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Sept. 4, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: Chris Gavaler’s recent letter brings to light issues that demand rebuttal.
Mr. Gavaler rightly raises the issue of unconscious bias. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of unconscious bias training is uncertain, and in many cases, it increases the likelihood of harm to the very people it is supposed to help. Policymakers should approach solutions to unconscious bias with the same skepticism as the academics who study them.
Racism, sexism, classism, oppression, privilege — all these things exist, and thinking people should take steps to prevent these evils. Theories of systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are, however, an unserious way to effect this change.
Any theory must outline a cause and an effect. This causal link has then to be empirically validated. Once validated, we can think of policies to deter the abovementioned evils. An observer can only establish a causal link with the counterfactual in mind.
In critical theories, all organizational systems are racist or some other “ism” du jour. That is, the counterfactual cannot exist even as a thought experiment. Therefore, critical theories are ideas that defy empirical validation because it is impossible to develop testable causal hypotheses based on them.
Professor Gavaler insists that K-12 teachers should teach these theories. I argue that critical theories are anti-intellectual gibberish that have no place in academia at any level. Further, because all structures are exploitative in these theories, there can be no escape from being an exploiter or the exploited – all that can change is the identity of the exploiters. Critical theories are regressive and illiberal because they deny human freedom, dignity, and the possibility of hope.
As a person who fits many of the categories of “victimhood,” I reject the annihilation of my agency by these theories. You should, too.
ATIN BASU Lexington
