\nThe critical race theory (CRT) movement is a collection of activists and scholars interested in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power. The movement considers many of the same issues that conventional civil rights and ethnic studies discourse take up, but places them in a broader perspective that includes economics, history, context, group- and self-interest, and even feelings and the unconscious. 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.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nCritical Race Theory an Introduction,<\/em> first edition (2001) by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic: Chapter 1, Section A “What is Critical Race Theory,” Paragraph 1<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nCRT is anti-incrementalism and looking for a fundamental cultural transformation. Essentially, our current liberal society has too many constraints, including individual freedoms, to usher in utopia. Rule of law, constitutional law, neutrality of law, are all a conspiracy created by whites to hold power. Enlightenment rationalism is critical thinking and is attributed to the greatest strides, over the shortest period, in human history. CRT directly rejects Enlightenment rationalism and thus critical thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAlthough CRT began as a moment in law, it has rapidly spread beyond that discipline. Today, many in the field of education consider themselves critical race theorists who use CRT\u2019s ideas to understand issues of school discipline and hierarchy, tracking, controversies over curriculum and history, and IQ and achievement testing. Political scientists ponder voting strategies coined by critical race theorists. Ethnic studies courses often include a unit on critical race theory, and American studies departments teach material on critical white studies developed by CRT writers. Unlike some academic disciplines, critical race theory contains an activist dimension. It not only tries to understand our social situation, but to change it; it sets out not only to ascertain how society organizes itself along racial lines and hierarchies, but to transform it for the better.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nCritical Race Theory an Introduction,<\/em> first edition (2001) by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic: Chapter 1, Section A “What is Critical Race Theory,” Paragraph 2<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nFirst, we see that even in 2001 when this book was being written it was apparent that CRT or a version of it was being introduced into university classroom. Twenty years later, is it so far fetched for parents to have concerns that CRT is being introduced to a younger generation? However, its the last two sentences that really give away the game. Not only is CRT a lens to view the world, one of its chief goals is to change society and indoctrinate others into the movement. It is a requirement of someone that believes that CRT is a useful tool to then go and become apostles of its doctrine. True scholarly disciplines do not contain an activist dimensions, in fact they often set up barriers within their systems to avoid these things, think of doctors use of double-blind placebo testing. Does a physics professor need to advocate on behalf of gravity? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Compare the last sentence to the following quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nTheses on Feuerbach<\/em> by Karl Marx, 1845.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\nMany of these movements [antiwar, feminist, gay rights, Black power, Indigenous peoples, The Chicano Movement, disability rights, and other movements for social justice] initially advocated for a type of liberal humanism (individualism, freedom, and peace) but quickly turned to a rejection of liberal humanism. The logic of individual autonomy that underlies liberal humanism (the idea that people are free to make independent rational decisions that determine their own fate) was viewed as a mechanism for keeping the marginalized in their place by obscuring larger structural systems of inequality. In other words, it fooled people into believing that they had more freedom and choice than societal structures actually allow.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nIs Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Just Education<\/em>, first edition (2012) by Ozlem Sensory and Robin DiAngelo<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nIn summary, the authors think that the most recent change away from liberal humanism is what has accomplished the most for their causes. You be the judge; who do you believe did the most good for the Civil Rights movement? Martin Luther King Jr. the man that stood for equal human rights or Malcolm X the Black Nationalist that many CRT advocates find themselves aligned with today? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The authors go on to say, if you have privilege or perceived privilege, you are implicated in creating structures and systems that have repressed those who don\u2019t. It doesn\u2019t matter your intent or if you hold any form of actual power in society, everyone is culpable based on, in most cases, innate characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe Core Tenets of CRT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Just from Delgado’s first two paragraphs we can develop nearly all of the core tenets of CRT:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. A belief that racism is ordinary and permanent in society<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- This is nearly a direct quote from \u201cCritical Race Theory an Introduction<\/em>.”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Another quote from Delgado\u2019s book, \u201cCrits [Critical Race Theorists] are highly suspicious of another liberal mainstay, namely, rights.\u201d The founders of CRT believe that rights and liberalism are ways to mask oppression, thus perpetuating racism in society.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
2. Acceptance of the Interest-Convergence Thesis of Derrick Bell<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Denys progress in racism over the history of society.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Progress is only made when it coincides with the progress of those in power.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Racism merely hides itself with progress, making it harder to overcome.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Civil Rights Acts, Brown v. Board of Education, Plessy v. Ferguson were all done explicitly for whites with little thought to blacks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- As progress is made, racism is harder to spot, thus Critical Race Theorists are needed to spot it, making CRT a self-empowerment program.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- If you agree with Interest-Convergence Thesis and take up the cause of Anti-Racisms, then you are doing so in your own self-interest. Thus, making racism harder to spot and doing more damage. This is a Kafka trap.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
3. Belief in material determinism by racial category<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Derrick Bell and Allen Freeman specifically were looking at the material conditions of society (impacts of law, impacts of economics, impacts of institutional structures, impacts of cultural society) and they believed that based on those conditions it is possible to predict the range of what you can accomplish. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Essentially removing free-will from the conversation with the implication that race determines everything. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- This is the point where Marxist and neo-Marxist theories being to implant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
4. Social construction (and imposition) of race<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Belief that race is a social construction that does not exist in biology and was only created in order for whites to maintain power and system of oppression.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Liberal minded people would look to deconstruct race and eliminate the categories in favor of treating all as equals. CRT says this is impossible because whites impose these categories on all other races.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
5. Belief in structural determinism by racial category<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Using the above tenets in combination, your place in society and mobility in society is determined by race. Thus, creating classes of society based on race, with the upper-class (whites in this case) imposing power over the lower-class (blacks) and the lower-class requiring a liberation to overthrow the upper-class. Again, near explicit implications of Marxism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
6. A unique voice of color (positional standpoint epistemology)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Logical flaw here in conflict with tenet 4, if race is socially constructed, then how can there be a unique voice of color? CRT gets around this by saying that there is an \u201cexperience\u201d associated with the social construction of race.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- People of color experience oppression based on their lived realities and can understand the position of whites because they are in a unique position. Whites because they live in the world of the oppressor can only understand the world from their perspective, unable to understand the oppression or speak to it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Standpoint epistemology (from GWF Hegel\u2019s Master-Slave Dialectic) essentially stating that the Masters live in the Masters\u2019 world so they are able to experience the Masters\u2019 perspective two-fold while the Slave lives in the Masters\u2019 world so they are able to experience the Salves\u2019 and Masters\u2019 perspective which is opposed upon them. This was modified and adopted by Alan Freeman in \u201cLegitimizing Racial Discrimination through Antidiscrimination Law: A Critical Review of Supreme Court Doctrine.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- This tenet is most closely related to the recent implementation of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in schools. Because of the “unique” experiences of some groups the way in which children learn and understand must be adjusted to take into consideration their feelings and perspectives.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Thought experiment: Imagine having a panic attack, rushing to the hospital, and having the doctor hook you up to an EKG machine, at which point you say, \u201cI don\u2019t need that, I\u2019m having a heart attack, just grab the defibrillator.\u201d Just because you feel like you are having a heart attack, and that is your \u201clived experience,\u201d does not mean it is always accurate. A single, or even multiple experiences, need to be rationalized and explored before simplifying accepting it as fact. Feelings can be true, but that does not mean they are reliable.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
7. Advance their ideas through storytelling, narrative-weaving, and counter storytelling rather than empiricism and rational thought<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Stories can be convincing and play on emotions rather than evidence. Emotions can be used to relate to a story but also can be used to connect to a story and retain its message much easier than facts, statistic, and Empiricism.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Derrick Bell was famous for trying to explain the \u201cblack experience\u201d though fictional story telling and then using these stories to effect legal action.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
8. Historical revisionism<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Examples: Nicole Hannah-Jones\u2019s \u201c1619 Project\u201d and Howard Zinn\u2019s \u201cA Peoples History of the United States.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Critical historiography of history \u2013 meaning revising history to be critical of what has happened and its implications, rather than telling history from a neutral perspective.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- This is not the same as adjusting historical references based on new evidence nor is it telling accurate history from both perspectives. CRT advocates will no doubt use the phrase \u201cCRT just wishes to tell history from both perspectives and to discuss both the good and the bad,\u201d of which everyone agrees. Do not fall for this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
9. A critique of liberalism and the very foundations of liber order<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- CRT is anti-liberal, in the classical sense of liberalism meaning protection of the rights of individuals, liberty, consent of the governed, and equality under the law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- These are the founding principals of the United States, while they have not always been realized, every day we move closer to reaching their full potential. CRT would have us throw these ideas out and the concept of common humanity for a type of collectivism.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- CRT would remove rights and replace it with privileges granted by the state.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- See the third sentence of \u201cCritical Race Theory an Introduction\u201d <\/em>and the except from \u201cIs Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education\u201d <\/em>both provided above.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
10. Whiteness as a form of property<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- From \u201cWhiteness as Property\u201d scholarly paper (1993) by Cheryl Harris, Harris traces the origins of whiteness as property, via two main points: the fungibility of whiteness by whites and the exclusivity of whiteness. Thus, equivocating whiteness to a form of currency.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- This is why in 2020 when protests and riots were happening in major cities, many stood by and some even justified the burning of establishments as a way to fight back against whiteness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Needless to say, this is just a repackaging of Marxist Theory. From \u201cThe Communist Manifesto\u201d<\/em> (1848) by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, \u201cThe distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois private property is the final and most compete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few. In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.\u201d Specifically, this is the abolition of bourgeois property, upper-class property, which CRT defines the upper-class as whites (see previous tenets).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
11. Intersectionality as sensibility<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Intersectionality makes it impossible to understand any one form of oppression without understanding all of them, since all oppression is linked.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Therefore, you must always look at identity relevant power dynamics to understand anything.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- While some will have you believe Intersectionality is not a core tenet of CRT it was created in the same place (Harvard Law) by the same person (Kimberle Crenshaw) who coined and theorized on both terms. Crenshaw created Intersectionality in order to relate feminism to CRT, thus expanding the reach of CRT into feminism and visa versa.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
12. Antiracism as praxis (to act, to put theory into practice)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Antiracism simply means being and applying CRT. In schools this is implementation by pedagogy and by subliminal messaging.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- From \u201cCritical Race Theory an Introduction,\u201d<\/em> you cannot simply teach CRT, you must do\/apply CRT constantly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- CRT wants whites to be antiracists but understand they can never not be racists. This is an internal contradiction or struggle (further ties to Marxism via Leninism).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
13. Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- \u201cWhite Fragility\u201d<\/em> 2018 by Robin DiAngelo, \u201cNice Racism\u201d<\/em> 2021 by Robin DiAngelo, one of the primary takeaways from these books is that the author is a racist, which appears to be the case for many other authors of CWS as well. DiAngelo discusses going to a gathering where she knew there would be a majority black people and the anxiety that she experienced vs the same type of event with majority whites. Does this seem normal to you?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- From \u201cBeing White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Just Pedagogy\u201d<\/em> 2010 by Barbara Applebaum<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\nWhiteness benefits all those ascribed whiteness and it is white people\u2019s investment in whiteness that can obscure how white people even with the best of intentions are implicated in sustaining a racially unjust system. It is the complicity of well-intentioned white people that is the central focus of this book. The concept of white complicity turns up in various manifestation in the critical whiteness scholarship. There are at least two types of the white complicity claim that should be discerned. First, white complicity is often addressed as the product of unconscious negative attitudes and beliefs about non-white people that infect all white people and has an effect on their practices. This is one way to explicate how well-meaning white people pay a role in the perpetuation of systemic racism…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhite privilege protects and supports white moral standing and this protective shield depends on there being an \u2018abject other\u2019 that constitutes white as \u2018good.\u2019 Whites, thus, benefit from white privilege in a very deep way. As Zeus Leonardo remarks, all whites are responsible for white dominance since their \u2018very being depends on it.\u2019…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe relevant point for now is that all white people are racist or complicit by virtue of benefiting from privileges that are not something they can voluntarily renounce.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nBeing White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Justice Pedagogy,<\/em> (2010) by Barbara Applebaum<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n- In summary, white people perpetuate white supremacy by virtue of being white, there is no way to not be complicate if you are white.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCRT Summarized<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
CRT is a faith system founded on the belief that the fundamental organization principle of society is racism created by white people for the benefit of white people. CRT rejects colorblindness, liberalism, Empiricism, and rationality in favor of antiracism, social and economic equity, storytelling and lived experiences. By dint of your skin color and participation in society you are automatically classified as an oppressor or oppressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anyone trying to answer this question will soon come to find that it is an impossible task. There is no clear definition of Critical Race Theory (CRT) readily available to the public without extensive research. This is partly because CRT is a field of study, and also strategically done in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11,5],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theory","tag-crt","tag-dei"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vpact.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}