Originally Posted by manaboutown (Post 1958448)

"Critical race theory is an academic discipline, formulated in the 1990s and built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism. Relegated for many years to universities and obscure academic journals, it has increasingly become the default ideology in our public institutions over the past decade. It has been injected into government agencies, public school systems, teacher training programs and corporate human resources departments in the form of diversity training programs, human resources modules, public policy frameworks and school curricula.

Its supporters deploy a series of euphemisms to describe critical race theory, including “equity,” “social justice,” “diversity and inclusion” and “culturally responsive teaching.”
Critical race theorists, masters of language construction, realize that “neo-Marxism” would be a hard sell. Equity, on the other hand, sounds nonthreatening and is easily confused with the American principle of equality. But the distinction is vast and important. Indeed, critical race theorists explicitly reject equality — the principle proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, defended in the Civil War and codified into law with the 14th and 15th Amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. To them, equality represents “mere nondiscrimination” and provides “camouflage” for white supremacy, patriarchy and oppression.

In contrast to equality, equity as defined and promoted by critical race theorists is little more than reformulated Marxism. In the name of equity, UCLA law professor and critical race theorist Cheryl Harris has proposed suspending private property rights, seizing land and wealth and redistributing them along racial lines.

Critical race guru Ibram X. Kendi, who directs the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, has proposed the creation of a federal Department of Antiracism. This department would be independent of (i.e., unaccountable to) the elected branches of government and would have the power to nullify, veto or abolish any law at any level of government and curtail the speech of political leaders and others deemed insufficiently “antiracist.”

One practical result of the creation of such a department would be the overthrow of capitalism, since, according to Kendi, “in order to truly be antiracist, you also have to truly be anticapitalist.”

In other words, identity is the means; Marxism is the end."

From: What critical race theory is really about

Originally Posted by JerryLBell (Post 1958374)

From what I've read, critical race theory is really two ideas.

The first is that the very idea of race is not based on biology or science of any kind. There's nothing about the physiology of humans that neatly divides humanity into categories like "white", "black", "Asian", etc. The attempts to divide people into these categories were done societally, not scientifically.

The second idea is that American history shows us that governments put in place in the Americas by European settlers were and continue to be racist in nature. To steal land away from the indigenous people, governments put into place laws that made those peoples have fewer or any rights and encouraged the suppression of those peoples. Prior to the industrial revolution, manual labor was vital and slave labor was cheaper than paid labor, so laws were put into place to allow kidnapping, torturing and enslaving peoples from other countries, especially Africa. Laws were put into place over time to exclude Asians. During World War II, people of Japanese heritage were robbed of their properties and imprisoned while people of German heritage were not. Even after the emancipation of enslaved people in America, voting rights were suppressed and continue to be so to this day.

Critical race theory doesn't paint an artificially pretty picture of American history or governance. If you read history deeply, however, it is probably a more accurate picture. Does this divide people? Possibly. Some people are averse to learning unpleasant truths. I've always thought that true patriotism wasn't blindly loving ones country, right or wrong but rather wanting the best for and out of ones country, realizing when ones country was wrong or doing wrong and changing it for the better even if that involves discomfort and hard work.

America isn't perfect and never was. It gets better over time, despite occasional backsliding. I hope it continues to get better and better in the future. Pretending we are and have been perfect won't help us get there.

But that's just my opinion.

Originally Posted by tvbound (Post 1958495)

It's not a "theory," it's fact. Those who are most intimidated by it, are those who don't want our children to know that this country was first built on the backs of slaves (human beings owned like property) then continued through a systemic suppression of rights and equal justice through things like Jim Crow laws and more lately, by targeted voting laws. All too many either still harbor a false sense of superiority by the luck of the draw being born with white skin, or give their support to leaders who make it clear that is what they believe. Our children should be taught the truth, such as the fact that when our supposed infallible forefathers did not really mean "all men are created equal" - as they did not include blacks or women. Why are some people so scared about teaching our country's almost 250 years of unequal opportunity and the injustices of the law toward blacks in particular (and are trying to redefine the definition of CRT)? Never mind, that was a rhetorical question, as can easily be seen in so many aspects of our current lives.


critical race theory | Definition, Principles, & Facts | Britannica

" based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour. Critical race theorists hold that the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans."

Originally Posted by tvbound (Post 1958495)

It's not a "theory," it's fact.

Originally Posted by manaboutown (Post 1958538)

The fact is that it is Marxist cretinous BS.

Originally Posted by drducat (Post 1958539)

Wrong...it is very Marxist and is now against the law to teach in the State of Florida.

Originally Posted by JerryLBell (Post 1958374)

From what I've read, critical race theory is really two ideas.

The first is that the very idea of race is not based on biology or science of any kind. There's nothing about the physiology of humans that neatly divides humanity into categories like "white", "black", "Asian", etc. The attempts to divide people into these categories were done societally, not scientifically.

The second idea is that American history shows us that governments put in place in the Americas by European settlers were and continue to be racist in nature. To steal land away from the indigenous people, governments put into place laws that made those peoples have fewer or any rights and encouraged the suppression of those peoples. Prior to the industrial revolution, manual labor was vital and slave labor was cheaper than paid labor, so laws were put into place to allow kidnapping, torturing and enslaving peoples from other countries, especially Africa. Laws were put into place over time to exclude Asians. During World War II, people of Japanese heritage were robbed of their properties and imprisoned while people of German heritage were not. Even after the emancipation of enslaved people in America, voting rights were suppressed and continue to be so to this day.

Critical race theory doesn't paint an artificially pretty picture of American history or governance. If you read history deeply, however, it is probably a more accurate picture. Does this divide people? Possibly. Some people are averse to learning unpleasant truths. I've always thought that true patriotism wasn't blindly loving ones country, right or wrong but rather wanting the best for and out of ones country, realizing when ones country was wrong or doing wrong and changing it for the better even if that involves discomfort and hard work.

America isn't perfect and never was. It gets better over time, despite occasional backsliding. I hope it continues to get better and better in the future. Pretending we are and have been perfect won't help us get there.

But that's just my opinion.

Originally Posted by manaboutown (Post 1958538)

The fact is that it is Marxist cretinous BS.

Originally Posted by S=kBlogW (Post 1958557)

Ah yes, the ludicrous myth that native american and native african societies were peaceful and virtuous before those nasty white europeans came along. LOL

Native american tribes raped pillaged and enslaved their neighbors like gangbusters long before whitey came along. Same for native africans, where slavery has been going on long before most European countries existed.

Let's face it, humans can be nasty to each other no matter their color, race, or religion.

White people did not invent slavery and conquest, CRT proponents have not studied history.

Originally Posted by drducat (Post 1958539)

Wrong...it is very Marxist and is now against the law to teach in the State of Florida.

Originally Posted by Two Bills (Post 1958577)

What sucks to me with all this woke and cancel culture and what happened all those years ago, is history being judged by todays more enlightened standards.
I am extremely proud of the UK's history, that a little island like ours built the world biggest empire.
Of course we didn't do it by being nice to the lands that were overcome, but in the context of that time, it was the way it was.
Are we going back to the Mongols, Romans, Viking etc. and demand restitution, and apologies for the pillage, rape, enslavement committed then?
How far back is good enough for the hand wringers and apologists.