Privileged Ignorant Musings on Critical Race Theory

The whole hubalbaloo about CRT is schools is that CRT is a sophisticated theory that contains a lot of multifaceted concepts that require a discerning mind and tolerance of tension to understand fully. College students need to be able to comprehend it. Mature High school students could be able to engage with the material. At the middle school level you are dumbing it down in a way that likely unintentionally distorts it, and at an elementary level it’s not really viable. My race track analogy is probably about a 3rd grade level, because it’s what I imagine saying to my son in 3rd grade, and ultimately the inescapable conclusion of CRT at a 3rd grade level is white people are in the way. There isn’t a different conclusion that a 3rd grade mind can really come to.


Maybe I am wrong and I don’t give kids enough credit. Could I devise an experiment and teach CRT to 3rd graders and see what they conclude?
I am very curious but I think it would be impossible to get a valid sample. Any parent that would approve of the experiment probably already leans towards CRT. Any parent that objects to CRT wouldn’t consent for the experiment. Unless you could convince them that this experiment could prove that CRT was inappropriate to be taught to children in which case you are essentially asking parents to root for their children to be harmed in the experience they. How messed up is that?


I still think that the overly simplistic concepts of CRT tend to be…..

• White people are in the way of minorities and need to get out of the way somehow.
• The US governmental structure / legal system is inherently corrupt and unfair and can not be trusted. It needs to be remade(Yes “Defund the police”is what you get when you try and over simplify CRT. A snappy slogan just isn’t able to convey the totality of the issue.)
• Capitalism is the group in power exploiting other groups for its own gain. (So is feudalism and communism when you require a totalitarian state to ensure redistribution but that is besides the point at the moment)

So at this point I would say that I would actually agree with all of these oversimplifications. I don’t think they distort the issue beyond recognition. But that is because I think I have a balanced enough perspective so see the gaps that are left and would need filling in with detail. Maybe I am doubting the intelligence of of my son but I don’t think he is there yet and I would for-see those gaps as misleading him to further conclusions like his hurting/impeding his minority friend just by existing, law and government officials are bad, and making money is bad. If you over simplify and then jump to a value judgement this is what you get. And yes conservative whites make value judgments about everything. That is the culture........

And maybe it is value judgement that is actually American culture. Wow maybe that is what binds is as Americans whether black white, liberal or conservative, we are compelled to make a value judgement on everything. There are probably some countries that are more aloof, live and let live, (Canada maybe). But maybe it is the our insistence that we must make a value judgement of everything that makes us truely American. Probably not. That is just an extremist trait embedded in humanity all over the world, but maybe we have woven it into our national identity a little bit as most countries with a strong religious influence tend to do.


Anyway, I would say those 3 over simplified elements of CRT are as applied to the USA. But the great thing about a theory is you apply it in multiple contexts to see if it holds up. I would like to see CRT applied to China. I don’t think I know enough about China to do it myself, but I would bet that that China also has ethnic groups that hold privilege in society and are an obstacle to other groups gaining more power and influence because I have heard stories of northern Chinese ethnic groups being typically of taller statue and having a more prominent role and influence in government and commerce, and therefor tend to direct resources and prosperity more towards northern provinces, but then that is muted by the communist government. Of course we know that sweat shops exist all over China and we know that is fueling what is expects to be the world larger economy by 2030, and CRT would predict that a certain ethnic group benefits from that more than others. But we just call them all Asian so we don’t really know. (Black and white makes it very easy to distinguish in the USA.) The human rights violations of genicide accusations that we heard so much about during the Olympics made against China for ethnic cleansing of a regional group of Muslims would probably be predicted CRT. I don’t know anything about china’s law enforcement or legal system. But again CRT would predict that some group is probably disproportionately incarcerated, but again the communist state probably moderates or skews that along political more so than racial or ethnic lines, but it still bet it exists.


So maybe this is “white washing” but I still think CRT is more of a dominant group theory, because it’s first real rennet is that race is a manufactured concept, developed to serve the group in power. And if we could just make it Criticsl Dominate group theory instead of Race theory we could ease all the “racial tensions.”
But that comes from a white guy.


And the real white privilege is not having to subscribe to “whiteness. “
White people get to claim a diverse ethnic background from all those various European countries and even their colonial counterparts (Australian, American, etc). So much of the rhetoric that I find difficult is the continuing discussion of “blackness.” Black Americans are persecuted for their blackness. And in my arrogant and ignorant opinion it is because blackness is mostly defined as the sum total impact of all the oppression CRT describes. All the Economic, educational, social and health care inequalities and disadvantages put together create a caricature that has been epitomized by early blackface and has continued evolve througout time into various forms such a blaxploitation icons and candy’s rap thugs. White people get ti eschew their whiteness for a rich cultural heritage given to them by Ancestry.com. I’m Italian and Polish, not white. And to be honest I take the liberty of tracing that back to say I am all Roman with some slavic, Gothic and a little Celtic flavor. Black Americans have been deprived of an ethnic history and identity other than “former slaves.” But is that is the case then the real solution maybe more in redefining blackness into is rich parts. Everyone that goes to Africa seems to come back to the USA with a new perspective on what blackness can mean, and while their thirst for equality lives on their antipathy towards whiteness seems to lessen, presumable because it is no longer juxtaposed to a single oppositional definition of blackness.