"Why Does Everything Have to be About Race?": An Examination of Critical Race Theory-Based Instruction and How it Can Shape the Marginalized Identity

In recent years, critical race theory-based instruction has become a highly debated topic in public schools across the United States. Amid an era of misinformation, many that advocate for critical race theory to be banned from schools do so out of an unwarranted fear of its use and effect on children. Conservative leaning parents worry critical race theory is advancing “profoundly un-American notions of racially hierarchical guilt and innocence” (Hammer, 2021). Six states, many of them southern, have already gone as far as banning critical race theory-based instruction in schools (Zalaznick, 2021). This literature review sheds light on critical race theory-based instruction, particularly, how it benefits elementary aged, marginalized students as they begin to form their identities. And the ways their white peers can learn to critically consider systems built upon racism in order to stop contributing to them. Critical race-theory based instruction in the context of social emotional learning can create more well-rounded and empathetic students that can stop the cycles of discrimination deeply embedded within American schools.