Critical Race Theory

Home > Ethnic and Cultural Studies > Racism > Critical Race Theory

Examines how race and racism shape the law and institutions of society.

Historical Roots of Racism: This topic examines the roots of racism in the United States and around the world, including the European colonization of Africa and the Americas, the slave trade, and the Jim Crow era.
Intersectionality: This topic addresses how different forms of oppression, such as racism and sexism, intersect and overlap, and how this intersectionality affects marginalized groups.
Microaggressions: This topic focuses on the subtle, often unintentional, forms of discrimination that pervade society, and how these small acts can have a cumulative negative impact on people of color.
White Privilege: This topic explores the systemic advantages that white people have in society due to their race, and how this privilege perpetuates racism.
Implicit Bias: This topic explores the unconscious biases that influence a person's judgment and decision-making, and how these biases can reinforce stereotypes and perpetuate discrimination.
Critical Race Theory: This topic examines the history and development of the academic discipline of critical race theory, which is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that focuses on the intersection of race, law, and society.
Structural Racism: This topic examines the ways in which societal institutions, such as the criminal justice system, education system, and housing market, perpetuate racial inequality.
Colorism: This topic addresses the systemic bias that privileges individuals with lighter skin tones within racial groups, and how this bias perpetuates racism and perpetuates a hierarchy of skin tones.
Cultural Appropriation: This topic examines the ways in which dominant cultures appropriate and exploit the cultural practices of marginalized groups, and how this perpetuates racial inequality and harm.
Bias in Media: This topic addresses the ways in which media perpetuates racial stereotypes and presents a skewed portrayal of people of color.
Environmental Racism: This topic focuses on the ways in which marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards and pollution, and how socio-economic and racial inequalities contribute to these disparities.
Systemic Oppression: This topic examines the ways in which broader systems of oppression, including racism, contribute to individual experiences of oppression and marginalization.
Healing from Racial Trauma: This topic addresses the complex social, emotional, and psychological effects of experiencing racial discrimination and harm, as well as strategies for healing and understanding on a personal and structural level.
Anti-Racist Activism: This topic addresses strategies and practices for creating meaningful change and dismantling systemic racism, including organizing, allyship, and advocacy.
The idea that racism is not just an individual attitude or behavior, but a systemic and institutionalized practice that shapes the social, economic, and political structures in which we live.: The topic explores the perspective that racism is not solely based on personal beliefs or actions, but a pervasive system deeply embedded within societal institutions, impacting various aspects of life such as social dynamics, economic opportunities, and political structures.
CRT emphasizes the role of power and the ways in which it is used to maintain the dominant group's status and privilege.: Critical Race Theory (CRT) examines how power is employed to uphold the socio-political advantages and status of the dominant group.
CRT asserts that racism intersects with other forms of oppression, such as sexism, classism, and homophobia, to create complex and intersecting systems of discrimination and inequality.: Critical Race Theory (CRT) examines how racism combines with various types of oppression, including sexism, classism, and homophobia, forming interconnected systems of discrimination and inequality.
CRT highlights the importance of storytelling and counter-narratives in challenging dominant discourses and exposing the hidden workings of power and oppression.: Critical Race Theory (CRT) emphasizes the significance of storytelling and counter-narratives to challenge dominant ideologies, uncover covert dynamics of power, and reveal systems of oppression within society.
"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."
"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.