Critical Race Theory Bans And Olick’s Technologies of Memory

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Last Thursday, Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp spoke out against critical race theory (CRT) at a bill-signing ceremony that declared Georgia the latest of many states to ban CRT from its public school curriculums. "Here in Georgia,” Kemp said, “our classrooms will not be pawns to those who indoctrinate our kids with their partisan political agendas.” In response to Kemp’s words, many Georgia parents and educators took to the streets, holding signs saying “No banning books.” "We won’t stand by quietly as Kemp attacks teachers, censors what's taught in classrooms, and politicizes our schools,” Georgia Democrats tweeted Thursday afternoon. 


Many Americans who are opposed to CRT in schools feel as though despite its stated purpose, which is to encourage white Americans to make reparations for the sins of their ancestors, the focus has done nothing other than cause unproductive divisions among students of different identities by blaming today’s white Americans for things their ancestors did. Furthermore, other opposers of CRT posit that while it’s very useful when applied correctly, it frequently wiggles its way into discussions that have nothing to do with race. 


However, regardless of how one feels about any of these statements, one question persists: Will CRT bans prevent Americans from remembering and acknowledging the historic, racist evils of the United States by censoring the books, supplementary material, and teachers roaming schools? Some argue that this kind of remembering can be done without the help of CRT. Whether or not CRT bans are a net assault on the technologies of memory (in sociological terms) has been the subject of much debate in recent months. 


In grappling with this question it seems rather useful to revisit the thoughts of American Sociologist, Jeffery Olick on the technologies of memory. In his article,  “Collective Memory: The Two Cultures,” Olick writes “At the societal level, moreover, different forms of social organization have clearly depended on different technologies of memory.” He cites nineteenth century European states as having increased their power and legitimacy through the development of technologies of memory, such as the museum, the archive, and historiography. Olick also addresses the economic benefits of giving the public some technologies of memory. “There is the famous sociological argument,” Olick writes, “about the importance of double-entry bookkeeping for the development of commercial society. Particular forms of record keeping are obviously associated with the possibility of an administrative state.” 


What this post entertains is a reversal of Olick’s statement, dealing not with the economic and political incentives for those in power to develop technologies of memory, but to destroy technologies of memory. Americans are all too familiar with the facist practice of book burning and the repressive ways of educational censorship to let CRT bans happen without reckoning with any skepticism. 


However, many Americans see CRT itself as repressive in the sense that, because they feel it is frequently overapplied, it spreads misinformation about America’s past and present, and it takes away from other important classroom topics, weeding out books and supplementary material that would otherwise be in a student’s school curriculum, which is a more subtle destruction of technologies of memory. 


Both of these repressive scenarios seem entirely antithetical to the maximization of access to information associated with liberal democracies such as the one the US claims to have. The question is which is true or more true than the other. So then does CRT or a ban of CRT take away from our technologies of memory in a way that threatens Americans’ understandings of their past and present and thus their democracy? In order to answer this question the potential political and economic motives of those in power on each side of the issue must be identified and considered. 


Do supporters of CRT bans feel threatened by reforms, such as affirmative action, that CRT might insight and/or do Republicans (as all of the Governors and majorities of banning states were) see allowing CRT to continue in schools as a way to lose their voters? Do opposers of CRT bans see CRT as a way to get academic, job, social statuses they haven’t earned or and/do Democrats see opposing CRT bans as a way to get POC support?





Works Cited 


Bernstein, Sharon. 2022. “Georgia becomes latest U.S. state to ban 'divisive' concepts in teaching about race.” reuters.com. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/georgia-becomes-latest-us-state-ban-divisive-concepts-teaching-about-race-2022-04-28/


Olick, Jeffrey K. 1999. “Collective Memory: The Two Cultures.” Pp. 225-228 in The Collective 

Memory Reader, edited by Jeffrey K. Olick, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, and Daniel Levy. 

Oxford University Press.



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