What is Critical Race Theory?
When I first heard of Critical Race Theory (CRT), it sounded like a foreign concept! But when I started hearing about how it manifests itself in society and education, it was like a light bulb went off in my head. Ding! Ooohhh… so THAT’S what Critical Race Theory is!
Britannica Encyclopedia defines Critical Race Theory as “the view that the law and legal institutions are inherently racist and that race itself, instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of colour.”
Now before your eyes glaze over, hang with me. Did you catch the words “race,” “social construct,” and “white people”? Those are definitely the buzz words in today’s media, and it’s important to understand the connection between them and CRT.
James Lindsay is an expert in opposition to CRT, and he founded New Discourses to combat this theory that is quickly decaying society.
Lindsay makes the point that, “Critical Race Theory assumes that racism is present in everything under a doctrine known as ‘systemic racism.’”
Systemic racism? Another buzz word!
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, says that Critical Race Theory “is nothing more than Marxist ideology.”
A Quick History of Critical Race Theory
Britannica Encyclopedia records that CRT was “officially organized” in 1989 with the first Annual Workshop on Critical Race Theory, but its philosophy goes back to the 1960’s.
James Lindsay also traces its history to Harvard Law during the late 20th Century.
And on closer examination, Charlie Kirk traces the true roots of CRT all the way back to the German Frankfurt School during Nazi Germany. German philosophers at the Frankfurt School developed a philosophy based on critical theories, which was largely influenced by Marx, Engels, and Nietzche. Though not in league with the Nazis, the critical race theorists had some very common ties to Nazi racism.
Many Frankfurt scholars fled Nazi Germany, ending up in New York at Columbia University, which welcomed them with open arms.
Herbert Marcuse, one of the German scholars who ended up in America, found a chink in America’s patriotic armor: minorities. After seeing the societal upheavals during the Civil Rights era and the Vietnam war, Marcuse was convinced that, contrary to traditional Marxism, it was not the economic struggle that counted in societal revolutions. It was skin color.
When Critical Race Theory became mainstream in America in the 1990’s, America’s wounds from the Civil Rights era were still healing. It was not hard to reawaken old, bitter emotions. Only this time, it was not a Civil Rights movement. It became the Critical Race Theory movement, and it has infiltrated almost every aspect of American life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6eJ3O3uXdk
Three Ways Critical Race Theory Manifests Itself in American Life
1. Law
American Law is based on the principles of equality before the law where a person is judged fairly based on their actions, not their skin color or ancestry. The American legal system relies on “‘reasonableness’ and specifically a standard known as the ‘reasonable-person standard'” (New Discourses). Critical race theory denies objective truth (postmodernism) and denies that there could possibly be a reasonable person “because the very application of “reason” is a mere application of whatever is accepted by the dominant power structure at hand” (New Discourses).
Lindsay writes, “Our entire legal landscape would be reinterpreted under the assumptions that these unjust applications of systemic power are permanent so long as the system lasts, and therefore need constant redress.”
Critical race theory destroys the impartial characteristics of American law.
It also affects the hiring process in our court system. The Administrative Office of the Courts published the 2020 Strategic Plan and rolled out initiatives to focus on “non-discrimination” and “equal justice”.
It gives special directions to judges on how to include diversity as they hire aids and clerks. In other words, the 2020 Strategic Plan is “directing federal judges to violate federal laws that specifically prohibit racial quotas and making hiring decisions based on race” (Heritage Foundation).
Sadly, this means discriminating against white people and labeling them as white oppressors. And it means giving people with more melanin in their skin preferential treatment in the hiring process. No hiring process should be biased toward any color of skin (white or black… it doesn’t matter). What matters is the person’s values and their fit in the team they applied to join. And race certainly should not factor into our court systems!
One critical race theorist, Derrick Bell, put it bluntly. He said the law cannot be neutral because it “‘systematically privileges subjects who are white.’” He puts forth a solution: Critical Race Theory “calls for a ‘transformative resistance strategy.’”
Critical race theorists believe they are doing the system a favor by destroying it. Because they think the system itself is oppressive and corrupted, they must destroy it and start over.
Thinking forward just a few simple steps brings more concerns. If judges become biased according to skin color, their rulings quickly follow, and Lady Justice’s blindfold will be ripped off.
Want More? Related: What is Identity Socialism? The Socialist Wolf in the Sheepskin of Identity
2. Education
Perhaps the greatest training ground for Critical Race Theory is the American school system.
Many schools and universities have adapted their policies in a variety of ways to placate the critical race theorists making demands. Some schools have adapted their admissions policies to be more diverse.
Others started diversity training or funding CRT programs and research. Some teacher’s unions supported Black Lives Matter.
Chicago Public Schools encouraged protesting “‘police brutality’” and “‘LGBTQ awareness’” (Heritage Foundation).
The Arizona State Department of Education has recently released a toolkit to aid parents and students in combatting racism, including claims that even babies can exhibit signs of racism.
The 1619 Project continues to gain traction in schools nationwide.
Even worse, California has approved a new Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, which has an “ultimate goal […] to ‘decolonize’ American society and establish a new regime of ‘countergenocide’ and ‘counterhegemony,’ which will displace white Christian culture and lead to the ‘regeneration of indigenous epistemic and cultural futurity’ (Christopher Rufo, City Journal).
This alarming proposal to change Calfornia’s educational system is a far cry from schools in the 1890’s that had the Ten Commandments hanging on hallway walls. It even urges teachers to lead their students in chants and worship of the Aztec god Tezkatlipoka, who was the god of “human sacrifice and cannibalism” (Christopher Rufo, City Journal). The children will be taught to ask Aztec gods for power to be “warriors” of “social justice” and to give them a “revolutionary spirit” (Christopher Rufo, City Journal).
It is an educational crisis as Critical Race Theory infiltrates our schools and our children’s minds, and it it is not going away without parents and students rising up against this critical nonsense.
3. The Business World: Diversity Training
Critical Race Theory does not just affect our children. Have you ever experience diversity training in your workplace? Maybe you have received an email from HR urging you to be more accepting of your LGBTQ co-workers in June during Pride Month. Or you watched a movie depicting a black employee feeling oppressed by his white co-worker’s actions, and the white co-worker had no idea they were being “oppressive”.
First, we need to establish that “diversity training” at a workplace means “anti-white training”. And according to NewsMax, most major corporations in America include “a diversity and inclusion department offering lessons in unconscious bias, workshops on ‘white privilege,’ and ‘struggle sessions’ on systemic racism to their employees.”
In fact, companies are so focused on this issue that “they collectively spend $8 billion for these services annually” and hire consultants to assist them in their efforts (NewsMax).
What we teach in our schools and on our college campuses will be carried with the students into the corporations of America, and we are seeing that in real-time today.
Conclusion
So now you know what Critical Race Theory is. Have you had an experience with CRT in your life at school or in the workplace? Let me know in the comments below how you dealt with it!
And as a final word, I’m including a few resources that are super helpful in combatting CRT so that the next time you are faced with a situation at work with your boss or find yourself debating your professor in front of your peers in class, you will have the knowledge to make your case.
Resources
New Discourses Podcast (Spotify)
Christopher Rufo – Stop Critical Race Theory
Relatable – Allie Beth Stuckey Podcast
The Heritage Foundation – The New Intolerance, and Its Grip On America
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