Critical Race Theory Notes

What is CRT? Built on Critical Legal Studies and Radical Feminism, this theory propose that racism is ordinary, not aberrational. It’s the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience most people of color. It also proposes that a system of white-over-color ascendancy serves important purposes, both physical and material.

1st Feature: “Ordinariness” is difficult to cure or address through formal/color blind conceptions of equality in rules that only address blatant forms of discrimination.

2nd Feature: “Interest Convergence” or “material determinism” racism advances the interests of both white elites (materially) and working-class people (physically), large segments of society have little incentive to eradicate it. Ex. Browm vs. Board of Education

3rd Feature/Theme: “Social Construction” holds that race and races are products of social thought and relations. NOT objective, inherent, or fixed, they correspond to no bio or genetic reality. Rather, races are categories that society invents/manipulates/ retires when convenient. That society frequently chooses to ignore these scientific facts, creates races, and endows them with pseudo-permanent characteristics is of great importance to CRT.

4th Feature: Differential Racialization is the way dominant society racializes different minority groups at different types, all in response to shifting needs such as labor market. Ex. In one era a group of color may be depicted as a happy-go-lucky, simpleminded, and content to serve white folks. Yet a little later, when societal conditions change, that same group may appear in cartoons, movies, and other cultural scripts as menacing, brutish, and out of control, thus requiring vigilant monitoring and repression.

5th Feature: Intersectionality and Anti-Essentialism dictate that no person has a single, easily stated, unitary identity. Everyone has potentially conflicting, overlapping identities, loyalties, and allegiances.

6th Feature: The unique Voice of Color, holds that because of the different historical experiences from black, Indian, Asian, and Latino writers and thinkers, they may be able to communicate to their white counterparts matters that they are unlikely to know.