The Overdue Critical Race Theory Thread

[jdsmith]

Are you suggesting that forced to master and adapt to a culture and learn a foreign language are equivalent in some way?

[McNulty]

@tando

by their claim, aren’t they make the choice due to imprinted white superiority?

Who’s claim? No idea who is saying this. Please attribute your ideas to a source.

[TT]

@jdsmith

Are you suggesting that forced to master and adapt to a culture and learn a foreign language are equivalent in some way?

I think @tando is just trying to understand …

[jdsmith]

@TT

I think @tando is just trying to understand …

Tando understands a lot afaik. I’ll defer to the horse’s mouth.

[TT]

@jdsmith

Tando understands a lot afaik. I’ll defer to the horse’s mouth.

Maybe I’ll just step back and see how things shake out here, then…

[tando]

Yes, until I read this thread, I didn’t know CTR, and I’m googling on it now, and I read cancel white cultures or like that somewhere, I don’t remember the context though.

[jdsmith]

No one article is going to be expansive enough to give you proper background. It is a very biased topic. Fair warning.

[McNulty]

@tando

Yes, until I read this thread, I didn’t know CTR, and I’m googling on it now, and I read cancel white cultures or like that somewhere, I don’t remember the context though.

Let’s start with good ol’ Encyclopedia Britannica’s definition:

Critical race theory (CRT) , the view that the law and legal institutions are inherently racist and that race itself, instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of colour. According to critical race theory (CRT), racial inequality emerges from the social, economic, and legal differences that white people create between “races” to maintain elite white interests in labour markets and politics, giving rise to poverty and criminality in many minority communities. The CRT movement officially organized itself in 1989, at the first annual Workshop on Critical Race Theory, though its intellectual origins go back much further, to the 1960s and ’70s.

[OysterOmelet]

@TT

Possible? Yes. Probable? No. Obviously I can’t promise anything based on a draft I haven’t seen, but not being a full-time academic isn’t necessarily a problem. I can, however, put my money where my mouth is and read a draft if you send it (fun fact, I’ve just turned down my first peer review request for 2021).

Like as in an ad-hoc referee?

I’ll DM you a copy of the paper when I’m done.

[tando]

You know I just started reading 2 hours ago, and don’t have any understandings or ideas what the theory is, except for my first impression on it that it seems somehow illogical.

[TT]

@jdsmith

No one article is going to be expansive enough to give you proper background. It is a very biased topic. Fair warning.

This is a very good point.

I still think DiAngelo is a good example in terms of the original post, here’s one of her greatest hits. It only costs USD$50000-75000 to book her for a speaking engagement, so clearly her main interest is in making the world a better place for others…

White Fragility | DiAngelo | The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy

@OysterOmelet

Like as in an ad-hoc referee?

Peer reviewer, although I turned it down because I’m not that familiar with the topic and I’m already having fun working for free over here!

@tando

it seems somehow illogical

In my opinion, unless someone is forcing you to engage with CRT (such as your employer, or your children’s school), you might as well put a pin in it there (edit: unless, like me, you enjoy having these discussions anonymously for the first time, but I’ve already done my homework even if the examples not the past few years).

[crusher]

@QuaSaShao

Do you believe that white people are inherently racist?

All ethnicities of white people ? Slav, Celt, Pict , Anglo Saxon…
How white? Lilly white, olive white, brownish white, albino?
Do genetics influence character? Yes, of course.
Do the genes that determine “race” affect character ? Not sure.

[McNulty]

@crusher

All ethnicities of white people ? Slav, Celt, Pict , Anglo Saxon…
How white? Lilly white, olive white, brownish white, albino?
Do genetics influence character? Yes, of course.
Do the genes that determine “race” affect character ? Not sure.

Please re-read the definition from Britannica:

@McNulty

Critical race theory (CRT) , the view that the law and legal institutions are inherently racist and that race itself, instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of colour. According to critical race theory (CRT), racial inequality emerges from the social, economic, and legal differences that white people create between “races” to maintain elite white interests in labour markets and politics, giving rise to poverty and criminality in many minority communities. The CRT movement officially organized itself in 1989, at the first annual Workshop on Critical Race Theory, though its intellectual origins go back much further, to the 1960s and ’70s.

Two important things from this: A. Race is a socially constructed concept B. CRT is a critique of laws and legal institutions, not whiteness in and of itself.

[eCanada]

This is exactly right

@McNulty

Critical race theory (CRT) , the view that the law and legal institutions are inherently racist and that race itself, instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of colour. According to critical race theory (CRT), racial inequality emerges from the social, economic, and legal differences that white people create between “races” to maintain elite white interests in labour markets and politics, giving rise to poverty and criminality in many minority communities.

This is exactly it. I studied CRT in University. Many posters in this thread are mischaracterizing (knowingly or unknowingly) the theory.

So posters disagree with the definition above? People here don’t recognize institutionalized racism?

[tando]

@McNulty

A. Race is a socially constructed concept

I’m also interested in how the theory treat non pure race people.

@McNulty

B. CRT is a critique of laws and legal institutions,

and how it applied to international laws.

[TT]

@eCanada

I studied CRT in University.

Excellent, it seems you missed this question while you were reading…

@TT

@tando

In different countries, is the white race replaced by any majority race of the countries, or is it always fixed?

Good question. Any of the pro-CRT crowd on here want to have a go?

[McNulty]

@tando

I’m also interested in how the theory treat non pure race people.

I think the idea is that ‘race’ is a manufactured idea in the first place. What @crusher said is a good illustration of this. Who counts as white, who doesn’t? For example, Italians weren’t considered White until post WW2 in the States. Same with Jews, they don’t assimilate til post GI bill. So the concept of race is fluid, and its built around laws, class, history.

[crusher]

@McNulty

@crusher

All ethnicities of white people ? Slav, Celt, Pict , Anglo Saxon…
How white? Lilly white, olive white, brownish white, albino?
Do genetics influence character? Yes, of course.
Do the genes that determine “race” affect character ? Not sure.

Please re-read the definition from Britannica:

@McNulty

Critical race theory (CRT) , the view that the law and legal institutions are inherently racist and that race itself, instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of colour. According to critical race theory (CRT), racial inequality emerges from the social, economic, and legal differences that white people create between “races” to maintain elite white interests in labour markets and politics, giving rise to poverty and criminality in many minority communities. The CRT movement officially organized itself in 1989, at the first annual Workshop on Critical Race Theory, though its intellectual origins go back much further, to the 1960s and ’70s.

Two important things from this: A. Race is a socially constructed concept B. CRT is a critique of laws and legal institutions, not whiteness in and of itself.

Thanks
A .Forensics can know from DNA samples at crime scenes, the races of a perpetrator. Those “races” are indeed a label given by humans for a group of people that originated from an area at a certain period of time. Just like there are different kinds of bears or wolves. Polar bears and Grizzly bears can mate together but have different behaviors and phenotypes shaped by different environmental selection pressures. Why should humans be different ?
B. CRT sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I am open to change my mind.

[McNulty]

@crusher

A .Forensics can know from DNA samples at crime scenes, the races of a perpetrator. Those “races” are indeed a label given by humans for a group of people that originated from an area at a certain period of time. Just like there are different kinds of bears or wolves. Polar bears and Grizzly bears can mate together but have different behaviors and phenotypes shaped by different environmental selection pressures. Why should humans be different ?

Exactly. Common sense also says there is no biological correlation between the amount of melanin in a person’s skin and behavioral tendencies.

[OysterOmelet]

Right, so you were invited to review a paper. You weren’t a regular at the journal. I’ve done one of those.