Why look at history through race when you can look at history the way it is?

Because looking at history without any analytical context doesn't help anyone actually learn anything about the history itself. Memorizing dates and facts and whatnot doesn't tell you how things happened or why things became the way they are, and race is in an incredibly significant factor in these things, hence why CRT is important in actually grasping an understanding of history in an applied and contextual manner that isn't ignorant to the sociological causes and effects.