We're educators. CRT is, in fact, in schools.

There are plenty of examples of critical race theory manifesting itself in public education: fifth graders told to celebrate Communism and brought through a mock black-power rally, or third graders mapping their racial identity and ranking themselves according to privilege. Even in Seattle’s math curriculum, concepts such as geometry and algebraic equations play second fiddle to identity, power, liberation, and activism. The guiding questions encourage students to consider “How can we use math to measure the impact of activism?” One common textbook encourages teachers to, if they must read literature, do so through a Marxist or critical-race lens.

Deniers are correct in one narrow sense: Few if any students read the scholarly texts of Kimberlé Crenshaw or Richard Delgado in their classes. But even so, the language, the theory, the application, the ideas, the instructional practices, the arguments, and the policies of these scholars permeate almost every sphere of K–12 education. To draw from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: CRT is the light that casts the shadows on the wall, even if those looking at it are unaware of the source.

In many cases, denials come from naïveté. In others, when administrators or pundits say that schools are not teaching CRT, they are lying.