"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."
Critical Race Theory recognizes the importance of historical context in understanding the current social climate. This includes exploring the ways in which historical events and structures continue to shape systems of inequality and oppression.
Racism and Colonialism: Examining the origins of racism and colonialism and how they have affected the world and society.
Power Dynamics: Understanding how power flows within a given society and how it is used to oppress people based on their race.
Intersectionality: Considering how different forms of oppression intersect, and how they affect different groups with different identities.
Social Movements: Looking at how social movements, including Black Lives Matter, have led to change over history.
Critical Thinking: Understanding how to approach information with a critical mindset, by questioning assumptions and thinking deeply about societal issues.
Multiculturalism: Considering how different cultures affect society and how different experiences inform our understanding of the world.
Structural Inequality: Examining how inequality is present and reinforced at an institutional and structural level.
White Supremacy: Understanding how white supremacy has been normalized in Western society and how it affects the world.
Colonialism and Slavery: Examining the roles of colonialism and slavery in shaping the global society, and understanding how they inform current issues.
Resistance, Liberation, and Equity: Looking at stories of resistance and liberation throughout history, and discussing how we can strive for greater equity today.
"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.