Explaining Critical Race Theory to My Friends
Critical race theory has been all over the news, but many of us don’t really know what it is. It has become a staple of almost every political race lately and with gubernatorial elections coming up this fall in many states, we’ll likely be hearing about it all of the time. I stumbled across it almost two years ago, but was already late to the party. I’m writing this article to help explain to my friends what it is.
Stumbling Upon CRT
Like everyone else, in late spring of 2020, my family and I were doing a lot of television watching. We wound up watching a lot of documentary-type programs, and somehow I ran across a film produced by Founders Ministries called By What Standard? The film highlighted a couple of crucial issues being faced by Southern Baptists, one of which being something called critical race theory (“CRT”). (For the record, I am not a Southern Baptist.)
At the time, I had never heard of this…critical race theory. I was immediately captivated by what I had heard and started talking about it and asking my friends what they knew about this subject. They knew nothing.
Months later, in September, I stumbled upon a review by Tim Challies of a book called Cynical Theories, co-authored by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, which devotes a chapter to critical race theory. I shared this review with a wise friend and his feedback really got my attention. “This is it,” he said. “This book summarizes exactly what is happening in our society today.”
At that point, I knew I had to learn more.
During this same period of time, our country seemed to be on the verge of tearing apart. We found ourselves in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, a traumatic season of social unrest and upheaval, and probably the most contentious presidential election in our country’s history.
As the events unfolded, and as we moved into 2021, I continued pondering CRT. It seemed to be everywhere. Corporations were subjecting employees to training influenced by CRT, all levels of our educational system seemed to be infiltrated by CRT advocates and curricula, and even the evangelical church in the United States was falling under CRT’s spell. And the November 2021 election season featured CRT right in the middle of everything.
Critical race theory is a big deal. It has serious implications for our nation and its future. It goes beyond Democrat vs. Republican and red states vs. blue states. It goes beyond liberals and conservatives.
It must be stopped, but most of us don’t even know what it is.
Critical Race Theory Advances Marxism
I’ll get right to the point:
Critical Race Theory flows out of Marxism and is a tool used by Marxists, neo-Marxists and communists to advance their causes.
While that may be enough to get your attention, it probably doesn’t do much to aid in your understanding of critical race theory. So to begin our look at this philosophical tool, let’s first discuss Marxism.
There aren’t a lot of people in the United States that identify as Marxists. Or at least there aren’t a lot of people that will admit it.
Karl Marx was the father of communism and, as Wikipedia tells us, “his critical theories about society, economics, and politics, collectively [are] understood as Marxism.” This means that even though Marx fathered communism, he also thought up other stuff as well and all of his thinking and theories are labeled as Marxism. This school of thought has even continued to advance long after his death.
For good reason, Marxists have typically been forced to the fringe of America’s political society. Yet the practice of Marxism and adherence to the un-biblical and un-American tenets that define this philosophy has become all too common, even if the adherents to this political doctrine don’t technically understand what they are doing.
Because critical race theory advances from Marxist political ideals, and because of the importance of understanding what critical race theory is being used to accomplish, it is imperative to understand the basics of Marxism.
Defining Marxism
As I watched and re-watched the Founders Ministry film, I learned the following things about Marxism and critical race theory:
CRT flows directly from Marxism and Marxism obviously flows from Karl Marx. Though to be clear, even though he died in the 1800s, over time his theories and thinking have been modified and adapted. Therefore, all that is described under “Marxism” is not always directly coming from Marx.
Marxism believes in matter only. There is nothing supernatural involved with Marxism. Therefore, Marxists do not believe in God and nothing related to God influences this ideology. God has no place in this political ideology. None. This is an important point to keep in mind. [Simultaneously, if we are religious and if we are somewhat sympathetic to this way of thinking, this is a warning to reevaluate our position.]
Because of this type of thinking, everything is thought of as a zero-sum game. This means that nothing ever improves or increases without a corresponding decrease somewhere else.
Again, under this ideology there is no place for God or anything supernatural. With this point of view how do Marxists view the world as being driven or carried along? By power structures. And again, there is no God represented anywhere in these power structures.
These power structures also follow the zero-sum assumptions. Marxists assume there is a finite amount of power and those in the power structures have it, and those who aren’t a part of the power structure don’t.
Therefore, if those in power want to stay there, then there must be an offset. In order for the powerful to keep their power, they are assumed to oppress others to keep their power.
Those in power are considered oppressors and those out of power are considered to be oppressed.
Accordingly, oppressors use power structures to remain in place and work to control the state of mind, or hegemony, of the populace to support these power structures.
Therefore, to change power structures, the hegemony, or mindset of the population must be changed.
In the minds of Marxists, there exists only the constant struggle of oppressors and the oppressed. In their minds, the systems set up by the oppressors to support and perpetuate the oppressive power structures are constantly at work, so they must constantly work to resist and overthrow.
One of the tools used by the “oppressed” in their never ending work to overthrow power structures is critical race theory.
CRT: A Simple Definition
Now that we have an understanding of Marxism, we can take a closer look at critical race theory. As we do, the connection between CRT and Marxism will become much more clear.
Definition of CRT
The subtitle of Cynical Theories, the book mentioned above by Pluckrose and Lindsay, is “how activist scholarship made everything about race, gender and identity.”
Within the book is a chapter titled, “Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality,” and it is a must-read it you want to take an even deeper dive into CRT. In this chapter, one comment in particular stood out:
“Critical race Theory holds that race is a social construct that was created to maintain white privilege and white supremacy.”
Cynical Theories, Pluckrose and Lindsay, page 111.
To me, this sentence encapsulates the whole chapter and stands out as a good, practical working definition of CRT. That’s another way of saying we can understand this definition without having a degree in political science or sociology.
With this in mind, let’s break down this definition phrase-by-phrase. As we do so, this understanding critical race theory will begin to come alive for us.
CRT as Theory
First, let’s lets take the phrase “critical race theory,” with an emphasis on two words: “critical” and “theory.”
“Critical,” as defined by Lindsay refers to “criticizing all systems and undermining them.” As he notes, this is entirely different than critiquing or dissecting these systems, but instead this a form of activism used to tear down and destroy.
“Theory” is described by Pluckrose and Lindsay as an “approach to social philosophy that stems from postmodernism.” (p.17) Later in the book, Brian McHale is quoted as describing theory as “what in other eras might have been called speculation, or even indeed philosophy.” (p. 49) As it is used here, theory is clearly not a law, which is something that is fixed, stable or logical. For example, the internet tells us that a “law describes what happens when certain conditions are present.” A law would mean that if we do X, then Y will happen.
To summarize, “critical theory” is a system of thought that is used to tear things up. It’s not something scientific where an action is presented and a reaction is measured, real data is collected and studied, and then recommendations for change are made. It is a postmodern way of thinking in which truth is trampled.
Race isn’t the only topic subjected to “critical theory.” When we look at society and see the “societal norms” that are being deconstructed, typically some application of critical theory is close at hand. However, when critical theory is applied to race, then race and racism become the center of everything. Race and racism are seen everywhere and in everything.
Practically speaking, when racism is seen in everything, Marxists have the excuse they need to tear things up.
CRT Views Racism as a “Social Construct”
The second phrase of the passage for our review is “social construct,” which has been defined by some as follows:
The notion that patterns of human interaction (often deemed to be normal, natural or universal) are, in fact, humanly produced and constructed by social expectation and coercion but is presented as “objective.”
When something is considered to be a “social construct,” it means that society has built the idea or practice of something. Lindsay notes on his website that a social construct “is some idea or understanding that is produced by human social interactions - or as result of them.” As the quote above from Pluckrose and Lindsay indicates, “critical race Theory holds that race is a social construct” which implies that race (and racism) would be produced “by human social interactions - or as the result of them.”
At first pass, this makes a good deal of sense. After all, we have either seen or heard about very real examples of racism. We can all agree that racism is a real and that it still exists in some forms. For example, the Holocaust was the result of racism against Jews. This happened in part because the Nazi party’s propaganda machine created an atmosphere of hate against the Jewish people. This racism was socially constructed.
It is also clear that racism was stoked by many in order to help provide a “moral” basis for the slave trade in America. For example, many involved in this horrible activity presented slaves as “less than” in order to try to condition the public to this horrible practice.
There is no question that the slavery in America was horrible. There is no question that the Holocaust abhorable. So please understand that the next statements describing “racism as a social contruct” are not meant in any way to support or defend the American slave trade, or the Holocaust.
Proponents of CRT believe that racism is socially constructed, or contrived, in order to help power structures remain in place. We may see slavery thrown off via a war that tore our country apart, or we may see progress made through the passage of landmark civil rights legislation, or we may see people of all colors “worshiping” athletes of color as they play our favorite sports, but what does the Marxist see?
The next section answers this question.
CRT Sees Racism in Everything
Most people see the progress that has been made in race relations in the United States and be pleased that positive change continues to take place. Critical race theorists, on the other hand, say “that [race and racism] was created to maintain white privilege and white supremacy.” This is the third and final section of the definition of CRT to review.
As Lindsay’s website says,
As Social Justice sees it, race is a social construction and a political contrivance that was made by white people to serve the interests of white people, particularly the domination, marginalization, exclusion, and oppression of people of color. That is, in Social Justice, race is an invention of white people made so as to perpetrate racism.
Those that use critical race theory believe that “race is a social construct that was created to maintain white privilege and white supremacy.” For “users” of CRT, everything – their world and life view – is viewed through the lens of a philosophy focused on race. And when you have an amalgamation such as this, it is no surprise that “white privilege” and “white supremacy” are seen in everything and in every facet of life.
We see the outcroppings of this don’t we? We see race injected into almost everything and almost everywhere. Most of us don’t understand why because we don’t see things this way. But know we know. As the definition above points out, a worldview focused on race, that sees race and racism in every single aspect of life, will no doubt see racism as a social construct created to maintain white privilege and white supremacy.”
The Purpose of CRT
We’ve taken a brief look at Marxism and we’ve looked a simple definition of CRT. Now it is time to see how they are connected – and, frankly, this is pretty easy to see, especially when we discover the purpose of CRT. Here again is another quote from Cynical Theories:
“Critical race Theory formally arose in the 1970s, through the critical study of law as it pertains to issues of race. The word critical here means that its intention and methods are specifically geared toward identifying and exposing problems in order to facilitate revolutionary political change.”
Cynical Theories, Pluckrose and Lindsay, page 114
Critical race theory is “specifically geared toward identifying and exposing problems in order to facilitate revolutionary political change.” In other words, critical race theory is a tool. A tool used “to facilitate revolutionary political change.”
This tool is used as a spotlight to shine on every single thing in our culture so that racism can be identified and exposed in every single thing.
Once identified and exposed, the tool - critical race theory - is used to “facilitate revolutionary political change.” But this “revolutionary political change” isn’t about getting the right people elected to office, appointed to committees are in powerful positions in business and politics. Not even close. As one leader with this worldview said after a particular event almost two years ago:
“If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.”
Does this sound like “revolutionary political change?” Yes, it does because that’s how the message is meant to sound. This is the message because this is the message of Marxism. And one tool of the Marxist is critical race theory.
Remember, as we discussed above, in the minds of Marxists, there exists only the constant struggle of oppressors and the oppressed. In their minds, the systems are set up by the oppressors to support and perpetuate the oppressive power structures are constantly at work, so they must constantly work to resist and overthrow. In the mind of Marxists, America was founded by oppressors and the system of government set up by our founding fathers was done to support and perpetuate oppressive white power structures.
They do not believe in America, its values or its ideals. In their minds, America is fundamentally flawed and it must be “burned to the ground” - either literally or figuratively. Marxists are not simply trying to get more Democrats elected or trying to make sure Republicans get elected. They believe the system is flawed to its core and must be completely destroyed through “revolutionary political change.”
Conclusion
Critical race theory has been in the news for a while and as this year’s election season rolls around, we are going to hear more and more about it. When this topic arises, we need to remind ourselves that what is really being discussed is Marxism. Critical race theory is simply a tool used to advance this political system.
But why does this matter?
Why is it so important to fight back against Marxism and its tool?
Because our country is at stake.
As Americans, we should reject Marxism at every turn because this school of political though is completely un-American. One cannot hold to the teachings of Marxism and be faithful to the constitution of the United States.
Our country was not founded upon the idea of politically oppressing the weak and powerless for the purpose of keeping them weak and powerless.
Our country was not founded so as to continually advance the causes of white supremacy.
Our country was founded upon the foundation that all men are created equal.
Our country was founded upon the foundation of individual liberties.
To be clear, the United States of America was founded by a group of imperfect people – “We the people…” – dedicated to the perfect cause of liberty for all. As a reminder of the intent of our founders, look at the preamble to the United States Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
If this concept is still unclear, read the Bill of Rights.
Yes, we are a country that participated in the slave trade.
Yes, we are a country that didn’t always deal forthrightly with native Americans.
Yes, we are a country that did not allow women to vote.
Yes, we are a country that passed Jim Crow laws.
Yes, we are a country that has asked its finest to go and give their lives in unjust wars.
And, yes, we are a country that legalized the murder of unborn children and has participated in the practice with much vigor.
But we are also a country that fought itself to throw off the shackles of slavery. We are a country that saw within itself to pass laws to further declare, underline and highlight the equal rights spoken of in our founding documents. We are a country that has fought valiantly against fascism, communism and tyranny. We are a country that has given billions of dollars to aid those less fortunate than ourselves. And, I believe we are a country that will one day right the abominable wrong that is abortion.
Why have we been able to do these things?
Why have we been able to correct our path and to right wrongs?
It is simply because of the grace of God and our constitutional republic form of government.
Wrongs are made right because we have the system in place that allows for peaceful change. Politicians can be voted into office and out of office. Federal legislation must pass two houses of congress and then signed by the president before becoming law. Unconstitutional laws can be overturned by the judicial branch of government. And on and on and on.
Our system of government is not historically based on the destruction of others. It is not based upon constant upheaval and turmoil and constant revolution. It is based upon the rule of law which is based upon our individual rights as recognized in our constitution which affirms what is given to all by God. Under this system, people of all races, creeds and backgrounds can and have prospered.
Marxism, communism, socialism, and other political philosophies of this sort, are the antithesis of our “great American experiment.” These godless philosophies trade the truth of God for a lie. These ways of thinking vest all power with the state and steal liberty and freedom from individuals.
Marxism is alive in our country and in many ways is prospering. It has invaded much of the bureaucracy that permeates our government. It has overtaken much of our higher educational system. It has made tremendous headway into our public schools. It permeates big businesses. And it has even found a foothold in so-called evangelical Christianity.
Critical race theory is one of the tools used to advance Marxism. But the end goal of Marxism is not to help the United States of America to “form a more perfect union.” No, the goal of Marxism is the destruction of our country.
The time is now to stop it. The first step in doing that is to know what it is. Hopefully this has helped.
This is my first political article on this site. If you have read this far, thank you. This article is sent to people of many different races and backgrounds. My intent, which I hope is very obvious, is not to offend, but to help educate. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss this issue more, all you have to do is respond to this email.