Critical Race Theory Explained
- Maler Suresh
- Aug 28, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 21, 2021
By: Maler Suresh
What is Critical Race Theory?
Critical race theory (CRT) is an approach that is used to theorize, examine, and challenge the role of race and racism in our society. It is based on the idea that racism is not an aberration or a product of individual bias, but a pervasive entity that is embedded in all structures and aspects of life. The creation of CRT can be credited to Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado who used it as a framework to examine America’s legal system in the 70’s and 80’s. As CRT evolved, and continues evolving, its principles can also be credited to others like Patricia Williams, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Tara Yosso, and Cheryl Harris.
Below are some of the key principles that make up CRT:
Recognition that race is not biologically real but is socially constructed and socially significant. CRT cites the Human Genome project, which provides scientific evidence that refutes the existence of biological racial differences.
Acknowledgement that racism is a normal feature of society and is codified in law, embedded in structures, and woven into public policy.
Recognition that racism is part of everyday life, so people—white or nonwhite—who may not intend to be racist can still make choices that fuel racism and perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers.
Recognition that race intersects with other identities, including sexuality, gender identity, and others, and that racism has impacted the experiences of various people of color, including Latinx, Native Americans, and Asian Americans.
Recognition that racism is not a relic of the past. The legacy of slavery, segregation, and the imposition of second-class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue to permeate the social fabric of this nation.
Maintains that racist incidents are not anomalies, but rather, manifestations of structural and systemic racism.
Recognition that people’s everyday experiences are significant to research on race and racism. This includes embracing the lived experiences of people of color and rejecting research that excludes the stories of people of color. Research that ignores race is not demonstrating “neutrality,” but rather, it is adhering to the existing racial hierarchy.
Why Did CRT Become So Controversial?
As of late-August, twenty-two states have either introduced or passed legislation outlawing CRT in schools. The emergence of these new laws has stemmed from a misguided understanding of critical race theory, which many Conservatives believe divides people into two groups, the “oppressed” and the “oppressor”, and exposes students- particularly white students- to self-demoralizing ideas that they do not deserve their place in society because they are not victims of racism. One conservative organization, the Heritage Foundation, stated, “When followed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based.” These “fundamental ideas” that the Heritage Foundation refers to are things like individual merit, universal values, and objective knowledge, all of which are values that Conservatives hold dear, and all of which are values that are viewed skeptically by post-modernist thinkers, the same thinkers from which critical race theory came about. Simply put, the role of critical race theory in education has become a battleground between two sets of American ideals: those who only choose to recognize American exceptionalism and those who see the need to recognize America’s history of exclusion and violence towards minority groups. According to historians, these culture wars are always, at some level, battled out within schools. “It’s because they’re nervous about broad social things, but they’re talking in the language of school and school curriculum,” said one historian of education cited by Education Week. “That’s the vocabulary, but the actual grammar is anxiety about shifting social power relations.”
The Danger of This “Culture War”
The bills outlawing teaching critical race theory in schools are often vaguely written, allowing them to outlaw the education on a theory without specifically impeding on Americans’ right to free speech. Other than the obvious danger to Americans’ constitutional rights, this lack of clarity leaves educators unsure as to what they are and aren’t allowed to teach. For example, would teaching about Jim Crow, a very real but very shameful part of America’s history, violate these new laws which are based in the subtext that teaching about America’s racist history is unpatriotic? In any case, whether or not their curriculum violates these laws, teachers may begin to further censor their lessons for fear of pushback from parents and administrators. And this doesn’t only affect teachings about race, but other pieces of curriculum such as ethnic studies and “action civics”- an approach to civics education that asks students to research local civic problems and propose solution- might also be faded out of K-12 education due to their apparent connections to critical race theory, regardless of how much CRT has actually informed those programs. This paints a frightening vision of the future of education in which critical race theory is used by Conservatives as yet another form of oppression rather than the tool for emancipation and empowerment that it was intended to be.
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