Critical race theory (1973- ) is a body of scholarship that examines how racism in the US works in practice, at the level of law and beyond, and what might be done about it. It grew out of disappointment with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s: Jim Crow was overthrown yet racism remained. “Race, Racism, and American Law” (1973) by Derrick Bell was a founding text.
Republican propaganda uses “critical race theory” as an umbrella term for anti-racist thought in general. The Heritage Foundation calls it a “toxic ideology”. Critical race theory is something you might study in graduate school if you go into law or education, but panic-striken Republicans in red states are pushing through vague laws to prevent impressionable schoolchildren from being exposed to its “divisive” ideas:
Ideas: race as a social construct, White privilege, intersectionality, internalized racism, institutional racism, microaggressions, psychological wage, the voice of colour, racial standing, convergence of interests, the Black-White binary, Critical White Studies, and so on, have come out of critical race theory or have become part of it.
People: Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Lani Guinier (the Quota Queen), Patricia J. Williams, Camara Phyllis Jones, Dorothy Roberts, Mari Matsuda, and so on, are critical race theorists – “crits”.
It started with anti-Black racism but has since branched out to look at the marginalizations of Asian, Latino, Native, disabled, and queer Americans.
Crits look at elite interests and unintended consequences of laws. They are critical of White Liberals, not just Republicans. They think racism is largely institutional not personal. It is baked in, not just a matter of a few bad laws or bigots.
Is it anti-White? Critical race theory is against racism, which only the White elites have an actual material interest in. For most Whites, the wages they get from racism are mainly psychological.
Is it Marxist? It has been affected by Marxist thinkers, particulary Gramsci, but its roots are in critical legal studies and radical feminism. It is much closer to Black Liberalism than Black Marxism. It is more reformist than revolutionary.
Realists and idealists: Realist crits see power as the most important thing – racist ideas merely providing a self-serving cover for elite interests. Idealist crits see ideas as most important, as the cause of racist policies.
Critiques of the Civil Rights Movement:
- Rights – over time these get whittled away by court cases. And usually put the burden on marginalized people to enforce them. In practice, they require the interest of White elites to maintain them – which Blacks briefly enjoyed during the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s when the US was trying to win over the hearts and minds of Asia and Africa.
- Colour-blind laws – in practice these can only strike down the most clear-cut cases of racism, the racism that even White people can see. If a racist tree falls in a forest and no White person heard it, it didn’t make a sound.
– Abagond, 2021.
Sources: Google Images, NBC News, Dr Imani Perry (YouTube video, 9 minutes), “Critical Race Theory” (2001) by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic.
See also:
- Black Liberals
- White Liberals
- Jim Crow
- Derrick Bell
- ideas
- race as a social construct
- White privilege
- intersectionality
- internalized racism
- institutional racism
- microaggressions
- psycholgical wage
- the voice of colour
- racial standing
- convergence of interests
- the Black-White binary
- Critical White Studies
- Gramsci
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