again. They knew that they were going among those who thirsted for their blood and that they were going to their death, and that death the most ignominious that can be accorded to the red man, as they were to be hung like dogs.

“… The victims gave one long last look at the shore as they took the little boat on the Columbia, but no word of complaint ever came from their lips. When they arrived at Fort Vancouver we had charge of these Indians. They were not restrained in any way, no guard was ever kept over them, for there was no power on earth that could have made them falter in their determination to go down to Oregon city and die like men for the salvation of their tribe.

“…The trial was over, and, of course, the Indians were condemned to be hanged. Without a murmur or sigh of regret, and with a dignity that would have impressed a Zulu with profound pity, these men walked to the gallows and were hung, while a crowd of civilized Americans–men, women, and children of the nineteenth century–looked on and laughed at their last convulsive twitches.

“We have read of heroes of all times, but never did we read of, or believe, that such heroism as these Indians exhibited could exists. [italics mine] They knew that to be accused was to be condemned, and they would be executed in the civilized town of Oregon city, just as surely as would a poor woman accused of being a witch have been executed in the civilized and Christian town of Salem, in the good State of Massachusetts, two hundred years ago.” Source

Of course to allow our children today to read such accounts, from a military publication no less, is to teach them to “hate” our country. Just when was it that teaching the facts of history became teaching hate? How richer and more accurate would my education have been had we had the DEI programs which now exist that might have introduced me to more accurate portrayals of the original inhabitants of this valley and their descendants still among us?

The second story is particularly embarrassing to me now.  My sophomore year was spent with 1900 fellow students in a building intended for 1200.  We were all relieved the following year when Albany opened it’s 2^nd high school in the south part of town.  The school board asked for the opinions of the students for naming the school.  I still remember the impassioned plea of our chosen representative who said whatever name you chose, just do not name it “South Albany”.  Our preference was to name it after Neil Armstrong. What did the school board chose?  You guessed it, South Albany.  “But you can chose your mascot and school colors,” they said.  How nice.  What did we chose?  The Rebels.  Our colors?  Red and grey.  Our band uniforms included a Confederate flag on the top of our hats.  

It is not that we intended to promote the racism of the Confederacy, it was that we were pissed with the school board and this was our means of rebellion.  Did any of the adults of that town, including our parents, say to us, that is not an appropriate mascot?  Nope.  Can you imagine how it looked to any people of color when our band marched on Veterans Day proudly down the streets of Albany in our Confederate uniforms? South Albany remained the Rebels for 45 years before the mascot was finally changed to the Red Hawks in 2018.  It takes a long time to undo the effects of racism even if unintentional.

Racism can only begin to be healed when we, the white majority, are honest with our history and work for diversity, equity and inclusion for all.