'Critical Race Theory Is Simply the Latest Bogeyman.' Inside the Fight Over What Kids Learn About America's History

It has also galvanized those who worry applying that lens will teach children to hate America or divide the nation by emphasizing our differences. This viewpoint has come to the fore amid a surge of controversy over critical race theory (CRT), a decades-old academic framework that scholars use to interrogate how legal systems—as well as other elements of society—perpetuate racism and exclusion.

 Critical Race Theory Would Not Solve Racial Inequality: It Would Deepen It

Critical race theory is an ideology which maintains that the United States is a fundamentally racist country and that American institutions such as the Constitution, property rights, color blindness, and equal protection under the law are vestiges of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalist oppression—all of which must be overthrown in the name of “antiracism.” Ultimately, critical race theory and “antiracism” policies would deepen racial divisions and undermine the very institutions that are essential to addressing poverty and inequality across all racial groups.

 The War Over Critical Race Theory

But more broadly, to your point, I don’t think that America has figured out how to talk about race. I don’t think that the kind of world more broadly is able to talk about sort of imperialism and the history of colonialism in a way that is kind of consistent with what actually happened.

Battle Over Critical Race Theory

Advocates and media circle the wagons and try to conceal the truth about a pernicious ideology.

Critical Race Theory Is the Opposite of Education

It’s more of a religion. Its practitioners reject the idea of evaluating the merits of competing ideas.

Critical race theory: What it is and what it isn’t

The development of critical race theory by legal scholars such as Derrick Bell and Crenshaw was largely a response to the slow legal progress and setbacks faced by African Americans from the end of the Civil War, in 1865, through the end of the civil rights era, in 1968. To understand critical race theory, you need to first understand the history of African American rights in the U.S.

Critical Race Theory: What It Means for America and Why It Has Sparked Debate

A concept developed by academics in the 1970s has triggered political debate and controversy in everything from school curricula to workforce trainings

Critical race theory: Who gets to decide what is history?

Ms. Steenman, in Tennessee, says that “there are lots of lessons to learn in history,” including slavery and Jim Crow. But she worries about where the emphasis falls. “There’s mistakes that we’ve made, but there are also redemptive elements. When you only teach the mistakes and not redemption, [students] will be ashamed of their country,” she says.

The Maddening Critical Race Theory Debate

The debate about critical race theory has become circular and maddening because the phrase itself has been unmoored from any fixed meaning.

The real problem with critical race theory

As a sociologist who confronts the issue of racism by showing through research how racism affects the choices and chances of individuals, I believe the only way to confront systemic racism is to confront the systems and structures that uphold it. And to do that means telling a complete history.

We Disagree on a Lot of Things. Except the Danger of Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws

A wiser response to problematic elements of what is being labeled critical race theory would be twofold: propose better curriculums and enforce existing civil rights laws.

What actually is critical race theory anyway?

The development of critical race theory by legal scholars such as Derrick Bell and Crenshaw was largely a response to the slow legal progress and setbacks faced by African Americans from the end of the Civil War, in 1865, through the end of the civil rights era, in 1968. To understand critical race theory, you need to first understand the history of African American rights in the US

What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?

Is “critical race theory” a way of understanding how American racism has shaped public policy, or a divisive discourse that pits people of color against white people? Liberals and conservatives are in sharp disagreement.

What the hysteria over critical race theory is really all about

Watching the news or browsing social media, it would be easy to think that critical race theory is a complicated, controversial, or new idea. But critical race theory, created four decades ago by legal scholars, is an academic framework for examining how racism is embedded in America’s laws and institutions.

What the moral panic about ‘critical race theory’ is about

But if racism is a foundational reality, and not just a personal prejudice, then much bigger changes have to be made – and more is required of white people than personal innocence.