Critical Race Theory
The Five Most Concerning Facts You Need to Know
The topic of race has achieved new prominence in American life. Whether it be book clubs reading “White Fragility,” schools that rank our children’s levels of “privilege” based on their race, diversity and inclusion sessions in the workplaces that demand unquestionable acceptance of vague concepts like “racial equity” and “systemic racism,” or government-run training sessions on how to be “less white,” efforts to use race to divide Americans have become more pronounced recently.
The common thread linking attempts to use race as a wedge in our schools, workplaces, and public affairs is a radical academic school of thought called Critical Race Theory (CRT). Below are five key facts advocated by CRT and deliberately ignored by popular media. Each fact is supported by at least one statement from a prominent CRT scholar.
1
CRT is against equality and for illegal race-based discrimination
One of America’s founding principles is equality, facilitated by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (equal protection of the laws) and the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 (non-discrimination). On the contrary, CRT promotes race-based discrimination, dividing people arbitrarily into “oppressors” and “victims.”
"The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination."
Ibram X. Kendi, Author of How To Be An Antiracist
Boston University professor
2
CRT is against capitalism and for socialism
CRT states that all minorities are members of the oppressed class, and the only way to improve their personal condition is to rise up and replace capitalism with an alternative that redistributes property and wealth. “Equity” is the CRT term for race-based wealth redistribution. It is antithetical to the core American value of “equality of opportunity.”
"To love capitalism is to end up loving racism."
"Capitalism is essentially racist."
Ibram X. Kendi, Author of How To Be An Antiracist
Boston University professor
3
CRT is against traditional American values and is based on Marxism
CRT’s core premise is that there are only two groups of people in society, the oppressors and the oppressed. That concept is also the foundation of Marxism, the widely discredited economic and political philosophy that divides people into two classes - capitalists and workers. The illiberal systems in countries like China, the Former Soviet Union, Cuba, and Venezuela have been based on Marxism, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 100 million people in the past 120 years.
“Critical race theory draws upon several traditions, including poststructuralism, postmodernism, Marxism, feminism, literary criticism, liberalism, and neopragmatism … and radical pluralism …. Critical race theory goes beyond liberal understandings of race and racism by exploring those of its manifestations that support patriarchy, heterosexism, and class stratification."
Kimberle Crenshaw
CRT scholar and Cornell law professor
"A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Law and Politics," 1990
4
CRT is against teaching children America is great, and for un-American illiberal values
We must prepare our kids for the ever-shifting world by teaching them the exceptional nature of our imperfect yet exceptional nation and its steadfast commitments to liberty and equality. We can only do so by uniting together behind the greatness of America which lies in its goodness and its ability to repair and transcend. According to Justice Antonin Scalia, “in the eyes of the government, we are just one race here. It is American.” CRT rejects all these positive teachings.
"Critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law."
Richard Delgado & Jean Stefanic,
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (Third Edition)
5
CRT is against personal empowerment and for victimhood and disempowerment
CRT questions the basic concept of merit, the idea that people can acquire capabilities or knowledge that make them more objectively qualified for a position or a reward than others. Instead, CRT advocates argue that the oppressed people are too powerless to overcome systemic racism, and that the American Dream - a notion that you can improve yourself through hard work and good values - is just a myth.
"Racial hierarchies determine who gets tangible benefits including the best jobs, the best schools, and invitations to parties in people's homes."
"Critical race theorists have launched a thoroughgoing attack on the idea of conventional merit and standardized testing."
Richard Delgado & Jean Stefanic,
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (Third Edition)
Kimberly Crenshaw is one of the early CRT scholars and a Cornell Law Professor who is frequently credited with coming up with the name "Critical Race Theory."
Ibram X. Kendi is the author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning, and a Boston University Professor. Among other radical viewpoints, Kendi has advocated for transferring government oversight to an unelected Department of Antiracism.
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Richard Delgado along with Jean Stefancic is the author of Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, which includes an overview of the core components of Critical Race Theory, including the idea that "equality" and "color blindness" not sufficient to handle the pervasive racism CRT advocates see in society, that whites have little interest in eradicating racism since it benefits them.