Critical Race  Theory is the subject of heated debate these days.  Progressives insist  it is important to recognize  our institutional racism and understand its history.  Conservatives  object that it is unfair and unjust to project collective guilt onto today’s White  population for the  wrongs done by previous generations.  Both opinions are right.  So what shall we do?

It is a mistake to predicate injustice as peculiar to the US or the White Race. We need to answer the critical question, "compared to what," by studying Comparative Atrocitology and reflecting on the destructive behaviors of the entire human race everywhere throughout history. What we need is a comprehensive course that examines the history of slavery and genocide not just in the US but worldwide and all the way up and down the time line.

There is more to consider than the US history of slavery and the Indian Wars. Let's examine the Hebrew genocide in Canaan, the Roman genocide in Carthage, white folks enslaving each other in biblical, Greek, Roman and Viking cultures. Prisoners of war  became slaves in Europe, Africa and Asia long before “the age of exploration ” produced European colonialism.

Master Racism includes more than US Exceptionalism and the Manifest Destiny policies of the 19th Century. Germans, Japanese, Chinese and Zulus all have believed that they were meant to rule their continents. Genocidal wars have raged between different religions in Europe, Asia and Africa. Our common human heritage is one of brutality, stupidity, arrogance and greed.

Students should read Hochschild’s book, King Leopold's Ghost, about Belgian atrocities in the Congo.  They should study  the history of Sir Francis Galton's Eugenics and examine  pseudoscientific racism as promoted by Professor Carleton Coon and refuted by Professor Franz Boas.  And they should learn that  there is no biological basis for distinguishing the various races despite  superficial appearances, and be reminded that blood transfusions and organ transplants  work well between members of variously diverse populations.

So here is a critical need  for the development of a new academic discipline that employs history, archeology, sociology, anthropology, biology and political science  to go beyond the limited concept of Critical Race Theory applied to the US.  It is imperative to examine universal  problems in human relations, explore their causes and seek solutions.  It is a subject that  can be introduced on the high-school level and developed in greater depth in our universities.  And this can be done  without political bias and without creating collective guilt or resentment.