A lot of people try criticise those who acknowledge race as employing Critical Race Theory. For some reason, simply terming an opinion as CRT is seen as a legitimate means by which to discredit points made without actually offering substance as to why the points aren't valid.

In education, CRT is a framework that offers researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers a race-conscious approach to understanding inequality and structural racism, with a view to finding solutions that lead to greater justice.

Beyond education, it remains important to acknowledge racial differences. Choosing the 'I don't see colour' hill to die on is problematic because there are real issues that require us to acknowledge the role race plays in them, while overcoming our own racial bias as we do so.

We have to recognise that each of us have preconceived notions and assumptions about different racial groups. That's simply the result of the process of socialisation in a society operating under a dominant ideology. In our case, that ideology has been white supremacy.

CRT is a tool that can enable us to see colour in a way that ensures we accurately analyse policies, regulations, interventions & resource allocation; to ensure we deconstruct oppressive policies & practices, while we construct emancipatory systems for racial equity & justice.

Theories by international scholars under the umbrella of CRT may not be relevant in their entirety to our context (such as situations of inequality where the subordinated race are a minority group, such as in the US). However, some of its basic tenets are still relevant:

Racism is not an aberration. It's how society operates, meaning the ordinary experience of most people of colour is one of racism. This ordinariness makes it difficult to address because it's not easily acknowledged and remedies tend only to address the most blatant forms.

(It's important to note here that the definition of racism as a singular incident between two people motivated by racial hatred is an overly simplistic & inaccurate definition. It's also important to note that in SA, xenophobia & violent crime, such as GBV, are 'ordinary' too.)

Race is a social (& human) construct. Like other constructs, it serves as a category that society invents, manipulates or retries when convenient. While genetic ancestry indicates biological difference, it has nothing to do with 'higher order' traits such as intelligence/morals.

As a means of illustrating the need to acknowledge race: if we refuse to do so, how can we begin to address the "significant disparity in poverty levels between population groups" where "9 out of every 10 poor people in South Africa" is black?