Domenici needs to show she’s from here

Let’s not talk about race. It might upset the children.

That’s the rule in Florida, at least, or so we interpret from the way it’s been reported. It means they don’t want to upset the white children. It’s not clear whether they consider the black children.

This was Florida’s response to something called critical race theory.

But if someone were to say we want to stop the teaching of critical race theory in New Mexico, how would that even make sense? Nella Domenici, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from New Mexico, said it. The statement was in a fundraising letter that the general public probably won’t see.

Critical race theory started out as an academic concept that was only taught in colleges or law schools. It has been described as a legal framework for observing how systemic racism persists in spite of laws that attempt to overcome it.

The term was redefined a few years ago. A conservative pundit named Chris Rufo claims credit for this. It is now used by conservatives to mean whatever they want it to mean related to the discussion of race. The implication is that public schools are teaching that white people are oppressors and black people are victims, making white students feel guilty, and this should stop.

Domenici’s letter says: “I want the federal government to stop telling states and local government how to run our schools. … And I want the left-wing Teachers’ unions to … stop pushing Critical Race Theory curricula that are divisive and anti-American.” 

In the same paragraph she says the federal government should not tell New Mexico how to run its schools and then she says how the schools should be run. Which is it?

The letter is on Nella Domenici letterhead and signed by her. I have no doubt it is authentic.

But I did not get an answer when I asked her staff for a comment. I think it’s reasonable for New Mexicans to know what she means.  

The history of New Mexico, as readers know, is not a simple story of racial domination of African Americans by Whites, or, as we say here, Anglos. Our history contains centuries of complex interactions of multiple ethnic groups, and that complexity factors deeply in our culture to this day. The differences among us are not only cultural but in some cases are enshrined in law, like the rights of the indigenous people whose ancestors were here first. To avoid talking about race when teaching history in New Mexico is not only insulting to this state, it’s impossible.

(Before I go further in oversimplifying racial history, this is not to imply that racial issues are simple anywhere else either.)

It must be tempting for someone named Domenici to take advantage of her famous family name. Her father, Sen. Pete Domenici, was admired and respected here for decades. But what is her real commitment to the job she’s running for?

Someone who knows New Mexico would not have written that incredibly insensitive comment. I’m guessing it was written by a staff member who knows generic partisan buzzwords but not New Mexico. But I have to wonder: since it was sent in her name, did Domenici even read it? Does she stand by these comments or not? Will she demonstrate that she takes responsibility for her own campaign?

It’s hard to imagine that someone named Domenici would be a carpetbagger in New Mexico, but it was her choice to seek to represent this state in the Senate, so it’s up to her to prove she isn’t. Contact Merilee Dannemann through www.triplespacedagain.com.

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