What is Critical Race Theory in San Leandro?
CRT "is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies."
"The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others."
"A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas."
In San Leandro, we saw that in its choice to be a segregated sundown town with virulently racist redlining practices whose effects exist even today.
"Today, those same patterns of discrimination live on through facially race-blind policies, like single-family zoning that prevents the building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts."
We see this in San Leandro through NIMBY politics that inhibit sustainable, affordable, and effective housing development; whether that's opposition to 1388 Bancroft or attempts to eliminate protections for our mobile home park residents.
"The theory says that racism is part of everyday life, so people—white or nonwhite—who don’t intend to be racist can nevertheless make choices that fuel racism."
We see this in San Leandro through the silent complicity of White moderates who believe more in an inherently White supremacist notion of "law and order," than they do about justice, equity, diversity, or inclusion. It's the attitude that blames BIPOC for the very harm systemic racism does to them, from Anthony Gomez to Steven Taylor to Emerald Black, and even the initial intolerance towards established local leaders like Surlene Grant, Lee Thomas, Bernard Ashcraft, and Fred Simon. It's a mindset that doesn't realize color blindness is willful ignorance. It's the self-serving lies we tell ourselves that we've never seen racism, that we don't have "a racist bone in our body," that we have Black family or friends, and yells self-righteously "how dare you!?"
"Scholars who study critical race theory in education look at how policies and practices in K-12 education contribute to persistent racial inequalities in education, and advocate for ways to change them. Among the topics they’ve studied: racially segregated schools, the underfunding of majority-Black and Latino school districts, disproportionate disciplining of Black students, barriers to gifted programs and selective-admission high schools, and curricula that reinforce racist ideas."
We see this play out in the tension between SLUSD students learning about CRT at the SLHS Social Justice Academy and how the community treats them versus how it treats other student populations, particularly by our mayor and some city council members.
Notably, San Leandro's White population has been notoriously opposed to teaching, let alone recognizing, the city's history as one of the most racist cities in America. This fragility extends into the legacy of how that history impacts us today.
Perhaps the most egregious example of why CRT is important for San Leandro is rooted in the graphic from this post. The very people who protested the Civil Rights Movement and materially benefited from systemic racism in our city are now vehemently opposed to people learning about their involvement or their bigotry.
Obviously, we must reject their attempts in order to have, at the very least, truth and reconciliation as a foundation for building a better San Leandro for everyone. If we refuse to learn from our history, we will be doomed to repeat it.
Take note and take care.
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