Policy Issues / Woke and Weaponized

PRIMER: Ending State-Sanctioned Racism

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a theory espousing that all of society is racialized and properly viewed through a prism of identity groups based on race and color, with minorities being the oppressed while white people serve as the oppressor.

Summary
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a theory espousing that all of society is racialized and properly viewed through a prism of identity groups based on race and color, with minorities being the oppressed while white people serve as the oppressor. In this ideology’s framing, all of society’s ills are ultimately caused by white people and the various “systems” that CRT adherents associate with “white culture.” This includes Christianity, capitalism, traditional marriage, rule of law, traditional family structures, and a republican form of government. CRT teaches that white people are inherently and irredeemably racist and benefit from various systemically racist power structures that white people have put in place and perpetuate. Similarly, America and its founding are taught to be systemically racist. The purpose of CRT is to sow division among Americans under the guise of “equity” and “diversity.” CRT completely contradicts the foundational American creed that Americans are created with equal dignity and with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Discussion
Critical Race Theory has swiftly become unquestioned dogma among political, administrative, military, cultural, corporate, educational, and financial leaders in our society. The activists and proponents of this ideology seek to impose this Marxist worldview on America through institutions (schools, churches, government, HR departments, etc.), explicitly sowing new racial divisions, reviving old divisions, destroying national unity, and undermining the American way of life.

Critical Race Theory stems from a foundation in Marxism, departing from the historic economic-based distinctions in favor of militant identity politics. CRT’s baseline philosophy divides society into the “haves” and the “have nots,” asserting that if you are white or a part of so-called white “power structures,” you are inherently racist and part of an oppressing class. By operating under this framework, CRT argues the only way to establish “justice” is to completely revolutionize society by overthrowing the oppressor’s institutions. This necessitates destroying purported “white” cultural values such as the nuclear family, delayed gratification, and objectivity; enforcing equal outcomes based only on the characteristics of race, gender, and sexuality; and forcing white people to continually and publicly confess their collective and individual “sins” with no hope of forgiveness, redemption, or acceptance in the new revolutionary society. Often this dangerous ideology is advanced using taxpayer dollars.

In addition to flying in the face of the core American principle that all human beings are created equal and that someone’s skin color should never be a substitute for their character, CRT has intentionally inflamed issues around race. A theory that blanketly condemns one group based on skin color and blanketly absolves other groups based on skin color is not designed to achieve any notion of justice and equality, but rather to destroy such virtues completely. 

Examples

  • The Smithsonian Institution published and promoted materials claiming, “Whiteness and the normalization of white racial identity throughout America’s history have created a culture where nonwhite persons are seen as inferior or abnormal…. Whiteness (and its accepted normality) also exist as everyday microaggressions toward people of color.” To the Smithsonian Institution, common characteristics of white people include “master and control nature,” “aggressiveness and extroversion,” “objective, rational linear thinking,” “delayed gratification,” and believing “hard work is the key to success.”
  • Coca-Cola is one of many major corporations that has adopted CRT. Coca-Cola instituted “diversity” training that taught, “In the U.S. and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white,” and that employees need to be “less white.”
  • Cigna, one of America’s largest health insurance providers, was recently exposed as forcing its employees to undergo CRT training that includes “checking their privilege.” In a slide, privilege is defined as being white, heterosexual, or Christian. Additionally, the company is alleged to actively discourage white men from consideration when it comes to hiring.
  • The Arizona Department of Education has an infographic pushing parents to adopt CRT and raise “race-conscious children,” citing studies alleging children as young as three months prefer to “look at faces of their own race” and that racial prejudice “often peaks” in kids when they are four or five years old.
  • Paul Rossi, a math teacher at the prestigious Grace Church High School in Manhattan, was recently let go by the school after writing a public account of the radical CRT indoctrination being imposed on students by the administration. Among many alarming elements, Rossi revealed that a faculty email chain recommended “flagging” students “who appear resistant” to the “culture we are trying to establish.” Audio suggests the head teacher admitted that students are being taught white people are inherently evil. 
  • The U.S. Navy released a recommended reading list of books in March 2021 for its sailors that included noted CRT provocateur Ibram X. Kendi, who not only embraces CRT, but also advocates for a Department of Anti-Racism to police citizens’ thoughts and discriminate against white Americans. Kendi explicitly advocates for racial discrimination: 

    If racial discrimination is defined as treating, considering, or making a distinction in favor or against an individual based on that person’s race, then racial discrimination is not inherently racist. The defining question is whether the discrimination is creating equity or inequity. If discrimination is creating equity, then it is antiracist….The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”
  • Concerned cadets and soldiers at West Point privately revealed that America’s foremost military institution is pushing radical CRT material from Dr. Carol Anderson on cadets. Among many of Anderson’s radical views is the claim that “white rage” is triggered by “black advancement” and that Republicans “yearn for a white republic.”

Conclusion

Racism should at every turn be condemned—regardless of what race is the subject of discrimination. In the short 230-year history of our nation, America has made incredible progress to live up to its ideals as laid out in the Declaration of Independence, furthering human rights, freedom, and prosperity for people of every race, sex, religion, and creed. With every generation, America is closer to creating a society that treats all people with dignity and equality.

Proponents may dishonestly assert that CRT is necessary for institutions to have honest discussions about the racial problems our country has historically encountered. This is not true. Opposition to racism in American institutions or in our culture is entirely appropriate and teaching history accurately is essential, without the sort of indoctrination inherent in the CRT framework.

Ultimately, CRT is not about educating or healing communities or establishing justice. It is state-sanctioned racism and used as a tool of fear and authoritarian coercion by the most powerful people and institutions in our society to keep Americans divided against each other in order to further enrich and empower those sowing the division. Communities must not be afraid to forcefully reject CRT wherever it manifests —whether in the workplace, at school, in popular culture, or in the halls of government—and Americans must strongly defend the self-evident truth that all men are created equal.