Take Critical Theorists At Their Word — And Spread It
Nearly eight years later, many pundits still don’t seem to realize why Donald Trump won the election in 2016. I didn’t vote for the man — I haven’t voted for a Republican president since 2008 — but I knew at the time it wasn’t primarily that racists voted for him because he was racist. It was — at least partly — that those voting for him understood, on some level, that ‘racism’ would become part of the the story, and, after having felt for years that they had to walk on eggshells to avoid an accusation they knew to be false, decided to welcome the onslaught laughing.
Put crassly, it was to ‘own the libs.’ Put more eloquently, millions have detected — consciously or not — the promulgation of a power hungry righteousness in the modern left, one that weaponizes compassion, empathy, and the understandable desire of modern Americans to play no part in the continuation of America’s original sin of racism.
Now, Trump was the solution to this problem as dynamite is for a dumpster fire. But this movement needs to be stopped in its tracks.
It has grown over decades and has persisted through many labels: “political correctness,” “reverse racism,” “identity politics,” “cancel culture,” “social justice warriors,” “wokeness,” and, most recently, “Critical Race Theory.” This last is the most academic (and, perhaps, accurate) to date, though it would be more precise to call it “Critical Theory,” a Marxian school of thought that spawned all of the above, along with other leftist academic movements such as ‘queer theory’ and ‘gender theory,’ which use similar rhetoric and tactics regarding sexuality and gender.
It’s common for political opponents to use the ‘Nazi’ epithet to describe the authoritarianism of the other side, but this movement is far more Maoist in nature. Consider: a mob in NYC with fists raised screaming “Black Lives Matter!” at people just trying to eat dinner; the re-framing of American history such that all sins are ‘the real America’ and all the saints ‘American in name only;’ a school board in Loudon County listing the names of parents who spoke up against their curriculum in order to target and harass them; the University of Wisconsin recently spending $50,000 to remove a boulder that was, once, in 1924, referred to by a racial slur in the Wisconsin State Journal. Struggle sessions and the purging of “all the evils of old society” were early tactics in Mao’s cultural revolution.
Though modern ‘Crits’ (a name the Critical Theorists chose for themselves) often deny it, Critical Theory’s ties to Marxist philosophy are very well documented. It’s a crude but close enough approximation to say that Critical Race Theory takes Marx’s ideas and grafts ‘race’ onto what once was ‘class.’ Do not take my word for it. Take the words of prominent CRT (and CRT inspired) thinkers.
Richard Delgado, one of the founders of CRT, wrote in ‘Critical Race Theory: An Introduction,’ “Unlike traditional civil rights… critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.” Later in that same work, he writes, “[Critical Race theorists] are suspicious of another liberal mainstay, namely rights.”
In an interview for the University of Seattle Law School of Law, Delgado writes, “So we gathered at that convent for two and a half days, around a table in an austere room with stained glass windows and crucifixes here and there — an odd place for a bunch of Marxists-and worked out a set of principles…. Most of us who were there have gone on to become prominent critical race theorists.” One of those in attendance was Kimberle Crenshaw, who created the idea of ‘intersectionality,’ which she once described as “rooted in Critical Race Theory” (on her show, Joy Reid argued that intersectionality was not an aspect of Critical Race Theory; this was either patently incorrect or baldly dishonest).
Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, said on tape in 2015 that she and her fellow organizers were “Trained Marxists.” She also responded favorably when someone compared her book to Mao’s ‘Little Red Book.’
Nikole Hannah Jones, creator of the 1619 project, when asked which country should be emulated for its ‘integration agenda,’ answered, “If you want to see the most equal multiracial demo — it’s not a democracy — most equal multiracial country in our hemisphere, it would be Cuba… Cuba actually has the least inequality. And that’s largely due to socialism which I’m sure no one wants to hear.”
Ibram X. Kendi, author of ‘How to be an Anti-Racist,’ writes, “Capitalism is essentially racist; racism is essentially capitalist. They were birthed together from the same unnatural causes, and they shall one day die together from unnatural causes,” and, “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
This is his big, bright, ‘new’ idea: discrimination forever. He also advocates for the formation of the “Department of Anti-racism,” a government agency that would pre-clear all local, state, and federal laws for anti-racism, and would that would monitor public officials for any hints of racist ideas. Yes, it would be endowed with disciplinary tools. Yes, that should raise the hair on the back of your neck. Something savors of Stalinism.
These examples should suffice to show my central point: Marxist or not (it is, but realize that Crits will spin around in circles about whether a label accurately applies — whether CRT is or is not Marxism, whether the 1619 project is or is not CRT — in order to avoid discussing the actual ideas), there is clearly something about this movement that stands in direct opposition to the key tenants of the American experiment.
Crits will be quick to point out that many of the people I criticized are black; thus, I must be racist. This is the main tool in their toolkit. Never mind that I could have included Robin DiAngelo or any number of white thinkers, and never mind that prominent black thinkers of various political persuasions such as Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, and Coleman Hughes stand ardently against this illiberal movement.
After trying to slander me as racist, sympathizers to its cause — always trying to make it more palatable to the masses — will say that these are single quotes, taken out of context. Fine. I beg the masses: put them into context. Contrary to what some might suppose, I want you to read ‘Critical Race Theory: An Introduction,’ ‘White Fragility,’ ’How to be an Anti-Racist,’ and any other work or paper in this field you can get your hands on. Then give them to your friends to read. While the acolytes of this movement argue for the silencing of all opinions that oppose them, I hope for the immediate proliferation of theirs, because it will be obvious to most Americans why these ideas must be resisted for the Trojan horse they are.
So far, the readers of these works have been the already-adherents and the early-adopters, often in a cynical attempt to avoid controversy. It’s time the rest of America realizes how controversial and radical many of these ideas actually are — and where their adherents sit in the halls of power (check your local school board first). I’m afraid at this point the enemy is not at the gate, but inside the gatekeeper’s booth, and we are, like it or not, in a fight for the lever.
