It’s such a relief to hear a somewhat balanced view on this topic, but I wish two more points were highlighted in this post:
First, that a significant number of POC find CRT to be profoundly insulting and offensive, and second, that a large cohort of the Left also finds it (as it is currently practiced) deeply objectionable. I’m in the latter category, and though I agree that CRT should not be banned, and is absolutely useful as one lens among many with which to examine history and contemporary society, it so often gets taught as the one monolithic truth.
Marvellous Black thinkers such as John McWhorter, Chloe Valdary, Coleman Hughes, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Kmele Foster, John Wood Jr., and Glenn Loury speak eloquently about the ways in which CRT diminishes the agency of Black Americans and the rich, nuanced and heterogeneous nature of their experiences.
In my experience - which is of a largely leftist community - CRT is wildly divisive. Extrapolating from that to what I see of the larger culture wars is beyond disheartening. Isaac, if you read this, please consider giving some platform to the ideas of a more heterodox assortment of Black thinkers. You provide a wonderful service and could actually make a difference on this important and timely issue.
These ideas are working their way into schools and there is almost no conversation in the MSM about the tensions between them and the ideals of the highly successful civil rights movements of the past.
I think your point about critical race theory being ok in theory, just not so much in terms of how it's practiced may be accurate, but unfortunately I'm not sure there's any good way of separating the two at this point. IE, I don't think there is a group of CRT "purists" who might challenge the current popular usage, but rather just a few voices here and there who are called "uncle toms" for daring to challenge the orthodoxy. As a white male, I feel like the way it's practiced is basically a mandated that everyone do and more importantly THINK in a certain way, and any objection or even slight difference is invalidated simply for the fact that I'm a white male, "privileged" and thus cannot possibly have any valid point of view. I consider myself way left of center on many views, even race-related ones like abolishing the police, reoperations, etc., but I feel like the CRT dogma has created an atmosphere of thought policing and discrimination based on race/religion/gender/sexual orientation/gender identity, just in the opposite direction of what has been the case up until now. But discrimination is discrimination, it's never right no matter who is the discriminator and who is being discriminated against.
Isaac is 100% correct to say that banning CRT is the wrong approach. Instead, CRT should be presented, in detail, as a teachable example of both racism and Marxism.
I'm actually not opposed to that either! My point is more that, by banning it, we remove opportunities to learn from it - no matter what direction we're going in.
Critical Race Theory is too subjective and shakes the foundations of our country as we know it and is divisive to our society. There are hundreds of critical theories that are more beneficial to our society.
It’s such a relief to hear a somewhat balanced view on this topic, but I wish two more points were highlighted in this post:
First, that a significant number of POC find CRT to be profoundly insulting and offensive, and second, that a large cohort of the Left also finds it (as it is currently practiced) deeply objectionable. I’m in the latter category, and though I agree that CRT should not be banned, and is absolutely useful as one lens among many with which to examine history and contemporary society, it so often gets taught as the one monolithic truth.
Marvellous Black thinkers such as John McWhorter, Chloe Valdary, Coleman Hughes, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Kmele Foster, John Wood Jr., and Glenn Loury speak eloquently about the ways in which CRT diminishes the agency of Black Americans and the rich, nuanced and heterogeneous nature of their experiences.
I’m glad Isaac has had positive experiences CRT workshops, but links like this (to 50+ studies) suggest that in general they do more harm than good: https://musaalgharbi.com/2020/09/16/diversity-important-related-training-terrible/
In my experience - which is of a largely leftist community - CRT is wildly divisive. Extrapolating from that to what I see of the larger culture wars is beyond disheartening. Isaac, if you read this, please consider giving some platform to the ideas of a more heterodox assortment of Black thinkers. You provide a wonderful service and could actually make a difference on this important and timely issue.
To add - consider this heartfelt letter from Clarence B. Jones - a key figure in the Black Freedom Movement - who derides a recent proposed anti-racist curriculum for California as a "morally indecent" "blatant and reprehensible falsification of historical fact" "that denigrates the struggle of Dr. King." https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f84dfefd2969649b9ef4158/t/5fa9d2a6ea796d34de4b4906/1604965032360/CBJ+Letter+To+Gov+Newsom.docx.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1z2t0Nz6xE7gAMEznZ-6w1kEjGDdsubvNIrw8V0D2x4Wl3L2MpaoZpy0k
These ideas are working their way into schools and there is almost no conversation in the MSM about the tensions between them and the ideals of the highly successful civil rights movements of the past.
I think your point about critical race theory being ok in theory, just not so much in terms of how it's practiced may be accurate, but unfortunately I'm not sure there's any good way of separating the two at this point. IE, I don't think there is a group of CRT "purists" who might challenge the current popular usage, but rather just a few voices here and there who are called "uncle toms" for daring to challenge the orthodoxy. As a white male, I feel like the way it's practiced is basically a mandated that everyone do and more importantly THINK in a certain way, and any objection or even slight difference is invalidated simply for the fact that I'm a white male, "privileged" and thus cannot possibly have any valid point of view. I consider myself way left of center on many views, even race-related ones like abolishing the police, reoperations, etc., but I feel like the CRT dogma has created an atmosphere of thought policing and discrimination based on race/religion/gender/sexual orientation/gender identity, just in the opposite direction of what has been the case up until now. But discrimination is discrimination, it's never right no matter who is the discriminator and who is being discriminated against.
Isaac is 100% correct to say that banning CRT is the wrong approach. Instead, CRT should be presented, in detail, as a teachable example of both racism and Marxism.
I'm actually not opposed to that either! My point is more that, by banning it, we remove opportunities to learn from it - no matter what direction we're going in.
Critical Race Theory is too subjective and shakes the foundations of our country as we know it and is divisive to our society. There are hundreds of critical theories that are more beneficial to our society.