Teaching Race in History

During almost 40 years on a history faculty in California I noticed the increasing desire especially of younger, female, and of course faculty of color to rewrite our history in favor of a variety of ideological positions which were relatively new in emphasis, positions like Stalinism, feminism, black racial thought, and the like. Those pushing these initiatives were often not very productive researchers, some were.

Now the concern with critical race theory (CRT), both for and against, has become a political issue. Of course the assumptions about our past were always involved with some greater purpose: usually patriotism or nationalism. Now racial matters are proposed as more important.

I confess I always resisted these tendencies when I was actively a professor. Now in retirement I can only have my doubts but also my disinclination to support any Republican position on the issue which is likely to be close to Fascism. So I stay in the middle where everyone can assault me.