It's 2023 . . . almost everyone has now heard about something called Critical Race Theory (CRT). Now, CRT seems to be on the tips of right-wing politicians' wagging tongues across the country. In early 2021, most Americans had other things on their minds. Joe Biden had just won the Presidential election, but an angry mob of Trump supporters descended upon the U.S. Capitol before he could take office. Thousands of Trump supporters - many of them armed with crude yet deadly weapons - overwhelmed the Capitol police. Hundreds of now-convicted insurrectionists forcibly entered the Capitol Building to prevent the pro forma counting of the electoral ballots. Several have now been convicted of seditious conspiracy, and others await trial on numerous criminal charges.
With so many frightening developments smothering the news cycles in early 2021, very few residents of the small, coastal Connecticut town of Guilford paid much attention to the strident grousing that had been begun to surface (in a certain ideological corner of town) over the local public-school curriculum. Allegations that a Marxist conspiracy was afoot within the Guilford School District mostly fell upon distracted ears. Looking back, it's safe to say that nearly four centuries of history hadn't prepared Guilford, Connecticut for the controversy that washed upon its shores in 2021. Guilford had faced many challenges over its long history - but never a race riot. Guilford isn't a very diverse town (nearly 90% White), but in 2021, Guilford faced an intellectual race riot of-sorts, fomented by White Christian conservatives.
Five Republican candidates had launched a divisive school board challenge. Following a national right-wing playbook and supported by a good chunk of out-of-town money, their campaign sprung forth like Athena from the head of Zeus. They made a bewildering accusation: that Critical Race Theory (which is, in fact, an advanced academic framework taught in law schools) had suddenly become part of Guilford's secondary school curriculum. They described a district-wide conspiracy, in which brainwashed teachers were indoctrinating impressionable students with Marxist ideology and anti-White racism.
To many, it was laughable 'double-burner gas lighting....' until a local biracial family was harassed by a White Supremacist and a distinguished black Judge and CRT scholar was warned to stay out of Guilford. Nobody was in the mood to laugh. Guilford was a town on edge, and opposition began to organize. The battle had been joined, and it would be up to the voters to decide what kind of town Guilford wanted to be. On Election Day, voter turnout was remarkable - easily topping the state. The outcome was historic. Even now, recriminations and denials still fly. A lawsuit has been filed, and the ideological civil war rages on.
Guilford's foundational document ('The 1639 Plantation Covenant') described a laudable ideal. Guilford's original settlers made promises to each other. Their conception was that cooperation and assistance among all residents would inure to the benefit of each individually - and all collectively. If a race-based conspiracy theory can cast shadows over the foundations of Guilford, Connecticut, then it can happen anywhere.