"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 subfield explores the ways in which laws and legal systems contribute to racial injustice and discrimination.
Race and Racism: The study of how race is socially constructed and how it creates systematic advantages and disadvantages for different groups of people.
History of Critical Race Theory: The development and evolution of critical race theory as an intellectual and political movement.
Intersectionality: The interconnectedness of various forms of oppression such as race, gender, class, and sexual orientation.
White privilege: The unearned benefits and advantages often afforded to people who are perceived as white.
Structural inequality: The ways in which institutionalized racism and discrimination perpetuate inequality.
Legal precedents: The historical and legal cases that have set the foundation for critical race theory.
Critical legal studies: The broader interdisciplinary field that examines how law is shaped by politics, culture, and social norms.
Sociological approaches to race: The examination of race and racism within broader sociological context.
Identity politics: The relationship between identity, power, and social justice.
Systemic racism: The ways in which racism is built into social, political, and economic systems.
Social justice: The movement to create a fair and equitable society.
Anti-racism: The active struggle against racism and the personal responsibility of individuals to combat it.
Decolonization: The process of questioning and dismantling the legacies of colonialism and imperialism.
Cultural criticism: The examination of the ways in which media, literature, and culture reflect and perpetuate racism.
Political theory: The examination of the ways in which different political systems perpetuate or combat inequality.
Critical pedagogy: The ways in which educational systems can perpetuate or combat racism and oppression.
Environmental justice: The consideration of how environmental issues intersect with race, class, and other forms of oppression.
Intersectional activism: The ways in which social justice movements attempt to address multiple forms of oppression at once.
Postcolonialism: The examination of power relations between colonizing and colonized societies.
Feminist theory: The examination of how gender and sexism intersect with other forms of oppression.
Structural Racism: Examines how racism is embedded in society's structures and institutions.
Intersectionality: Explores the relationships between multiple identities and how they intersect. It often connects race, class, gender, and sexuality to assess intersectional oppression.
Counter-Storytelling: Tells the stories of individuals who have experienced discrimination and oppression from the standpoint of the affected group.
Racial Realism: Refers to the understanding that race is a socially constructed construct and at the same time, a powerful tool of social stratification that affects our daily lives.
Double-Consciousness: Conceptualizes the internal conflict experienced by African Americans when they are forced to observe themselves through the eyes of a racist society.
Post-Colonialism: Examines how colonialism, imperialism, and globalization shape relationships between different cultures.
Whiteness Theory: Analyzes how the ideology that emphasizes white supremacy and creates a normative culture leads to social conflicts.
Hate Crimes: Studies the criminal acts that are motivated by bias, prejudice, or hatred toward a specific group.
Institutional Racism: Examines how societal institutions promote and reinforce systemic racism.
Critical Race Feminism: Connects feminist and critical race theory to explore the ways that gender and power intersect with race to create different forms of oppression and resistance.
"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.