Critical Race Theory definitions invite conservative distortion.
I have tried finding a path through academic obscurity. I got stuck in quicksand composed of phrases like:
- We reject evidence and reason
- We reject concepts of truth and merit
- We are captives of complex, changing, subtle social and institutional dynamic
- The key Critical Race Theory concept is intersectionality
- White supremacy is an intersectional social construction
Huh?
Anyone trying to get an honest grasp gets turned away by a sort of sneering academic mishmash of jargon that might as well be written in Sanscrit.
Conservative translations lack truth but do possess the virtue of clarity.
As soon as conservative activists learn to read and develop the patience to dive into the tall weeds, they will discover that, through the argle bargle, some golden phrases stand out.
Like, for example: “reject evidence and reason” and “reject concepts of truth and merit”
All of which will pretty much take the wind out of the sails of those of us who, quite correctly, point at the rejection of truth and reason on the the part of conservative critics.
It is impossible to describe the complexities of Critical Race Theory on a bumper sticker.
It is easy to put lies about CRT on a bumper sticker.
The closed mind of an ignorant bigot always has that advantage
Is it closed minded? It seems like oversimplification for the simple minded. If they were closed minded, “conservatives” wouldn’t be so open to hating literally anything and everything they’re told to hate.
Hate and disparagement on auto-pilot. They hear their favored talking heads (Hannity, Tucker, Oingo Boingo) rant and rave about the made up evils of and then you see a bumper sticker, button, T-Shirt and whatever is on those items just brings to mind the incoherent, misremembered ramblings of “conservative” “thought leaders”. There’s little investment of time and resources- An initial wave of radio/TV/YouTube shows railing against , and then you just have to just bring up without having to go into detail. The “conservative” audience will fill in the blanks and the “thought leaders” will just ride the wave until they need to find something else to blow out of proportion.
Honestly, just typing this out was tiresome. I don’t know how the “conservative” audience has the endurance and fortitude to being upset, angry and scared at everything all the time.
Conservatives generally have authoritarian personalities. MRI scans show they have an enlarged and over-reactive amygdala, the primitive fight or flight center of the brain.
Their minds are closed, but their emotions are strung tight as piano strings and ready to react.
Emotionally volatile persons are much easier to trigger with scary words about things their closed minds will never comprehend.
This is why academics will downgrade students for citing Wikipedia…double for plagiarizing it without citing it…
“We reject evidence and reason
We reject concepts of truth and merit”
Are both things *critics* of CRT say, not the actual theory itself, which I must restate is an ACADEMIC LEGAL THEORY. Have your READ any other academic legal writing???
“We are captives of complex, changing, subtle social and institutional dynamic
The key Critical Race Theory concept is intersectionality
White supremacy is an intersectional social construction”
We exist in the present which is inexorably shaped by it’s past. Passing the Civil Rights Act did not magically grant civil rights to everyone. It merely laid the legal groundwork for being able to go to court and demand them, and have a chance of getting them.
EVERYTHING in this world is “intersectionality” We ALL exist at the intersection of law, society, history, and social change. All the forces acting on everyone apply in varying degrees come from all those intersecting concepts, and they change based on the long reach of history and society, and for many,they often push in opposing directions.
An example. Blacks were not allowed to own property until after the civil war and by formal (laws) and informal (redlining) means were limited in owning property *well into the 70’s and 80’s* and TO THIS DAY face the very same kinds of discrimination. https://www.indystar.com/story/money/2021/05/13/indianapolis-black-homeowner-home-appraisal-discrimination-fair-housing-center-central-indiana/4936571001/
it was only a hundred years ago…within the lived experience of people still alive, that the good white people of Tulsa decided to exterminate the increasingly prosperous blacks in their city. They then buried the truth, because they knew it was wrong. That molded the beliefs and actions of all the generations of Tulsans since. THIS is the kind of thing they mean when they say “We are captives of complex, changing, subtle social and institutional dynamic”
This is the kind of thing Critical Race Theory explains in a legalistic framework. There are laws that prohibit this kind of behavior; but unconscious behavior is almost impossible to litigate against.
And OF COURSE White Supremacy is a social construct; there is no biological basis for race; we are all one species. “Race” is and ALWAYS HAS BEEN a social construct about “who is and isn’t like Us”, so it follows that any sort of superiority complex over a social construct is itself a social construct.
There is not one single thing “inherently superior” about being a “white” human being, but centuries of that as one of those entersecting forces have, in effect, given whites a tailwind, when Blacks have faced headwinds, and it is still there today. THIS is what “White Privelege” is. YOU may not thnk you’re a racist or bigoted or particularly priveleged, but you are. You won the genetic lottery in a society that was explicitly racist for hundreds of years, and implicitly racist, TO THIS DAY.
Is it as bad? No. Are things better? Yes. “The arc of the Universe bends towards Justice”, but sometimes the arc needs some willing hands with a crowbar or two to bend it a little closer.
But Dave Dubya has it right. You cannot argue for CRT on a bumpersticker, but you sure as hell can argue against on one.
Which is precisely why the wannabee Frank Luntz on the fascist’s side ginned up the entire thing: Christopher Rufo: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/05/gops-critical-race-theory-fixation-explained/618828/
(which article also charts the history and evolution of CRT is an easily understood fashion)