2 Critical Race Theory
Learning Objective:
- Understanding what Critical Race Theory is and what it truly means.
Critical Race Theory
We looked at DEI, which has a connection and can intermingle with critical race theory (CRT). CRT is an interdisciplinary academic field focused on the relationships between social conceptions of race and ethnicity, social and political laws, and media. CRT also considers racism to be systemic in various laws and rules, and not only based on individuals’ prejudices.
In the Beginning
CRT began in the United States in the post–civil rights era, as 1960s landmark civil rights laws were being eroded and schools were being re-segregated.[17][18] With racial inequalities persisting even after civil rights legislation and color-blind laws were enacted, CRT scholars in the 1970s and 1980s began reworking and expanding critical legal studies (CLS) theories on class, economic structure, and the law[19] to examine the role of US law in perpetuating racism.[20] CRT, a framework of analysis grounded in critical theory,[21] originated in the mid-1970s in the writings of several American legal scholars, including Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Richard Delgado, Cheryl Harris, Charles R. Lawrence III, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia J. Williams.[22]
CRT draws from the work of thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and W. E. B. Du Bois, as well as the Black Power, Chicano, and radical feminist movements from the 1960s and 1970s.[22]
In the Present
Academic critics of CRT argue it is based on storytelling instead of evidence and reason, rejects truth and merit, and undervalues liberalism. Since 2020, conservative US lawmakers have sought to ban or restrict the instruction of CRT education in primary and secondary schools as well as relevant training inside federal agencies. Advocates of such bans argue that CRT is false, anti-American, villainizes white people, promotes radical leftism, and indoctrinates children. Advocates of bans on CRT have been accused of misrepresenting its tenets, and of having the goal to broadly silence discussions of racism, equality, social justice, and the history of race
In the Future
In this section, I want to mention the subheads on CRT (for latinos, asians, etc.) but also mention CRT and the recent rise in suicide amongst black higher education leaders due to bullying and the systemic racism that falls under CRT.
Bring to Light:
This will focus on the lawsuit involving a “High school teacher and students sue over Arkansas’ ban on critical race theory”
https://apnews.com/article/critical-race-theory-arkansas-huckabee-sanders-lawsuit-65dc017adfd53114be703bc1e6fb5634