Bamboozling Anderson Countians
Bamboozled: “thrown into a state of confusion or bewilderment especially by being deliberately fooled or misled” (Merriam-Webster dictionary). One excellent example is John Ragan’s column in the Clinton Courier News on 28 June 2021; John Ragan is trying to bamboozle Anderson County residents.
What a great word “bamboozle” is. It harkens to the day of snake oil salesmen, fast-talking pitchmen, and carnival hucksters throwing verbal smoke and mirrors in their effort to convince the locals their dubious wares are valuable.
In reading Representative John Ragan’s column on Critical Race Theory, one can see just how this wonderful word fits in today’s world.
Mr. Ragan is trying to bamboozle you and me in two ways with his “logic.” First, and most importantly, he is using Critical Race Theory to distract folks from the cold hard numbers that reveal the educational and medical outcomes in Tennessee are not good.
This reality points to the indifference the Republican leadership in Tennessee has towards the very people who support them election after election.
The second way Mr. Ragan is snookering us lies with his argument about Critical Race Theory. This theory, which began in the 1980s, is a technical one that is used by law schools to determine if systemic racism as seen through laws/policies explain the clear statistical outcomes that show lower economic/justice/health numbers for Blacks in the United States.
The Cold Hard
Numbers
Tennessee’s life expectancy (2018/CDC data) is fifth lowest in the United States at 75.5 years while the United States average is 78.7. Males in Tennessee have an expectancy of 73 years (U.S. is 76.2). Anderson County’s premature death rate has steadily increased from 2010 to 2019 under the Republican super-majority in the state government.
Meanwhile, 12-percent of the residents in Anderson County have no medical coverage at all with another 15-percent who live in poverty (U.S. Census).
Finally, the per capita income here is $28,455/individual while household median income is $50,392/household.
In other words, in a family of four, both parents must work to make a living while responsible for their own childcare. If they had an infant and a toddler, their childcare costs would be $1168/month or $14,016/year. So, this family really makes $36,376/year or about $3000/month unless they get free childcare from a relative. Take out the payroll/withholding tax and this is a family under stress.
These are the numbers John Ragan would prefer you ignore, especially since President Biden’s economic programs directly address each one of them with dollars allocated to improve healthcare as well as provide childcare support to families. Already, the Democratic political leadership passed legislation (over Republican objections) which provide additional unemployment support, money to the county government, and dollars directly to the county residents.
Mr. Ragan does not want this truth to dominate the political narrative, so he distracts with such things as Critical Race Theory and Marxism scare tactics.
The Big Bamboozle
As mentioned, critical race theory is a graduate level legal concept which has been taught at law schools since the early 1980s. The intent is to explain the dismal health, legal, and economic outcomes suffered by people of color despite the Civil Rights legislation in the mid-1960s.
The theory focuses on laws and policies that might reinforce the harsh reality of institutional racism that has been present in the United States since before we became a nation. Slavery was a reality here in Tennessee as well as Jim Crow laws and racial lynching.
People are still alive in Anderson County who witnessed or experienced these toxic attitudes. To claim to be “color-blind” today is essentially claiming to be blind to these injustices both in the past and in the present. Since statistical evidence clearly points to an on-going issue, critical race theory is still relevant for law students and future policy makers. However, it is not designed to be taught to elementary and secondary school students and it is absurd to think otherwise.
Whereas lawyers, sociologists, and political scientist study these ideas, it does not translate to public school education. John Ragan is just, as we said in the Army, making smoke bricks. If you focus on this instead of the real problems in Anderson County, then his big bamboozle worked.
Do not be fooled. The real issues in Anderson County relate to our legislator’s kneejerk rejection of any Democratic economic solution which just condemns us to subpar health and economic outcomes.
Eric Keller, Ph.D., Political Science, University of Tennessee; 2015 chair, Anderson County Democratic Party.