Critical race theory/fear-label

About

Critical race theory (CRT) has been used since at least mid-2021 as a right-wing fear-label for basically anything that has to do with the continuing existence and effects of racism in the United States. Prominent Republicans have repeated the idea that CRT is an insidious force that is being imposed in schools, corporations, and the government.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) inaccurately describes CRT this way in a June 2021 bill (DUN21498 p6 line 21):

By teaching that certain individuals, by virtue of inherent characteristics, are inherently flawed, critical race theory contradicts the basic principle upon which the United States was founded that all men and women are created equal.

It is worth noting that this is not only an inaccurate description of CRT but also of the Declaration of Independence, which specifically named only men (not women) as created equal, and was commonly understood (in society and law) to mean only white men.

Rebecca Gibson, a grade-school teacher in Durham, NC, addressed the discourse around CRT like this in March 2022:

What it is not

1. It's not new. It's been around for 40 years.

2. It's not actually taught to children in schools; it's an academic framework used by adults. But it probably should be taught in schools! If it were, we might have a less racist world, hmmmmm

3. It's "critical" as in "critical thinking" not as in "I am criticizing you"

What it is

The idea that....

1. ... Race is a social construct based on ideas we have about ourselves and each other, not a biological "fact."

2. ...That doesn't mean race is not real. It's a real social construct. And the idea of race is really powerful and important.

3. ...Racism is the combination of racial discrimination and social power.

• "Racism" is race-based oppression built into our social systems, so pervasively that we often participate in racist systems without realizing it.

A great basic example: many of the opportunities I've had in my life were made possible by the fact that I owned a house. I mean, I didn't actually own the house, just the mortgage! But still, it made a very big, very concrete difference in my life. I was able to do this because two generations of my family, also homeowners, gave me advice and money. And they were able to do this largely because of the GI Bill, which allowed military folks to get help with college, housing loans, etc. BUT for generations Black people were straight up not allowed to buy property in certain neighborhoods, if at all, and they were often met with violence when they tried. The GI Bill was designed around Jim Crow laws, so Black soldiers didn't get the same benefits my dad and grandfather did.

Does this mean I am a racist for buying a house? WELL KIND OF, YEAH. It means I participate in, and benefit from, a system that gives White people privileges that Black people don't have. (That's what people mean when they say "white privilege." It doesn't mean I didn't have to struggle to become a homeowner, just that my race wasn't one of the struggles.)

• A good, kind, intelligent person who doesn't think anything bad about anybody based on their race, can still say or do a thing that perpetuates a racist system.

When I was a kid there were two Asian girls in my elementary school. One of the Asian girls, Tina, was my best friend. The other one, Hung Su, was a nice kid but we weren't especially close. I could not tell Tina and Hung Su apart. They looked the same to me. I had to wait for Tina to speak to me, to know which girl was my best friend. She thought I was shy. That was not the reason. I was living in a racist place, in a racist time, in a racist system, and I hadn't ever seen enough not-white people to be able to these girls apart from each other. I was an innocent child; I was also racist.

It's like pollution in the air. You breathe it in even if you didn't want to, and it's toxic, for all of us.

• We don't say discrimination against white people is "racism:" you can discriminate against whoever you want, if you like being a jerk, but without the huge weight of centuries of built-in social oppression, it's not the same thing.

It's hard for me to come up with a good example for this because to me it's just so fucking obvious. Any white person who doesn't get this needs to do some self-educating.

4. ...Race is intersectional: our racial identities intersect with our gender, our social class, etc etc. Those combinations are complex and interesting.

Example from history: Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and women's rights activist who escaped to freedom in 1826 – her famous "Ain't I a Woman Too" speech referred to the serious divisions in the women's right-to-vote movement, around race.

Q. Why do Republicans suddenly have their panties in a knot about CRT when it's been around for a solid generation?

A. Because the murder of George Floyd made it impossible for White people to ignore the systemic violence of police against Black people.

For an antidote to the bullshit whining about CRT in schools, go ye and read you some Paolo Friere. Which is also not new, but very refreshing.

Links

• Conservapedia has a good overview of the (inaccurate) right-wing framing of CRT.
• RationalWiki «[CRT] became the perfect new boogeyman for the far-right to scare white people with in the early 2020s. It has also become a Republican campaigning point in many states, with five states actually banning it in schools, and others at least trying to push for the same in their own states. In Florida, the people voting for it to be banned couldn't even define what it was to begin with.»

to file

• 2021-06-28 1 truth and 3 lies about Critical Race Theory