What critical race theory is — and isn’t — and why it belongs in schools

Race is a touchy subject in this country at the most easygoing of times, and these are not the most easygoing of times. The issue is especially fraught as the nation struggles to come to some kind of racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd, who died under the knee of a white police officer.

It’s not surprising, then, that a renewed call for ethnic studies in public schools has caused a nationwide wave of contentious school board meetings, with opponents of such courses hurling accusations of indoctrination and in some...