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.
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.»
