Rufo himself admits he created the term Critical Race Theory "from nothing." Months later he said, "We have successfully frozen their brand – ‘critical race theory’ – into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category."

Remember the term "snowflake" from a couple of years ago? The right wingers were calling the left wingers "snowflakes" over a lot of issues. But it seems that nobody deserves the term "snowflake" more than white America. Poor babies. They're so put-upon that we now have to literally pretend that the U.S. is a force only for good. No nation is a force only for good. That is a fact.

Nobody really knows if Christopher Rufo turned activist because he really believes the bullshit he's spewing (that CRT permeates every aspect of American society) or if he simply saw an opportunity to turn the limelight on himself. After all, his "conservative solution" to poverty is simple: It isn't systemic either. All we need to do is believe in family, community and work ethics. It's that simple. Especially when you're a documentary film maker, and a white man with a net worth of $4 million

Either way, Donald Trump was the first to jump on the CRT weaponization theme after watching Rufo on Fox in 2020, the natural landing spot for opportunists like Rufo. Fox News took off after this interview, mentioning the term 1,900 times in a 3.5-month period in the summer of 2021.

Trump moved swiftly, releasing an executive order canceling all diversity training. And then Rufo was invited to the White House for further discussions.

Opportunists like Ron DeSantis took it further, banning the teaching of what is called "Critical Race Theory" in schools. In reality, CRT is merely American history. No matter how much you legislate against its teaching, the facts cannot be denied. However, a few things do need to be cleared up.

When Reconstruction is taught in schools, the black freedom struggle is rarely part of the conversation. The history is already watered down and insufficient, according to the Zinn Education Project.

Regardless of what Rufo thinks, he provided the GOP with a buzz phrase to latch onto with the 2022 primaries coming up. It's time to paint white society as the victim here. The whole issue smells of the right wing's Great Replacement Theory.

And the GOP also has an opportunity now to promote another right-wing non-existent theory: the violation of parent's rights, an issue on the tip of nobody's tongue until it became a right-wing talking point. We have another fake crisis that is merely code for making America white again.

The Great Replacement Theory is alarmist bullshit promoted by white nationalists, and they now permeate the GOP. Secondly, CRT is not taught in grades K-12. The GOP is counting on you taking their word for what they are saying, pushing every button they can find to discredit the American public school system. That is their ultimate goal. 

You can find ten must-read books on American slavery listed here.

It's one thing to be a conspiracy theorist and to spread information without presenting facts on social media. It's quite another to expect teachers to do the same in a classroom. Yet, those who are passing legislation banning CRT are essentially banning teaching the truth about American history. You are asking teachers to propagandize and lie to a generation that will, eventually, inherit this country. GOP politicians are passing anti-CRT legislation at a frenetic pace under the guise that we don't want our children to feel guilt or shame about what their ancestors did.

They call denying the truth being patriotic. We have to teach patriotism. That's what Rick Scott says as part of his 11-point plan to "save America." Unfortunately, the notion that America has been nothing but a force for good is not backed by facts. We are essentially asking teachers to lie to our children, much in the same way that our conservative politicians are lying to us about the danger to our children that will come from addressing, confronting and eliminating racism.

The entire CRT situation has become so ridiculous in Florida, where King DeSantis reigns in his castle of paranoia with his bootlicking enablers, that they are now rejecting math books under the notion that someone is surreptitiously slipping CRT training into the texts.

The fact is that no teacher encourages guilt or teaches with the intent of making children feel badly about themselves. The subject matter is what it is. In some cases, some children may feel badly about what happened to their fellow humans. That's what we call empathy. In a white supremacist nation, we definitely do not want empathy to be part of the school curriculum.

As the Arizona Republic has correctly pointed out, a little bit of guilt is not such a bad thing. Children are much more resilient that we give them credit for. It's adults who are not. The purpose of teaching history is to educate so that we do not repeat the mistakes and horrors of our past.