Critical Race Theory In 5 Minutes No Questions Asked

So much for the title of this post. What IS Critical Race Theory (CRT) you ask? I’m going to tell you in clear specific terms what it is, what it isn’t and YOU can then ask the educated questions to those you need to.

Let’s first define racism. “the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.” Ok, now that we got that out of the way.

CRT’s origins go back to the 60’s and 70’s. It’s precursor was CLS, the critical legal studies movement that looked at whether law and legal institutions served the interests of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the poor and “marginalized”. CLS was an offshoot of Marxist “critical theory” which maintained that a primary goal of philosophy was to “understand and to help overcome the social structures through which people are dominated and oppressed.” CRT was officially organized in 1989, at the first annual Workshop on Critical Race Theory.

According to CRT, “race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings, but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of color. ” Let me simplify what this means for you…….First, race is a culturally invented category used to oppress people of color.  Second, the laws and legal institutions are inherently racist  as they function to create and maintain social, political, and economic inequalities between white and nonwhite people. (don’t forget these are CRT’s beliefs, not my own!) Now that’s a lot to swallow. Even within the CRT movement there is a lot of variation in the level of belief. Much of CRT involves “storytelling” by those who have experienced racism.

In their book Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, published in 2001, legal scholars Richard Delgado (one of the founders of CRT) and Jean Stefancic lay out the basic tenets that most CRT followers do agree on.

• “Race is socially constructed, not biologically natural.”
• “Racism in the United States is normal, not aberrational: it is the common, ordinary experience of most people of color.”
• “Owing to what critical race theorists call “interest convergence” or “material determinism,” legal advances (or setbacks) for people of color tend to serve the interests of dominant white groups.”
• “Members of minority groups periodically undergo “differential racialization,” or the attribution to them of varying sets of negative stereotypes, again depending on the needs or interests of whites.”
• “According to the thesis of “intersectionality” or “antiessentialism,” no individual can be adequately identified by membership in a single group. An African American person, for example, may also identify as a woman, a lesbian, a feminist, a Christian, and so on.”
• “The “voice of color” thesis holds that people of color are uniquely qualified to speak on behalf of other members of their group (or groups) regarding the forms and effects of racism.
• Interestingly CRT actually clashes with “liberalism” in it’s criticism of the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement is viewed as being “inadequate” in it’s legal ability to exact real change.

Alrighty then! CRT has also inspired discussion in fields outside the confines of legal studies, including women’s and gender studies, education, American studies, and sociology. There are also CRT spin-off movements formed by Asian American, Latinx, LGBTQ, Muslim, and Native American groups. I guess leaving any group out would be racist!

So what does any of this have to do with your children’s education you might ask……remember no questions! This is where it gets a bit complicated. CRT would say that intelligence testing of students is a way to “legitimize” African American’s deficiencies. This allows the whites teaching AA’s to employ racial stereotypes in the curriculum and continue to feel “superior”. This along with what are viewed as incomplete historical teaching and simplification of the “upward struggle” of AA’s and other people of color. Fair enough. CRT proponents will tell you ” it is important to try to help youth understand how bias and oppression are institutional, structural and systemic, and not simply interpersonal.” This article https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/content/2021-05-25-read-critical-race-theory-crt-is-coming-to-your-childs-school/ really explained CRT in schools and what your children will be taught. Here are the high (or low) points:

• It’s all about EQUITY. “our Equity Program will address unequal outcomes by laying out many vague, virtuous sounding goals that claim to be focused on equal opportunity, but any success of our program will be interpreted by equal outcomes across what we term “Marginalized Groups.” The predictability of student outcomes will not correlate with any social or cultural factor.
• The most important idea we will be teaching your child is that they will be identifying as part of a racial, ethnic, gender or sexual orientation group. We’ll teach your child that their group identity is the most important aspect of their life. only one group will be considered “bad.” CRT’s good groups are called “Oppressed, Targeted or Marginalized.” The bad group we call “Oppressor or Privileged.” What if YOUR child falls into the “bad” group? No worries…your “oppressor/Privileged” child can almost make their way out of the bad group by immediately admitting they’re bad and through total adherence to CRT.
• CRT explains how even if you were born into, or are living in, very challenging circumstances, any successes are due to your “Privilege.”
• “Every facet of your child’s educational experience from history to economics, government, science, English, literature, foreign language, the arts, physical education and even math will be viewed through the CRT lens of race, gender and sexual orientation.”
• Simply stated, to be virtuous is to be “Anti-racist,” to be “Anti-racist” is to accept, without question, all aspects of Critical Race Theory as truth, to do otherwise is to be racist and unvirtuous.

That’s about all I can handle at this point. Come to your own conclusions. ASIDE from CRT I’m thankful I don’t have children that I’m surrendering to these lunatics for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads out there. Just remember how “privileged” you are going off to work so you can support your family no matter what else is going on in your life. I salute you! Happy Father’s Day Dad…..miss you!