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Critical Race Theory

Critical theory can be defined as a stream of research and a reading framework based on

the application of critical reflection between law, race, and justice. Some lines of thought for the

CRT.

It is a theory that emerges in the USA out of post-modernism in late 1970s and early

1980s from the junction between university scholars' critical reflection and actions for human

rights with Kimberle Crenshaw, Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado as main proponents. The most

striking example, which aroused these reflections among many others, is the demarcation of poor

areas at financial risk in 1930, the consequence of which was for banks to refuse mortgages to

Black people living in those areas. Nowadays, the CRT, despite the criticisms and controversies,

continues to broaden its theoretical field on all forms of discrimination.

For its proponents, it is a matter of demonstrating here that race is a social construct that is

deeply embedded in the laws and not due to prejudice. Thus, racism is an integral part of

everyday life. This means that, whatever the colour of your skin, you are exposed to racism, by

being a victim or an executioner, whether you like it or not. (Tyson 12). This theory is

controversial because there is much confusion and disagreement about both its precise definition

and its purposes (critics and supporters).

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Among all, there is confusion over the notion of races, confusion over the definition of

CRT and the terms “social justice” and “anti-racism”. Many academics as well as jurists disagree

on the definition. Although nowadays, all forms of diversity and social inclusions are attached to

this theory: LGBTQ, Black Lives Matter Protest, diversity training in federal agencies and

organizations, etc., for the White conservatives, it is a Black supremacists' theory.

All the same, whatever their different ways of conceiving this theory, all its supporters

agree on the idea this theory makes it possible to demonstrate, understand, reflect on the way that

American racism has grown in public policy. (Delgado and Stefanic 45)

On the other and, according to its critics, this theory advocates intolerance, focuses on

group identity, divides people into oppressors and oppressed, reinforces racial hatred against

white people. Thus, we cannot blame the American author Ibram X. Kendi (32) who thinks that

discrimination that creates equity is anti-racist. Thus, discrimination against Whites can lead to

equity.

According to studies in physical anthropology, there are no human races (Ford and

Airhihenbuwa 30). That’s the point we strongly stand too. In other words, unlike animals,

regardless of their degree of dissimilarity, humans are all the same. Racism or race is therefore

only a fabrication of the social system; hence the CRT has a deep place in the academic,

secondary or social fields. Since it would be fashionable to let everyone know (students, parents,

in short, the whole of society), that our differences are not innate (natural), but acquired

(cultural), via the laws strongly designed, advocated and applied by the institutions that govern

us.
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Works Cited

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Delgado, Richard, and Stephanic, Jean. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction.3 ed., New

York UP, 2017.

Ford, Chandra, and Airhihenbuwa Collins. “Critical Race Theory, race equity, and public health:

toward antiracism praxis”. American Journal of Public Health, vol. 100, no. 1, 2010, pp.

30-35.

Kendi, Ibram X. How to be an Antiracist. One world, 2019.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2014.