March was a month of war and monumental political development, both home and abroad.  Yet almost undetected was the fact that both nationally and in New Jersey, racism became the core message of the Republican Party.

For decades, racism has been a subliminal message of the Republican Party at the national level, beginning with the “Southern Strategy” of Richard Nixon.   The message was directed to white base voters, but always under the fraudulent guise of being a “state’s rights” message, rather than an overt anti-African-American message.

The reason for the emergence of this GOP racist message is explained in the landmark book, How Democracies Die, by Harvard political science professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.  The passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, enacted through the efforts of a Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson, signaled that the Democrats constituted the party of civil rights change, while the Republican Party was the constituency for voters wishing to maintain the racial status quo.  This began the political ideological polarization of America, with African-American and white civil rights supporters flocking to the Democratic Party, while white supporters of the racist status quo, largely Southerners, enlisted in the GOP.

At the New Jersey level, racism was never a part of the Republican Party message or platform until last year, when a New Jersey Republican State Committee task force published an anti-African-American voter suppression proposal. As at the national level, the GOP proponents and crafters of this platform purported not to be racist but instead claimed to be offering this scheme as a matter of “voter integrity.”

And in both the national and state Republican racist outreach attempts, the effort was not at the top priority of party message efforts but instead was a secondary endeavor.  The top priority of GOP messaging remained in the area of economic issues.

All this changed in the month of March, 2022.  At two separate events, the Republican Party, nationally and in New Jersey, respectively signaled the explicit message of racism as their top priority issue. In both situations, the Republican message was vile falsehood regarding Critical Race Theory (CRT).  The defamatory Republican claim is that CRT is a Democratic effort to inculcate the children of America with two anti-white beliefs:  1) one race or sex (Black) is inherently superior to another race or sex; and 2) an individual, by virtue of his or her race (White) or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously. I label this false assertion as the Big Republican Lie on CRT.

The national event was the vitriolic, racist attack launched by Texas Republican US Senator Ted Cruz against Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.  The tone of the Cruz attack was unmistakably racist and designed to appeal to the fear and loathing against People of Color among white Republican base voters.  The Cruz slander was a two-pronged smear, incorporating the above false definition of CRT and claiming 1) Georgetown Day School, where Jackson serves on the board and her two daughters attend has CRT as a part of its curriculum; and 2) it contains books for distribution to its pupils that cause African-American children to hate their white classmates.

The state event was the publication of a Facebook advertisement by New Jersey Senate Republican Majority, the Senate Republican campaign organization, accusing the Murphy administration of attempting to indoctrinate the school children of New Jersey with the evils of Critical Race Theory.  The advertisement had as its introductory words, “Do you know what your kids are being taught at schools?   NJ parents deserve to know if their kids are being indoctrinated.”  It then had a photograph of the NJ Advance headline on March 1, 2021 regarding Governor Murphy’s signing into law of A4454, said headline stating “NJ schools must teach about unconscious bias, economic inequality, new law says.”  The ad goes on to say: “Sign our petition to tell Governor Murphy NO to CRT.”

Now the last statement in this Senate Republican Majority ad is a blatant lie.  CRT is not taught in any public elementary or secondary school in the nation, let alone in New Jersey.  To place these two Republican racism campaigns in perspective, it is necessary to define two different terms:  1) diversity and inclusion; and 2) Critical Race Theory.

The study of inclusion and diversity involves a general focus on the necessity for tolerance and understanding of all ethnic groups, races, and gender preferences.  On March 1, 2021, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law the above mentioned A4454, which required the study of inclusion and diversity in the public schools of New Jersey.

The new law specifically defined the standards of diversity and inclusion studies as follows:

1) Highlight and promote diversity, including economic diversity, equity, inclusion,
tolerance, and belonging in connection with gender and sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, disabilities, and religious tolerance;

(2) Examine the impact that unconscious bias and economic disparities have at both an individual level and on society as a whole; and

(3) Encourage safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments for all students regardless of race or ethnicity, sexual and gender identities, mental and physical disabilities, and religious beliefs.

The words “inclusion and diversity” were watchwords of the administration of former Governor Tom Kean, whose “Politics of Inclusion” was a source of pride to New Jerseyans of all colors, creeds, and political persuasions and affiliations.  Sadly, Tom Kean, Jr., in accordance with his wont of cowering to Trumpism, voted against A4454.

Now none of these new New Jersey public school mandates involve in any way, shape or form CRT.  I have authored two columns regarding CRT, the first providing an accurate definition of CRT and describing how Republican opposition to it has become the new racial McCarthyism, the second as to how the defamation of CRT has become an essential part and parcel of GOP cultural wars in New Jersey.

CRT is most accurately defined by educators as the theory that racism is not just a product of bigoted individuals, but instead is systemic in the nation’s institutions, which function to maintain the dominance of white people in society.   Due to its complexity, Critical Race Theory is not taught at the K-12 level in our nation’s public schools. Actually, it is more commonly a part of the curriculum of law schools.  There is no question, however, that CRT is a most valuable academic discipline, necessary to understanding the enduring impact and effects of American racism.

Sadly, however, the GOP has obtained a measure of success with the Big GOP Lie on CRT.  The growing acceptance of the Big Republican Lie on CRT was demonstrated most graphically by the gubernatorial victory of Glenn Youngkin in Virginia last November.

In the last New Jersey gubernatorial election due to his passionate political embrace of Donald Trump after shunning him in 2017, Jack Ciattarelli, although not a racist himself, was unable to garner a double-digit percentage of the African-American vote. I do not expect the Republican share of the New Jersey African-American vote to increase in the next decade.  Accordingly, we should anticipate greater GOP efforts in the Garden State to increase white GOP turnout, and sadly enough in this regard, much more utilization of the Big GOP Lie on CRT.

Alan J. Steinberg served as regional administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.