"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 field of study examines the relationships between race, power, and social hierarchies. It delves into how systemic oppression, racism, and colonialism have shaped societies throughout history and in the present.
Introduction to Critical Race Theory: A basic understanding of critical race theory and its foundational concepts, including intersectionality, social constructionism, and the importance of lived experiences in understanding race.
History of Racial Injustice: The history of systemic racism in the United States, including the legacies of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, and mass incarceration.
Intersectionality: The ways in which racism intersects with other forms of oppression, including sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and classism.
Whiteness: The social construction of whiteness and its role in perpetuating systemic racism, including the concept of white privilege.
Structural Racism: Understanding the ways in which racism is embedded in social structures and institutions, including the legal system, education, housing, and the economy.
Social Movements for Racial Justice: The history and impact of social movements for racial justice, including the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter.
Critical Race Pedagogy: The use of critical race theory in education, including the role of educators in addressing issues of race and promoting anti-racism in the classroom.
Decolonization: The importance of decolonization and the dismantling of colonial structures in the fight against racism and other forms of oppression.
Intersection of Law and Race: The impact of legal decisions and the legal system on racial justice, including issues of voting rights, police brutality, and the school-to-prison pipeline.
"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.