Democrats decry GOP’s focus on critical race theory as a racist dog whistle. What’s their next move?

WASHINGTON — During five decades in public life, Joe Biden has confronted, with varying degrees of success, nearly every flashpoint in American racial politics, from school desegregation to crime crackdowns that disproportionately affected communities of color. When he ran for president last year, he promised to “heal the soul of our nation” that had been inflamed by Donald Trump.

Now, less than one year into his term, Biden is facing a rising furor over education and critical race theory, a decades-old academic framework that’s become a catch-all term for everything Republicans dislike about diversity initiatives, how schools teach U.S. history and other ripple effects from last year’s reckoning on racial injustice ignited by the murder of George Floyd.

The issue presents an array of challenges for the president and his party. Stoked by a right-wing media ecosystem that can amplify and distort the debate, it echoes appeals to white grievances that have a tradition of electoral success. Democrats can be hesitant to engage,