"Critical race theory (CRT) is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity."
This theory examines the experiences of Asian Americans in the United States and how race intersects with their experiences of immigration, discrimination, and assimilation.
Orientalism: A critical analysis of how the West has historically constructed and represented the Orient in literature, art, and media, perpetuating stereotypes and promoting hegemony.
Model Minority: An exploration of how the concept of the "model minority" has been used to construct and maintain Asian Americans as a "successful" and "desirable" minority group, often at the expense of other communities of color.
Intersectionality: An understanding of how Asian American identity intersects with other identities, such as gender, sexuality, class, and nationality, and how these intersections shape experiences of oppression and privilege.
Yellow Peril: A historical examination of the fear and discrimination of Asian Americans as foreign threats to national security and economic stability, which has contributed to anti-Asian racism and xenophobia.
Colonialism and Imperialism: An analysis of how Asian American experiences and identities have been shaped by colonial and imperial histories, including the exploitation of Asian labor and resources.
Diaspora and Transnationalism: A study of how Asian American identity is shaped by both a sense of belonging to various Asian diasporas and transnational communities, as well as to the United States.
Cultural Appropriation: An examination of the ways in which Asian American cultures have been commodified, appropriated, and distorted in mainstream culture, often without proper acknowledgement or consent.
Language and Linguistic Discrimination: An exploration of how language has been used to construct and reinforce Asian American stereotypes, and how linguistic discrimination affects Asian Americans in the workplace, education, and society.
Black-Asian Relations: A critical analysis of the complex and often contentious relationship between Asian Americans and African Americans, including the role of anti-Blackness within Asian American communities.
Resistance and Solidarity: An exploration of Asian American social movements and activism, including the ways in which Asian Americans have mobilized for social justice and formed solidarity with other marginalized communities.
Asian American Feminist Theory: This type of theory analyzes the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality in the experiences of Asian American women.
Postcolonial Asian American Theory: This type of theory examines the cultural and historical legacies of colonization and imperialism in shaping the experiences of Asian Americans, particularly in terms of identity formation and power relations.
Queer Asian American Theory: This type of theory explores the intersection of race, sexuality, gender, and power in the experiences of LGBTQ Asian Americans.
Transnational Asian American Theory: This type of theory examines how Asian Americans are shaped by and affect transnational cultural flows, such as globalization, migration, and diaspora movements.
Critical Refugee Studies: This type of theory investigates how refugee experiences and migration to the United States are shaped by geopolitical factors, and how these experiences are lived and endured by individuals and communities in the US.
Critical Asian American Legal Theory: This type of theory analyzes the relationship between law and racial inequality, and how Asian Americans have been impacted by legal systems in the US.
Critical Asian American Education Theory: This type of theory studies the ways that the experiences of Asian Americans are affected by educational institutions and practices, examining such issues as academic achievement, language barriers, and cultural diversity.
Asian American Intersectionality Theory: This type of theory examines how different forms of oppression: Such as racism, sexism, and homophobia - intersect and interact in the lives of Asian American individuals and communities, producing complex social situations.
Asian American Performance Theory: This type of theory examines how Asian American artists and performers use their work to resist and subvert dominant cultural stereotypes and norms, and to express their own experiences and identities.
"CRT also considers racism to be systemic in various laws and rules, and not only based on individuals' prejudices."
"The word critical in the name is an academic reference to critical thinking, critical theory, and scholarly criticism, rather than criticizing or blaming individuals."
"CRT is also used in sociology to explain social, political, and legal structures and power distribution as through a 'lens' focusing on the concept of race, and experiences of racism."
"A key CRT concept is intersectionality—the way in which different forms of inequality and identity are affected by interconnections of race, class, gender, and disability."
"For example, the CRT conceptual framework examines racial bias in laws and legal institutions, such as highly disparate rates of incarceration among racial groups in the United States."
"Scholars of CRT view race as a social construct with no biological basis."
"One tenet of CRT is that racism and disparate racial outcomes are the result of complex, changing, and often subtle social and institutional dynamics, rather than explicit and intentional prejudices of individuals."
"CRT scholars argue that the social and legal construction of race advances the interests of white people at the expense of people of color, and that the liberal notion of U.S. law as 'neutral' plays a significant role in maintaining a racially unjust social order."
"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."
"CRT, a framework of analysis grounded in critical theory, 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."
"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."
"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 U.S. 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."
"Advocates of bans on CRT have been accused of... having the goal to broadly silence discussions of racism, equality, social justice, and the history of race." Note: Due to the length and complexity of the passage, not every question may have an explicit quote matching it exactly. However, the selected quotes provide relevant information related to the study questions.