The Effects of Critical Race Theory, Decide for Yourself
Musical genius Stevie Wonder was onto something when he sang this lyric from the song Superstition, “When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain’t the way.” We’ve all been trapped by beliefs of others that we didn’t fully understand.
Superstition, conspiracy theories, critical theories, advice from experts and self -proclaimed experts, even guidance from parents and teachers. I wonder how many of us are unhappy in careers right now based on the counseling of people we respect because we didn’t ask enough questions and approach the information with a curious mindset.
When Islamic suicide bombers took their own lives and the lives of others, they were convinced that their martyrdom would result in sexual delights in the afterlife. Who knows whether that’s factual, and how would one know for sure? My guess is that they acted on faith and not fact. Religious people act on faith all the time, but innocent people should not be required to die in the process. When President Donald Trump advised Americans to ingest bleach as a means to protect themselves against COVID-19, the Center for Disease Control reported that “daily number of calls to poison centers increased sharply ... and that bleaches accounted for the largest percentage of the increase.” While this is truly sad, the individuals who followed the advice could have avoided harmful or life-threatening effects had they paused to consider that the source of the information was not from the medical community. Even if they believed the source to be trustworthy, as I am guessing they did, why not investigate?
Our perspectives are one dimensional when we don’t seek wisdom from various sources and more importantly sources that fall outside our circle. Otherwise, we simply believe and act accordingly in the echo chamber. Most White people that I encounter tend to underestimate the depths of racism and believe it to be a thing of the past in the United States using the rationale that we elected Obama twice. They are oblivious to racist systems and refuse to seriously examine the perspectives of people of color as they do their White counterparts.
Race and racism in America go beyond the acts of individuals who consider racism to be about hating, disliking or harming others on the basis of race. It’s a much deeper problem. While the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery were individual acts of hatred based on race, they were predicated in a system of racism – a system designed to disenfranchise anyone not in the dominant culture. The barriers to equality for Black and Brown people are rooted in systemic and institutionalized racism that has been alive and well for centuries, and shapes decisions that relegate people of color to the lowest tiers of society.
For those of us with a consciousness for change, Critical Race Theory (CRT) deserves delving into with a learning mindset. It not only provides a framework of thinking about race and racism but a way of questioning the status quo. Far more Americans have learned of CRT from its critics rather than from the theorists themselves. As we look to CRT to unravel systemic and institutionalized racism in the United States, we must examine narratives both for and against.
Opponents are advancing the CRT narrative as anti-white and peddling a sense of personal guilt on other White Americans. They proclaim with certainty that CRT makes White children feel guilt that they should not feel about the atrocities endured by Blacks at the hands of their ancestors. What they don’t tell you is that CRT guilt is an option of which no one has to accept. No one is required to take CRT implications personally but rather, use as an educational opportunity to learn the truth of American History and its role in racism that continues to this day. We must create space for people to question whether they want to identify with those prior generations and offer an enhanced perspective to remove oneself from it.
Most critics that I’ve encountered admit that they don’t know what CRT is, believe that it’s bad for our country, bad for our kids and that they just don’t like it. Those are incredibly strong beliefs about something that one knows nothing about. If you are in this camp or just want to learn the truth about it, I think it’s fair to start your CRT understanding by learning what CR theorists say about themselves. Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado, all legal scholars at Harvard Law School who developed CRT as a body of thought in the 1980s. Several theorists have written books to include 1) Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, et al; 2) Faces at the Bottom of the Well -The Permanence of Racism, by Derrick Bell and Michelle Alexander; and 3) Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas.
A post from the American Bar Association states, “CRT is not a diversity and inclusion “training” but a practice of interrogating the role of race and racism in society that emerged in the legal academy and spread to other fields of scholarship. Crenshaw—who coined the term “CRT”—notes that CRT is not a noun, but a verb. It cannot be confined to a static and narrow definition but is considered to be an evolving and malleable practice.” The article goes on to say that “CRT recognizes that racism is not a bygone relic of the past. Instead, it acknowledges that the legacy of slavery, segregation, and the imposition of second- class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue to permeate the social fabric of this nation.”
Our county was founded on the idea of equality. When we have systems and institutions embedded with inequality, there’s going to be a struggle to reconcile the two. It’s the wild, wild west of CRT opinion on media outlets and we owe it to ourselves and the pursuit of racial equity and a more just society to act on our own conclusions and not those given us by others.
Sources cited
CDC.gov: Cleaning and Disinfectant Chemical Exposures and Temporal Associations with COVID-19 — National Poison Data System, United States, January 1, 2020–March 31, 2020: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6916e1.htm?s_cid=mm6916e1_x
AmericanBar.org: A Lesson on Critical Race Theory by Janel George, January 11, 2021: