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(OT) What Is CRT Anyway?
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Pelle Svanslös
Nov 25, 2022, 2:34:05 PM11/25/22
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Is “critical race theory” a way of understanding how American racism has
shaped public policy, or a divisive discourse that pits people of color
against white people? Liberals and conservatives are in sharp disagreement.
n truth, the divides are not nearly as neat as they may seem. The events
of the last decade have increased public awareness about things like
housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy in the
1990s, and the legacy of enslavement on Black Americans. But there is
much less consensus on what the government’s role should be in righting
these past wrongs. Add children and schooling into the mix and the
debate becomes especially volatile.
School boards, superintendents, even principals and teachers are already
facing questions about critical race theory, and there are significant
disagreements even among experts about its precise definition as well as
how its tenets should inform K-12 policy and practice. This explainer is
meant only as a starting point to help educators grasp core aspects of
the current debate.
Just what is critical race theory anyway?
Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years
old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism
is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also
something embedded in legal systems and policies.
The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a
framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created
by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado,
among others.
Today, those same patterns of discrimination live on through facially
race-blind policies, like single-family zoning that prevents the
building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white
neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts.
CRT also has ties to other intellectual currents, including the work of
sociologists and literary theorists who studied links between political
power, social organization, and language. And its ideas have since
informed other fields, like the humanities, the social sciences, and
teacher education.
This academic understanding of critical race theory differs from
representation in recent popular books and, especially, from its
portrayal by critics—often, though not exclusively, conservative
Republicans. Critics charge that the theory leads to negative dynamics,
such as a focus on group identity over universal, shared traits; divides
people into “oppressed” and “oppressor” groups; and urges intolerance.
One conservative organization, the Heritage Foundation, recently
attributed a whole host of issues to CRT, including the 2020 Black Lives
Matter protests, LGBTQ clubs in schools, diversity training in federal
agencies and organizations, California’s recent ethnic studies model
curriculum, the free-speech debate on college campuses, and alternatives
to exclusionary discipline—such as the Promise program in Broward
County, Fla., that some parents blame for the Parkland school shootings.
“When followed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects
the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based,”
the organization claimed.
Does critical race theory say all white people are racist? Isn’t that
racist, too?
The theory says that racism is part of everyday life, so people—white or
nonwhite—who don’t intend to be racist can nevertheless make choices
that fuel racism.
CRT puts an emphasis on outcomes, not merely on individuals’ own
beliefs, and it calls on these outcomes to be examined and rectified.
Among lawyers, teachers, policymakers, and the general public, there are
many disagreements about how precisely to do those things, and to what
extent race should be explicitly appealed to or referred to in the process.
Here’s a helpful illustration to keep in mind in understanding this
complex idea. In a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court school-assignment case on
whether race could be a factor in maintaining diversity in K-12 schools,
Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion famously concluded: “The way to stop
discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the
basis of race.” But during oral arguments, then-justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg said: “It’s very hard for me to see how you can have a racial
objective but a nonracial means to get there.”
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05
There's people here that clearly don't know what they are talking about
when they speak about CRT. Or basically ... anything. Hopefully this
article will ease some of the pain of willful ignorance. I left some
stuff out. Check it out if interested.
--
"And off they went, from here to there,
The bear, the bear, and the maiden fair"
-- Traditional
shaped public policy, or a divisive discourse that pits people of color
against white people? Liberals and conservatives are in sharp disagreement.
n truth, the divides are not nearly as neat as they may seem. The events
of the last decade have increased public awareness about things like
housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy in the
1990s, and the legacy of enslavement on Black Americans. But there is
much less consensus on what the government’s role should be in righting
these past wrongs. Add children and schooling into the mix and the
debate becomes especially volatile.
School boards, superintendents, even principals and teachers are already
facing questions about critical race theory, and there are significant
disagreements even among experts about its precise definition as well as
how its tenets should inform K-12 policy and practice. This explainer is
meant only as a starting point to help educators grasp core aspects of
the current debate.
Just what is critical race theory anyway?
Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years
old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism
is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also
something embedded in legal systems and policies.
The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a
framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created
by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado,
among others.
Today, those same patterns of discrimination live on through facially
race-blind policies, like single-family zoning that prevents the
building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white
neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts.
CRT also has ties to other intellectual currents, including the work of
sociologists and literary theorists who studied links between political
power, social organization, and language. And its ideas have since
informed other fields, like the humanities, the social sciences, and
teacher education.
This academic understanding of critical race theory differs from
representation in recent popular books and, especially, from its
portrayal by critics—often, though not exclusively, conservative
Republicans. Critics charge that the theory leads to negative dynamics,
such as a focus on group identity over universal, shared traits; divides
people into “oppressed” and “oppressor” groups; and urges intolerance.
One conservative organization, the Heritage Foundation, recently
attributed a whole host of issues to CRT, including the 2020 Black Lives
Matter protests, LGBTQ clubs in schools, diversity training in federal
agencies and organizations, California’s recent ethnic studies model
curriculum, the free-speech debate on college campuses, and alternatives
to exclusionary discipline—such as the Promise program in Broward
County, Fla., that some parents blame for the Parkland school shootings.
“When followed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects
the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based,”
the organization claimed.
Does critical race theory say all white people are racist? Isn’t that
racist, too?
The theory says that racism is part of everyday life, so people—white or
nonwhite—who don’t intend to be racist can nevertheless make choices
that fuel racism.
CRT puts an emphasis on outcomes, not merely on individuals’ own
beliefs, and it calls on these outcomes to be examined and rectified.
Among lawyers, teachers, policymakers, and the general public, there are
many disagreements about how precisely to do those things, and to what
extent race should be explicitly appealed to or referred to in the process.
Here’s a helpful illustration to keep in mind in understanding this
complex idea. In a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court school-assignment case on
whether race could be a factor in maintaining diversity in K-12 schools,
Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion famously concluded: “The way to stop
discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the
basis of race.” But during oral arguments, then-justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg said: “It’s very hard for me to see how you can have a racial
objective but a nonracial means to get there.”
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05
There's people here that clearly don't know what they are talking about
when they speak about CRT. Or basically ... anything. Hopefully this
article will ease some of the pain of willful ignorance. I left some
stuff out. Check it out if interested.
--
"And off they went, from here to there,
The bear, the bear, and the maiden fair"
-- Traditional
The Iceberg
Nov 25, 2022, 7:01:35 PM11/25/22
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