Q&A Friday #54: What Do You Think Of Critical Race Theory?

by John Hawkins | December 1, 2006 1:59 am

Question: “Critical race theorists are a very outspoken group that really seem to get almost no coverage whatsoever among the MSM, the blogosphere, or much of anywhere other than liberal academia fawning over them. A typical CRT essay will read something like this:

“Whites tend not to recognize that race has little meaning without reference to the power structures that have historically supported and are currently supporting white domination. Whites see whiteness as the norm, an absence of race. Along with whiteness come privileges that are invisible to whites. Instead of seeing privilege resulting from the historical domination of whites in this country as the source of our success, whites interpret any benefits we receive as reward for individual merit and hard work. In fact, the myth of the “American Dream” has imbued in white Americans a sense of entitlement. The myth tells us that so long as we work hard, we deserve to and will succeed unless obstacles are placed in our way. By the same token, whites consider racism and discrimination as evils committed by other individuals, not something that whites are responsible for as a group. Race discrimination is defined in Title VII disparate treatment theory as individual action resulting from a conscious intent to harm. This definition furthers the perpetrator’s perspective by assigning guilt to one individual employer and alleviating most whites of responsibility for systemic means that reinforce racism and white privilege.”

Ann McGinley, The Emerging Cronyism Defense and Affirmative Action: A Critical Perspective on the Distinction Between Colorblind and RaceConscious Decision Making Under Title VII, 39 Ariz. L. Rev. 1003 (1997)

What’s your take on this line of thought?” — maledicta

Answer: There are people out there who take responsibility for their own lives and there are people out there who like to pretend that life is something that happens to them, over which they have very little control.

The quote above is from someone from group #2 and unfortunately, that sort of false “I am a victim” mentality does enormous damage in people’s lives, especially in the black community. If you want to know why, percentage wise, black Americans aren’t as successful as white Americans, it’s not because of racism. For example, “A Time/CNN poll[1] found 89 percent of black teens consider racism in their own lives to be “a small problem” or “not a problem at all.”

So, why aren’t black Americans as a whole doing as well as white Americans in some respects? It’s because a lot of black Americans aren’t getting a decent education, because a lot of black Americans are having kids out of wedlock, because percentage wise, too many black Americans commit crimes, and because too many black Americans falsely believe that they’re victims who can never succeed, no matter what they do, because of racism.

You know, if you didn’t finish high school, spent time in prison for dealing drugs, and have 3 different kids by 3 different mamas, I don’t care what color you are, you’re probably not going to be a very successful person. But, if you’re white and behave like that, people will blame you for your behavior, while if you’re black, because of the soft bigotry of low expectations, you’ll have a lot of people excuse your behavior on the basis of the sort of garbage Ann McGinley wrote in the above quote.

Moreover, a lot of what passes for “racism” today goes to show you how little racism we really have in American society these days. There used to be a time where black Americans were lynched, weren’t allowed to sit at the same lunch counters as white Americans, and had to sit at the back of the bus. Everyone can agree that those were racist actions. Now, 3/4’s of the population rolls their eyes most of the time when someone cries “racism,” because as often as not, it’s over someone using the word “niggardly,” or an actress saying, “call me,” in an anti-Harold Ford commercial, someone daring to criticize a clown like Jesse Jackson, or some similarly ridiculous triviality. In this case, McGinley doesn’t even bother to cite trite examples of that sort, she just claims all white people are racist by virtue of being white, case closed.

These ridiculous ethnic studies classes where they kick around these silly critical race theories are a waste of time and should be dumped from universities all across the country.

Endnotes:
  1. Time/CNN poll: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/archives/week_2005_01_09.PHP#003342

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