Critical Race Theory: An Introduction

If you’re getting a little irritated hearing political commentators using the acronym C.R.T., which gives forces you to miss their next two sentences because you’re trying to remember the letters stand for, then this information packed book is likely to be just the introduction that you need. If you’re feeling a little “out of it” as you read about Florida’s ban on certain kinds of classroom teaching about race and racism, then this book is definitely for you.  Or, if you have heard a gazillion times that Critical Race Theory is dangerous but you can’t say exactly why, then Delgado and Stefancic’s book may start you on the path to understanding what is going on.

This Really is an “Introduction”

Delgado and Stefancic’s, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, ia more a handbook than a philosophical argument.   It manages to state in a few sentences what CRT’s various aspects are, many of which are somewhat familiar. 

The book is brief. We’re accustomed to hearing that CRT can’t be taught in schools because it is abstract and technical–basically graduate school stuff.  This observation is true. But Delgado and Stefancic have avoided the turgid language of philosophical arguement and have instead stuck with brief definitions and a few examples. They’ve also skipped describing CRT’s historical roots in continental social theory, the Frankfort School of Critical Theory, and CRT’s post modern character.

An example of CRT’s postmodern feel is its insistence that race is a social construction and not rooted in biology. This seems to me to be CRT’s most fundamental idea.  The expression “social construct,” belongs to the lexicon of post modernity and refers to the fact that many of our cherished truths in life, such as our religion or morality, are made up by our culture a fact that is concealed from us.  These in turn take on an air of absolute importance.  

It’s telling that Delgado and Stefancic’s book devotes a scant 131 words to describe the social construct character of race. The book seems to assume that the reader is familiar with that concept.  The remaining 14 occurances of the term in the book are in the bibliographic sections, the headings, or study questions.

My point here is that the book is not a ponderous philosophical argument. It treats the exquisite and disruptive ideas of CRT very briefly. The book is orienting.  It gets the main ideas on the table. 

What it does offer is an exhaustive collection of discussion questions, which, if explored, would probably equip the reader to productively apply the principles of CRT to real life.  The number and depth of the questions borders on the excessive.  It’s hard to imagine any class or group devoting the time necessary to get the most of the questions.  It would help if the authors would provide their own answers to the questions so that groups could see if they were on the right track.

Finally, Delgado and Stefancic provide an extensive bibliography, which can guide the reader into much deeper exploration.

So, What Is CRT?

I want to take a stab at describing CRT in plain language. As with many aspects of post modernity, of which CRT is a product, a straightforward circumscriptive definition is elusive, probably impossible. So, whatever I posit here is only going to bring into the light some of the big chunks of CRT without claiming to be exposing it all.

There was one phrase in the book that I found illuminating and serves as the basis of my definition.  Here’s the phrase:

“Critical race theory…seeks to change the reigning paradigm of civil rights thought” 

In other words, we’ve been thinking about difficulties in race relations in America as a failure of individual compassion and personal cruelty.  It’s been rooted in individual prejudice which is grounded in the racist assumption that there is an essential inferiority in the character or culture of African descent people.  That’s the old paradigm.  Civil Rights efforts and diversity training programs have addressed racism as personal ignorance and characterological failure.

The new CRT paradigm shifts the locus of the racism to the society.  Structural racism is the best brief but inadequate handle to describe CRT.  CRT exposes habits of social thought that lock in disadvantages endured by Black citizens.  An example: historical revisionism.  Careful study of the historical record of Black experience in America reveals that the history of say, slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, have been curated by scholars and social commentators in such a way to conceal much of the ugly history of White treatment of Black Americans. 

Historical revisionism joins other intellectual tools like the social construction of thought, intersectionality, interest convergence, to name a few to suggest the emergence of a new paradigm or lens with which to view race relations.

Controversy

The power of this emerging paradigm and the idea cluster represented by CRT is evident in its ability to attract visceral criticism.  Challenging facts, such as historical information, might foster debate.  Challenging a paradigm or reigning narrative invites a volcanic upsurge of rage as is the case with Critical Race Theory. 

Reading Delgado and Stefancic’s book in 2023 is to enter into that volcanic upsurge.  The Southern Baptist Convention has singled out CRT as particularly hostile to Christianity.  Readers of CRT: An Introduction won’t find a hint of theology or religious talk in the book.  Nevertheless, the presidents of all 6 of the Southern Baptist seminaries declared in 2020 as they were celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the Baptist Faith and Message statement: that  “Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality and any version of Critical Theory is incompatible with the Baptist Faith & Message.”

What I find noteworthy about the seminary president’s statement is its overkill.  A newcomer to this conversation might look at the statement and conclude that scholars have come up with some intellectual stuff that is of unprecedented danger and inimical to Christian faith.  Even the popular upsurge in atheism several years ago which, of course, has clear religious implications, has not fetched the 5 alarm treatment from the presidents.

More concerning has been Florida governor, Ron DeSantis’ legislative attack on Critical Race Theory.  Under DeSantis’ leadership Florida has outlawed any discussion of racism that strays outside of the traditional paradigm of racism-as-personal-animus.  CRT insights are skillfully proscribed in SB 148, aka Stop Woke Act.

Additionally, Governor DeSantis has skillfully forced the exclusion of CRT insights from the College Board’s originally excellent, and brand-new Advanced Placement Course in African American Studies. This development not only has impact on Florida’s schools, but, because the College Board appears to have collapsed under DeSantis’ pressure, restricts the rest of the nation from benefiting from the College Board’s innovative work.

Delgado and Stefancic provide a worthy door into the state of America’s conversation about race, a conversation that appears to be the animating core of the 2024 election.

Book Summary

This summary might well be considered a summary of a summary, which is the book itself. It is intended for readers interested in Delgado and Stefancic’s book and are wondering what it contains. I’ve characterized each chapter and section with a sentence or two.

Chapter One: “Introduction”

1. 1. The introduction to the introduction begins with a discussion of microaggressions, defined as “sudden, dispiriting transactions that mar the days of women and folks of color.” These arise out of cultural assumptions that people acquire. These assumptions drive much larger, pernicious actions like over-charging or questionnaires which ask “where a family comes from.”

2. What is Critical Race Theory?

   1. Introduction

      1. It is the continued study of race or gender with a broader range of inquiry. CRT questions foundations.  CRT has expanded to include Asian Americans, LGBT people, and Muslims.  As CRT spreads it examines areas that pertain to the group in view.  Native American CRT examines, for example, “Indian” logos and mascots.

   2. Early Origins

      1. CRT arose in the 1970’s among lawyers, activists, and legal scholars. It arose out of consternation over the Civil Right’s movement’s failures.  The author names Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, and Richard Delgado as chief architechs.

   3. Relationship to Previous Movements

      1. CRT is indebted to critical legal studies and radical feminism as foundational European philosophers Derrida and Foucault together with historical American radicals DuBois and MLK. Legal indeterminacy—that there can be more than one correct outcome.  Skepticism over triumphalist history and feminist insights into domination/subordination.  Quite several streams flowed into CRT.

   4. Principal Figures

      1. These include the books authors, Derrick Bell and Ian Haney Lopez

   5. Spin-Off Movements

      1. Educators have picked up CRT insights, together with politicians, theologians, and doctors

   6. Basic Tenets of Critical Race Theory

      1. Racism is ordinary and its diminishments blend into the wallpaper and are not noticed. Racism serves the dominant group’s needs.
      2. Interest convergence. Progress for Blacks is secondary to White interests
      3. Social Construction Theory. Race is not a “thing” outside of the way people talk about it.  Racial identities mean different things for different circumstances.  Stereotypes shift
      4. Intersectionality/Antiessentialism. No one has a fixed personality due in part to the fact that all people carry several identities at once.
      5. The voice of color. The previous point notwithstanding, minority peoples can speak of experiences that Whites or other groups may not understand.
      6. How Much Racism is there in the World
         1. Evidence points to the fact that it isn’t going away.

   7. Organization of This Book

Chapter Two: “Hallmark Critical Race Theory Themes”

1. Interest Convergence Material Determinism and Racial Realism

   1. There are circumstances when it would be more convenient for the nation as a whole to be more inclusive and less racist. The opposite is equally true.  Accordingly, the degree Whites soften or harden barriers for Blacks is determined by White interests rather than on personal charity or prejudice.

2. Historical Revisionism

   1. The discovery that history has been sanitized and that injustices have been concealed in the public record motivate people to work for structural changes, possibly involving legislation. Idealists focus on interpersonal relationships, notably on microaggressions and racial insults.

3. Critique of Liberalism

   1. Healing the would of racism lightly or wishing that color blindness would solve all problems. Florida’s “Stop Woke Act” is an example of colorblind legislation.  Emphasis on rights, affirmative action, electing Obama and diversity training will probably not usher us into a post racial society.  Blatantly anti-black conservatism nowadays make some CRT theorists look longingly back on the days of colorblindness.

4. Structural Determinism

   1. Tools of Thought and the Dilemma of Law. Americans lack a vocabulary and social setup to address racism This is basically the idea that we simply lack the vocabulary to apply.  It would imply that using CRT language would help advance its insights.
   2. The Empathic Fallacy: This sounds like a description of the kind of conversations contemplated in White Fragility. Talking across the racial divide is not commonplace and therefore our prejudices don’t get moderated.
   3. Serving Two Masters: Actual court cases with real people may push lawyers to argue for the client’s actual, personal needs rather than the broader principle.

5. Race Remedies Law as a Homeostatic Device.

   1.  On its face this heading suggests that successful race remedies cases have a tendency to carry racial setbacks which nullify their success.

Chapter Three: “Legal Storytelling and Narrative Analysis”

• 1. Stories have proven to be effective in releasing insight about everybody’s experience of race.  Narrative holds promise to greatly enrich legalese, philosophical assertions, or academic analysis.

1. Opening a Window onto Ignored or Alternative Realities

   1. The dominant story of America’s history, prominently featuring steady racial progress is contradicted by the condition of Black families.

2. Counterstorytelling

   1. Fiction has the power t dislodge popular opinions and assumptions which keep people on society’s margins, Mark Twain’s depiction of Jim the runaway slave taking tender care of Huck on the raft floating down the Mississippi River dislodges the vicious Whites, and that Blacks are cruel and criminal. Our prejudices and commonly held myths are powerfully determinative of court cases as are formal laws.

3. Cure for Silencing

   1. Many victims, often women or children, lack a language with which to describe their subordination. It is in this chapter that the authorws introduce Lyotard’s postmodern idea of the differend.  The differend is an injustice that cannot be reported or falsified such as sexual abuse of an infant or the existence of gas chambers during the Holocaust.

4. Storytelling in Court

   1. An example of this might be permitting children to simply tell their own stories without interruption.

5. Storytelling on the Defensive

Chapter Four: “Looking Inward”

1. Intersectionality

   1. Ethnic groups can divide along gender or socioeconomic status. The point of paying attention to the multiplicity of perspectives is to embrace the complexity of people

2. Essentialism and Anti-essentialism

   1. The forms of oppression will vary from group to group. There is a multiplicity of people within any larger group.  There is a multiplicity of people; within any larger group.  A population of say, African Americans does not necessarily share a single essential need.  There is variation within the group. 
   2. Social progress must listen to the voices of those who don’t fit into the general needs of the broader group. The complaint about liberalism is that it moves too slowly, and small progress is often simply rolled back.
   3. Classical liberalism searches for universals, which may leave many unsatisfied. The remedy is sweeping progress.  Apparently Black women were overlooked.  Today their concerns are much more being addressed.  It sounds like many more programs need to be launched to bring various subgroups along.

3. Nationalism versus Assimilation

   1. Maintaining the outward signs of one’s identity group versus suppressing should be an option in the effort to provide a welcoming embrace of subgroups.  Racial justice is not achieved by one size fits all solutions.  The tension between nationalism and assimilation needs to be embraced.  Insisting that Blacks blend in carries the suggestion that White culture is superior in some way.  Ethnic studies programs. 
   2. Our culture needs to embrace both blending in by some and maintaining ethnic identity.  Allowing for Spanish to be spoken and nurturing the use of literature and music from one’s native country.
   3. Submerging another’s culture as a goal should not be the only approach.
   4. Some, including Derrick Bell, take a middle approach of ethnics refusing to blend into an otherwise corrupt economic system.

4. Racial Mixture

   1. Mixed parentage produces yet additional people who do not fit comfortably into one of the other cultural identities.

Chapter Five: “Power and the Shape of Knowledge”

1. 1. 1. The Black-White Binary

         1. Like the construal of Asian Americans as the “model minority,” Blacks are the quintessential minority group. Other ethnic populations, say Latinos social progress is calibrated in comparison to Blacks.  Americans are accustomed to seeing racial concerns as Black-White experiences with all other groups being squeezed onto that framework.  Thus, when Asians are associated with Covid or Muslims with terrorism, Whites have no framework to call up to illuminate the problem.  All the framing pertains to Blacks. 

         2. This problem reduces all minority issues to some variation of Black-White problems such as Chinese Americans seeking to

      2. Critical White Studies

         1. If minority groups are the result of social construction so can white people. How was Whiteness invented? Who is white? Whiteness and darkness as color tones evoke goodness and evil respectively.  Likewise Whiteness is normative and essentially American.  Up to 1952, only white people could immigrate here.  Darker skinned people are always the ”other.” 

         2. Other groups can move into and out of Whiteness.

         3. Early in American history Jews, Irish, and Italians were not White.

      3. Other Developments: Latino and Asian Criticism

         1. Latin Crit thinkers focus on immigration and language issues. Asians suffer from the model minority myth, which entails stereotypes of emotionlessness, success in STEM areas.  Feminism and LBGTQ issues also benefit from critical race theory.

Chapter Six: “Critiques and Responses to Criticism”

• • • CRT has attempted to establish a new paradigm in understanding racial issues.

      1. “Internal” Criticism

         1. 1. CRT theorists and activists also offer important criticism of the theory.

      2. The Activist Critiques

         1. It appears that CRT offers too little practical ideas for those like social workers who are working directly with the poor and people of color.

      3. Critique of the Intellectual Heart of the Movement

         1. Under this category, practitioners of CRT bemoan the drift from focus on material poverty to middle class issues such as microaggressions, racial insults, unconscious discrimination, and affirmative action in higher education.
         2. Secondly, CRT needs a more robust insight in linking the economics of the day, which are driven by a wounded late capitalism, with race and those struggling in racialized hierarchy.

      4. Critical Race Theory as a Method of Inquiry in New Fields and Countries

         1. Naturally, CRT scholars wonder whether new insights into race in America are transferable to other countries and other situations
         2. Roma in Europe and low-caste people in India were mentioned.

Chapter Seven: Critical Race Theory Today

• • 1. • In many ways CRT is thriving. It is branching out to include the LGBTQ and Muslim communities.  Basically, CRT is a way of thinking about the challenges and diminishments faced by people in various groups.

    2. Right Wing Offensive

       1. Beginning in the 1990’s, well-funded studies and think tanks produced a body of intellectual opposition. They supported the “color blind”  approach to race.  Color blindness sees racism as a personal character flaw that shows up as hateful or discriminatory behavior directed to people of different ethnic backgrounds or physical appearance.  All persons, according to this outlook, are capable of this construal of racism.  What is missing in the color blind approach is the history in America of policies, which intend to place African descent people in low caste status.  The higher probability of a black teen being incarcerated is a result of systemic racism where decisions by police, prosecutors, and courts result in disproportionate representation of black men in prisons.  CRT explores the background to this phenomenon which sees Black men as more likely to behave criminally.  This belief in turn leads to more policing of Black youth and more frequent prosecution. 

    3. Front-Burner issues

       1. Race, Class, Welfare, and Poverty
          1. CRT suggests that race in addition to class accounts for the dis advantage endured by Blacks
          2. Real estate steering and redlining are racially determined and place Blacks at a disadvantage in acquiring a home—a crucial asset and marker of middle class existence.
          3. Confinement in disadvantaged neighborhoods consigns Black families to substandard schools.
          4. Standardized tests favor middle class Whites.
          5. Environmental racism subjects Black neighborhoods to highway projects and chemical dumps
          6. The Right Wing political attack on 1)public schools, 2) the social safety net, and 3) affirmative action has undercut Black Class security.

    4. Policing and Criminal Justice

       1. White collar crimes do more harm than street crime. White collar crime is not socially deemed as criminal.

    5. Hate Speech, Language Rights and School

       1. Hate speech is a crime and causes emotional distress and is a significant problem.
       2. English only laws in the US can cloak nativist values.
       3. Laws such as the Arizona “papers please” laws were blantly anti-immigrant and mostly struck down by the Supreme Court.

    6. Affirmative Action and Color Blindness

       1. This discussion begins with the overturning of Plessey v. Ferguson by Brown v. Board of Education.
       2. Affirmative action began in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
       3. Affirmative Action was unpopular and fostered the Alan Bakke lawsuit charging reverse racism. The Bakke decision eliminated numerical quotas in admissions.
       4. Conservative have not abandoned the attack on affirmative action.
       5. One argument asserts the racist idea that recipients of affirmative action don’t deserve carve out placements, which ultimately result in decline in candidate quality.
       6. CRT critique of merit-based admissions:
          1. Standardized tests favor wealthy who buy coaching.
          2. LSAT scores only predict first year law school grades.
          3. Standardized tests don’t measure many personal qualities necessary for effective lawyering
          4. The American Bar Association new tends to deemphasize LSAT scores.

    7. Globalization and Immigration

       1. 1. Trade agreements can remove businesses from proximity to American poor and relocate them overseas.
          2. Trade agreements like NAFTA can decimate ec onomies of weaker nations. Workers in both the US and poorer countries suffer.
          3. Immigration: There can be elements of collusion between the American government and right wing autocracies in developing countries.
          4. American harsh treatment of immigrants is a mirror into how the American government feels about its own citizens of color.

    8. Voting Rights

       1. 1. American Whites tend to use their majority status to out-vote ethnic minorities. In 2013 Southern states sere no longer required to secure federal preclearance before changing voting rules.
          2. Voter suppression continues today in multiple forms.

    9. Identity

       1. 1. The materialist outlook follows Derrick Bell’s view that racial practices advance the material interests of elite groups.
          2. The discourse analysts focuses on ideas behind social understanding of race. There is some tension between the two outlooks.

    10. Critical Empirical Analysis

1. 1. 1. 1. 1.  Understanding of bias is making inroads into the justice system.

Chapter Eight: “Conclusion”

1. 1. The Future

   2. A Critical Race Agenda for the New Century

   3. Likely Responses to the Critical Race The

      1. Critical Race Theory Becomes the New Civil

      2. Critical Race Theory Marginalized and Ignore

      3. Critical Race Theory Analyzed but Rejected

      4. Partial incorporation

An excellent audio conversation featuring Ian Haney Lopez, an expert on Critical Race Theory referenced by authors Stefancic and Richard Delgado can be found here.