The battle for curriculum: arrested semantics and reconciling racism with critical race theory and Ethnic Studies

US Republican lawmakers continue their nationwide crusade against Critical Race Theory because it unsettles the racial state. We argue that the partisan attacks on Ethnic Studies and CRT are motivated by White American fears of racial reconciliation. An honest review of our racial past and present through a critical race lens would upset the United States’ centuries-long colonial racial project, whose maintenance and containment are dependent on an enduring system of a hierarchical racial order grounded in White supremacy. Attacks on Ethnic Studies and CRT are about US political society preserving racial meaning in the US, by which safeguarding their entitled position within the racial order. The latest political tactic in educational policy to maintain White privilege is to empty meaning from racial categories, particularly the term ‘White’, through a colorblind linguistic subterfuge we call ‘arrested semantics’. As members of civil society, students and community members continue to mobilize to wrestle away political control over their education. Civil society continues to be a potent force against White supremacy, especially in the struggle for Ethnic Studies–whose curriculum is grounded in the premise that race has been the central organizing principle in US nation-state building. Indeed, US political society’s wealth-building capacity–and therefore sociopolitical and economic positioning, is predicated by the current racial order. We believe the reconciliation of racism will only occur by naming those agents who perpetuate racist policies and practices. Critical Race Theory and Ethnic Studies employ unequivocal language that can help us to identify the agents upholding White supremacy.