Since CRT is the hot-button issue the Republicans are pinning their hopes on for juicing their voter turnout in 2022, it is important that we know what it is so that we can have intelligent conversations about it when necessary. I am a PhD student in Public Health Education, and by no means an expert on this topic. However, we have studied Critical Race Theory this year as part of our curriculum. I am passing along some information from a couple of articles that we used in my classes, in case it is useful for anyone.
Here is a good definition:
Ford, C. L., & Airhihenbuwa, C. O. (2018). Commentary: Just what is Critical Race Theory and what’s it doing in a progressive field like public health? Ethnicity & Disease, 28(Suppl 1), 223-230. https://doi.org/10.18865/ed.28.S1.223
“Critical Race Theory (CRT) defines the set of anti-racist tenets, modes of knowledge production, and strategies a group of legal scholars of color in the 1980s organized into a framework targeting the subtle and systemic ways racism currently operates above and beyond any overly racist expressions. CRT is but one of various strategies scholars use to understand and challenge racism. The name, Critical Race Theory, distinguishes it from two other approaches in law: progressive approaches that are colorblind to racism (e.g.,critical legal theory, critical feminist theory) and civil rights approaches. With respect to the latter, civil rights approaches rely on the racially unjust legal system strategically, while CRT seeks to eradicate racism from it, which requires radical transformation of the system (Crenshaw et al., 1995).”
References:
Crenshaw, K., Gotanda, N., Peller, G., & Thomas, K. (1995). Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement. New York, NY: New Press.
Here is some additional context:
Graham,L., Brown-Jeffy, S., Aronson, R., & Stephens, C. (2011). Critical race theory as theoretical framework and analysis tool for population health research. Critical Public Health, 21(1), 81–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2010.493173
“Central topics that a critical theory informed investigator may examine include transformation of social institutions through understanding the significance of health and social life; the historical problems of illness, power, hostility, and social struggles; and an analysis of society and envisions of new possibilities (Fay 1987, Morrow and Brown 1994). Research designed within a critical theory approach, according to sociologist Agger (1991), falls into two broad categories: methodological, in that it influences the ways in which people write (produce knowledge from data) and read (interpret data), and substantive, reflecting the theories and subject matter of the researcher (e.g., the function of medicine and culture in health). A type of critical theory, CRT, centers on race and how racism is intensely entrenched within the structure of American society (Parker and Lynn 2002). CRT recognizes the complex relationships and intersections that reside within race, class, gender, and sexuality differences and feature prominently in the social world of ethnic minorities.
“CRT focuses on the experiential knowledge of ethnic minorities and their communities of origin with respect to race and race relations (Delgado and Stefancic 2001). CRT can be used to scrutinize the ways in which race and racism directly and indirectly affect ethnic minorities (Yosso 2005). Essentially, CRT examines racism as both a group and individual phenomenon that functions on many levels, and it offers a means by which to identify the functions of racism as an institutional and systematic phenomenon (Stovall 2005). CRT grew partially out of critical legal studies since racism has directly shaped the US legal system and the ways people think about the law, racial categories, and privilege (Harris 1993). However, CRT has now made its way into other fields of study, such as sociology and education.
“CRT is concerned with racial subordination, prejudice, and inequity and it accentuates the socially constructed and discursive nature of race. Delgado and Stefancic (1993) note the following main ideas in CRT: a critique of liberalism, the use of storytelling, the influence of structural determinism, and examination of the intersections of race, sex, and class, a debate between essentialism and anti-essentialism, a perspective of cultural nationalism/separatism, and the need for a critical pedagogy. According to Parker and Lynn (2002), CRT has three primary objectives: (1) to present stories about discrimination from the viewpoint of people of color; (2) to argue for the eradication of racial subjugation while simultaneously acknowledging that race is a social construct; and (3) to deal with other matters of dissimilarity, such as sexuality and class, and any injustices experienced by communities. In research, the use of CRT means that the investigator foregrounds race and racism in all facets of the research process and confronts conventional research texts and worldviews (Creswell 2007).”
References:
Agger, B. (1991). Critical theory, poststructuralism, postmodernism: their sociological relevance. In: Scott, W. R., & Blake, J. (Eds.) Annual Review of Sociology (Vol. 17, pp. 105-131). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (1993). Critical race theory: An annotated bibliography. Virginia Law Review, 79(2), 461–516.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical race theory – an introduction. New York: New York University Press.
Fay, B. (1987). Critical social science. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Harris, C. (1993). Whiteness as property. Harvard Law Review, 106, 1701–1791.
Morrow, R. A., & Brown, D. D. (1994). Critical theory and methodology. Thousand Oaks. CA: Sage.
Parker, L., & Lynn, M. (2002). What race got to do with it? Critical race theory’s conflicts with and connections to qualitative research methodology and epistemology. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 7-22.
Stovall, D. (2005). A challenge to traditional theory: CRT, African-American community organizers, and education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 26(1), 95-108.
Yosso, T. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91.
Note that CRT has been around since the 1980s; it is not a new theory. Critical theory of any kind has a social justice approach, meaning that the idea is to DO SOMETHING about the problem, not just think about it or write about it. It is an active approach to research that is about empowering people to overcome the restraints placed on them by society regarding the issue being researched, whether that is race, class, gender, sexuality, or disability. One of the ways that marginalized people are empowered is by “centering the voices at the margins” so that these overlooked or disregarded perspectives and experiences can inform and educate others. (This is what the 1619 Project does.)