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Here we go! Starting with _Critical Race Theory: An Introduction_ by Delgado and Stefancic.
What is #CriticalRaceTheory (CRT)?
#ScholarStrike https://twitter.com/christinkallama/status/1302253835570892801
What is #CriticalRaceTheory (CRT)?
#ScholarStrike https://twitter.com/christinkallama/status/1302253835570892801
"The CRT movement is...interested in studying & transforming the relationship among race, racism, & power...CRT questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, & neutral principles of constitutional law"
"[CRT] not only tries to understand our social situation, but to change it; it sets out not only to ascertain how society organizes itself along racial lines and hierarchies, but to transform it for the better." (pp. 2-3).
"[CRT] builds on the insights of...critical legal studies and radical feminism...It also draws from certain European philosophers and theorists, such as Antonio Gramsci and Jacques Derrida, as well as from the American radical tradition...
...exemplified by such figures as Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Power and Chicano movements of the sixties and early seventies." (p.4)
"Closely related to differential racialization - the idea that each race has its own origins and ever evolving history - is the notion of intersectionality and anti-essentialism. No person has a single, easily stated, unitary identity" #ScholarStrike #CriticalRaceTheory
"Coexisting in somewhat uneasy tension with anti-essentialism, the voice-of-color thesis holds that...minority status...brings with it a presumed competence to speak about race and racism." (pp. 8-9).
"CR theorists [crits] hold that...if racism is embedded in our thought processes and social structures as deeply as many crits believe, then the "ordinary business" of society [including adherence to legal "color-blindness"] will keep minorities in subordinate positions." (p. 22)
"Crits are also highly suspicious of another liberal mainstay, namely, rights...rights are almost always procedural rather than substantive...Moreover, rights are almost always cut back when they conflict with the interests of the powerful." (p. 23)
#ScholarStrike
#ScholarStrike
"Moreover, rights are said to be alienating. They separate people from each other, rather than encouraging them to form close, respectful communities."
"And with civil rights, lower courts have found it easy to narrow or distinguish the broad, ringing landmark decision...after the celebration dies down, the great victory is quietly cut back by narrow interpretation, administrative obstruction, or delay." (p. 24)
"[at the same time] a determined group of "idealists" [within CRT] maintain that rights are not a snare and a delusion, rather they can bring genuine gains, while the struggle to obtain them unifies the group." (p. 25)
"[Crits] have built on everyday experiences with perspective, viewpoint, and the power of stories and persuasion to come to a better understanding of how Americans see race." (p. 38)
#ScholarStrike #CriticalRaceTheory
#ScholarStrike #CriticalRaceTheory
"Society constructs the social world through a series of tacit agreements mediated by images, pictures, tales, and scripts. Much of what we believe is ridiculous, self-serving, or cruel, but not perceived to be so at the time...
Attacking embedded preconceptions that marginalize others or conceal their humanity is a legitimate function of all fiction." (p. 42).
The...concept of the *differend* helps explain the value of narratives for marginalized persons. [It] occurs when a concept such as justice acquires conflicting meanings for two groups...
[and] the prevailing conception of justice deprives [the marginalized] of the chance to express a grievance in terms the system will understand. Narratives provide a language to bridge the gaps in imagination and conception that give rise to the differend." (p. 44).
"Because politics also has a personal dimension, it should come as no surprise that critical race theorists have turned critique inward, examining the interplay of power and authority within minority communities and movements." (p. 51).
On intersectionality: "Categories and subgroups...are not just matters of theoretical interest. How we frame them determines who has power, voice, and representation and who does not.
Perspectivalism, the insistence on examining how things look from the perspective of individual actors...can enable us to frame agendas and strategies that will do justice to a broader range of people and oversimplifying human experience." (p. 55).
On essentialism: "When a group organizes for social change, it must have a clear concept of what it is fighting to achieve. Essentialism...entails a search for the proper unit, or atom, for social analysis and change." (p. 56).
"Perhaps the essentialism/anti-essentialism debate sets in when mainstream thought is beginning to see the validity of the larger groups' complaint [with] smaller subgroups [now] bringing suppressed issues to the larger group's attention." (p. 58).
On nationalism vs. assimilation: "One strand of CRT energetically backs the nationalist [separatist] view, which is particularly prominent with the materialists." (p. 60)
"A middle position, embraced by a few sophisticated thinkers...holds that minorities of color should not try to fit into a flawed economic and political system, but to transform it." (p. 62).
"Binary thinking, which focuses on just two groups, usually whites and one other, can thus conceal the checkerboard of racial progress and retrenchment and hide the way dominant society often casts minority groups against one another to the detriment of both." (p. 71).
"[A] new generation of scholars is putting whiteness under the lens and examining the construction of the white race...[critical white studies] includes examining what it means to be white, how whiteness became established legally...
...how certain groups moved in and out of the category of whiteness, "passing," the phenomenon of white power and white supremacy, and the automatic privileges that come with membership in the dominant race." (p. 75)
"'White privilege' refers to the myriad of social advantages, benefits, and courtesies that come with being a member of the dominant race." (p. 78)
#ScholarStrike #CriticalRaceTheory
#ScholarStrike #CriticalRaceTheory
[One scholar compares the U.S. system of race to a "two-headed hydra"]: "One head consists of outright racism - the oppression of people on grounds of who they are. The other consists of white privilege, a system by which whites help one another." (p. 79)
"CRT's adversaries are perhaps most concerned with what they perceive to be [crits] nonchalance about objective truth. For the [crit], objective truth, like merit, does not exist, at least in social sciences and politics, [where] truth is...created to suit [white] purposes."
"In addition to responding to outside criticism, CRT has engaged in intensive self-criticism, often outside the public view...A persistent internal critique [posits that, as] racial oppression has material and cultural roots...
...attacking only its ideational or linguistic expression is apt to do little for the underlying structures of inequality, much less the plight of the deeply poor."
"Another internal critique raises the question of whether CRT takes adequate account of economic democracy...A final charge that some crits raise is that the movement has become...preoccupied with issues of identity, as opposed to hard-nosed social analysis"
"[T]he internal critiques question only the movement's emphasis and allocation of resources. They do not threaten its solidarity, vitality, or ability to generate vital insights into America's racial predicament." (pp. 92-95)
#ScholarStrike
#ScholarStrike
"Critical race theory has yet to develop a comprehensive theory of class." (p. 107)
Attn: @HawleyMO and anyone who might believe his spittle-flecked flailing about CRT being "Marxist-inspired".
(it would be fine (if different) if it were but it's not - so why is Hawley lying?)
Attn: @HawleyMO and anyone who might believe his spittle-flecked flailing about CRT being "Marxist-inspired".
(it would be fine (if different) if it were but it's not - so why is Hawley lying?)
