TX Observer: “Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is heartsick and afraid. He’s scared for his six grandchildren, who may grow up in a country that rejects its greatness in exchange for wokeness and anti-whiteness. Critical race theory and the New York Times’ 1619 Project “not only hurts my heart,” Patrick has said, but also “scares the hell out of me.”
In a call this March with Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the 71-year-old politician announced that “critical race theory and 1619, and all that BS is nonsense and will destroy our nation,” vowing to “not let this seep into Texas.”
Patrick doesn’t like change. His sense of identity and his political power—along with that of the Texas GOP—are bound up with mainstream mythologies of the United States and Texas. In Patrick’s world, people and institutions challenging those narratives seek to destroy that power.
Critical race theory—a field of legal and academic scholarship that explores the effects of systemic racism—is just the latest dog whistle for racial-grievance politics. Conservative activist Chris Rufo, who orchestrated this crusade to crush critical race theory, explained to the New Yorker in June that the GOP needed new language for “these issues.” The term “political correctness,” he said, was outdated and insufficient, while “cancel culture” was too vague and “woke” too broad. Enter critical race theory, what Rufo called “the perfect villain.”
Conservatives in Texas were quick to use the new vocabulary. Moral panic spread as indignant parents showed up at school board meetings across Texas accusing administrators and teachers of indoctrinating their kids with critical race theory. After Carroll ISD in the Metroplex suburb of Southlake enacted a plan to address racial and cultural intolerance, an opposition slate of school board and city council candidates swept into office this spring. In nearby Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, a Black high school principal was—without explanation—placed on administrative leave this fall after parents accused him of peddling critical race theory. In Leander ISD, outside Austin, the district was forced to pull several books that dealt with race and sexuality from its recommended reading lists after some parents lashed out.
The new, amorphous villain fit seamlessly into the broader conservative culture wars of Texas, especially with many of its longest, most critical battles happening in the classroom. With a decades-long, right-wing fight to preserve a whitewashed, inaccurate history of America and Texas in textbooks and curriculum standards, the language of critical race theory provided a new theater for combat, with Patrick leading the charge.”