"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?
Critical Race Theory is a neo-Marxist Critical Theory of race. Like all Critical Theories, Critical Race Theory uses a neo-Marxist lens to critique society and force it to change through activism. Critical Race Theorists argue that race is the central construct for understanding inequality. That is to say, Critical Race Theorists believe that all inter-group inequality in the United States is the result of racism, and it is their job to practice Critical Race Theory to re-engineer society to produce equal outcomes between racial groups.
Core Tenets
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On Racism
To understand Critical Race Theory, one must first understand what “race” means in a critical context. Critical Race Theorists speak of racism in “systemic” terms. This means that, rather than thinking of racism as a personal prejudice or judgment based on someone’s skin color or ethnicity, racism is considered a complex web of institutional and cultural forces that determine the character and outcome of each of our lives. Critical Race Theorists argue that racism is normal — not aberrational — because they believe the very fabric of society has racism coded into it, including all laws, language, and norms. The liberal order itself, including the bedrock American principles of equality of opportunity, merit, and neutral principles of constitutional law, are said to generate inequality along racial and ethnic lines.
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
Critical Race Theorists use “storytelling,” “counter-storytelling,” and “revisionist history” to force racialized cultural “truths” into conversations and academic literature to counter whiteness. Critical Race Theory is a tool for using anecdotal or cherry-picked evidence to demand everyone center the lived experiences of different racial groups. From within the Critical Race Theory framework, enlightenment rationalism, empiricism, logic, objectivity and reason are no longer universal tools that grant every human the ability to access shared truth. Critical Race Theorists believe any knowledge, opinion, or fact that doesn’t agree with Critical Race Theory camouflages and reinforces racist narratives.
On Intersectionality
Intersectionality is the practice of subdividing people along every conceivable dimension to determine how each aspect of a person’s identity intersects with overlapping systems of oppression. Said another way, intersectionality is said to provide ever-sharper levels of resolution to determine just how oppressed a person is. To be black is to be oppressed by systemic racism. To be a woman is to be oppressed by the patriarchy. To be a black woman is to be oppressed on both fronts; a black woman’s identity is said to be duly influenced by the structural forces of both racism and misogyny. If you add trans to the mix, you end up with an identity positioned at the pinnacle of the oppression pyramid (for now).
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
Critical Race Theorists are a hyper-cynical cabal of race-flavored marxists that believe racism is never going away unless we fundamentally restructure society from the ground up. These radicals call everything racist and demand the power to interpret all laws and norms in whichever way they choose. They are insufferable, dangerous when given power, and they have worked their illiberal, race-conscious fingers into school districts. They have one goal — to program others to become Critical Race Theorists to join the marxian revolutionary struggle.
REFERENCES:
1. Delgado, Richard. (2012). Critical race theory: an introduction. New York :New York University Press.
2. Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as Property. Harvard Law Review, 106(8).
1. Delgado, Richard. (2012). Critical race theory: an introduction. New York :New York University Press.
2. Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as Property. Harvard Law Review, 106(8).
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