Gary — While your reply with details about CRT is useful to those who may not be familiar with it, from a politically strategic perspective, it’s important not to take the bait: Talking about CRT divides Americans, because it’s abstract enough that too many people will argue about it, and “arguing” motivates Republican voters. And sadly, divides Dems. It’s a two-fer for Republicans.
The article in The New Yorker that I cited is an interview with Christopher Rufo, the guy that decided to use the term as a cudgel, and he explains his strategy: CRT was chosen, not because of its definition or any other reason. In fact, he never said it was taught in schools. (It was only later that Mark Meadows, the Chief of Staff for Trump, claimed that it was a curriculum taught by government institutions for employee anti-bias training.) Rufo’s only motivation was sheer phraseology: It’s a great phrase that angers and motivates Conservatives, while also dividing minorities. From the article:
‘cancel culture’ is a vacuous term and doesn’t translate into a political program; ‘woke’ is a good epithet, but it’s too broad, too terminal, too easily brushed aside. ‘Critical race theory’ is the perfect villain,” Rufo wrote.
“Its connotations are all negative to most middle-class Americans, including racial minorities, who see the world as ‘creative’ rather than ‘critical,’ ‘individual’ rather than ‘racial,’ ‘practical’ rather than ‘theoretical.’ Strung together, the phrase ‘critical race theory’ connotes hostile, academic, divisive, race-obsessed, poisonous, elitist, anti-American.” Most perfect of all, Rufo continued, critical race theory is not “an externally applied pejorative.” Instead, “it’s the label the critical race theorists chose themselves.”
In summary, the more you try to define and talk about CRT, the more you lose. It’s exactly the same lesson it took Democrats 30 years to learn about climate change: You don’t change the minds of climate change deniers by giving them facts and explaining it to them. That only makes them dig their heels in further.
Don’t do the same thing with CRT.
