"Although CRT began as a movement in the law, it has rapidly spread beyond that discipline. Today, many in the field of education consider themselves critical race theorists who use CRT’s ideas to understand issues of school discipline and hierarchy, tracking, controversies over curriculum and history, and IQ and achievement testing."
- Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, 2001
- Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, 2001
What is Critical Race Theory?
CRT is a neo-Marxist critical theory of race that sees race as the central construct for understanding inequality. CRT began as a movement within critical legal studies (critical theory applied to Law), analyzing how law and race intersect. As Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic describe, it "spread rapidly beyond that discipline" and is now applied to issues in education, history, and culture. This theory frames racism not as an individual bias but as systemic and institutional, requiring an active role to reshape society.
Core Tenets
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- Racism is Ordinary and Pervasive
Derrick Bell argues that racism is "permanent and deeply entrenched in American life." Racism, according to CRT, is not a deviation but a normalized societal construct. Delgado and Stefancic explain, “racism is ordinary, not aberrational,” and is systemic within laws and institutions. - Critique of Liberalism and Equality Principles
CRT challenges core liberal ideals like meritocracy, equality, and colorblindness as tools that perpetuate racial hierarchies. Delgado and Stefancic explain that CRT questions “the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.” Kimberlé Crenshaw adds that “colorblindness... effectively immunizes the status quo from critique.” - Whiteness as Property
Cheryl Harris’s “Whiteness as Property” frames whiteness as a social construct with the power of property rights, granting privileges. CRT theorists liken this to Marx's concept of the bourgeoisie controlling resources. Harris argues, “The law has accorded 'holders' of whiteness the same privileges accorded holders of other types of property.” - Unique Voice-of-Color Thesis and Lived Experience
CRT asserts that marginalized groups hold unique perspectives on racism based on their lived experiences. According to the voice-of-color thesis, minorities possess "a presumed competence to speak about race and racism," giving them insights often invisible to those in dominant racial groups. Delgado writes that "storytelling is a powerful means for destroying mindset—the bundle of preconceptions and received wisdoms." - Storytelling, Counter-Narratives, and Revisionist History
CRT uses storytelling to counter dominant, white-centric narratives and to reveal the lived realities of marginalized groups. Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic state that CRT deploys “storytelling and counter-storytelling” to force cultural “truths” into academic discourse. CRT critiques "enlightenment rationalism" and "empiricism," arguing that these methods reinforce white supremacy and marginalize minority experiences. - Intersectionality: Complex Layers of Oppression
Kimberlé Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality examines overlapping social identities like race, gender, and class, which produce compounded experiences of oppression. As Crenshaw states, “The intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism." CRT maintains that a deep understanding of intersecting oppressions is crucial to fully addressing social inequities. - Interest Convergence and Racial Reform
Derrick Bell’s theory of interest convergence asserts that racial progress is largely incidental, occurring only when it benefits white interests. Bell contends that “the interests of blacks in achieving racial equality will be accommodated only when it converges with the interests of whites.” This view suggests that reforms often serve to maintain white power structures under the guise of progress.
On Racism
CRT understands racism as a systemic web embedded in institutions and cultural forces, shaping every aspect of life. This structural perspective of racism sees it as coded into laws, norms, and even the principles of the liberal order. According to Delgado and Stefancic, this means the “bedrock American principles of equality of opportunity, merit, and neutral principles of constitutional law” are said to generate and sustain racial inequality.
Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law. (Delgado, Richard. (2012). Critical race theory: an introduction. New York :New York University Press.)
On "Whiteness"
Critical Race Theorists say that a socially constructed white cultural identity — whiteness — is a form of private property that white people carry to gain access to societal privileges (white privilege). This property (which is conceptualized in the same way Marx thought of bourgeoisie private property), it is argued, grants white people the power and ability to tell everyone else what should and shouldn’t be valued, whose experiences and voices should and shouldn’t be favored, and what principles should and shouldn’t guide our decision making.
Critical Race Theorists believe that white people created society for themselves and, in the process, gave themselves whiteness to justify the oppression of others. That is to say, Critical Race Theorists literally believe all of society - its people, laws, politics, and all institutions - is governed by a reigning ideology of white supremacy.
Critical Race Theorists believe that white people created society for themselves and, in the process, gave themselves whiteness to justify the oppression of others. That is to say, Critical Race Theorists literally believe all of society - its people, laws, politics, and all institutions - is governed by a reigning ideology of white supremacy.
It is through differential access to social institutions and political power that the bourgeoisie binds white workers to it in "whiteness."....[T]o the extent that white workers identify with "whiteness," "a central component of Anglo-American bourgeois consciousness . . . ," and not with their proletarian status as workers, they will remain supporters and defenders of relative privileges for whites as extended by capital. (Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as Property. Harvard Law Review, 106(8).)
On "Lived Experience"
The voice-of-color thesis holds that because of their different histories and experiences with oppression, black, Indian, Asian, and Latino/a writers and thinkers may be able to communicate to their white counterparts matters that the whites are unlikely to know. Minority status, in other words, brings with it a presumed competence to speak about race and racism. (Delgado, Richard. (2012). Critical race theory: an introduction. New York :New York University Press.)
On Narrative Building and Counter-Storytelling
CRT theorists use counter-narratives to destabilize dominant cultural assumptions and highlight hidden racial dynamics. By elevating minority voices and experiences, CRT confronts traditional narratives upheld by logic, objectivity, and empiricism. From the CRT viewpoint, these dominant tools are seen as mechanisms that camouflage and reinforce white supremacy.
On Intersectionality
Intersectionality is meant to expose the complex dimensions of identity and oppression, providing what CRT views as a sharper understanding of social inequities. Patricia Hill Collins's work on “Black feminist thought” delves into how black women face unique experiences due to intersecting racial and gender oppressions. CRT argues that these overlapping systems require a holistic examination to uncover the full extent of systemic discrimination.
On Interest Convergence
Critical Race Theorists believe that racism only ever appears to get better when the interests of whites and racial or ethnic minorities converge. That is to say; whites will pass legislation and reform that camouflages racism to fool people into thinking racial progress is happening. According to Critical Race Theory, this convergence always has a positive and disproportionate impact on whites while, at the same time, never truly doing anything to do away with the structurally determinate advantages they enjoy. As Critical Race Theorists Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic put it, “Because racism advances the interests of both white elites (materially) and working-class people (physically), large segments of society have little incentive to eradicate it.”
In Summary
CRT argues for a reimagining of societal structures to reveal and dismantle systemic racism. It critiques core liberal values and exposes how institutions and norms sustain white supremacy. From its foundational belief that racism is ingrained in every societal structure to its emphasis on intersectionality, lived experience, and counter-narratives, CRT seeks not just reform but the radical restructuring of society to achieve racial "equity."
REFERENCES:
- Bell, D. A. (1992). Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. Basic Books.
- Crenshaw, K. W. (1995). Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement. The New Press.
- Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as Property. Harvard Law Review, 106(8), 1707-1791.
- Crenshaw, K. W. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299.
- Bell, D. A. (1980). Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma. Harvard Law Review, 93(3), 518-533.
- Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47-68.
- Bonilla-Silva, E. (2003). Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield.
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Copyright © 2024 The Lancing.