CLARENCE PAGE: Can the Left Defend Critical Racial Theory? Or just against his critics? | Columnists

A national panic emanating mainly from conservatives over a critical racial theory – which may break out in a session of parliament, university, or school board near you – is provoking spirited counter-attacks from its left-wing progressive defenders.

But are they defending CRT, I have to ask, or are they just attacking their opponents?

I am talking about myself, among other things. Since the mid-1990s, I have occasionally discussed and debated its advantages and disadvantages with lawyers and professors who know what CRT is. Before it became a straw man for conservatives, activists, experts, and politicians, it was a fairly narrow field of intellectual study for law students and professionals.

But in the wake of the social justice movements sparked by the murder of George Floyd, it has brought something to the political right that their efforts to demonize President Joe Biden have not: a vague but threatening subject they are dealing with White people in particular can scare Republicans to vote – and, they hope, help the Grand Old Party regain control of Congress.

“This is the tenth power tea party,” Donald Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon told Politico in an interview. “And a lot of these people aren’t Trump voters.”

CRT, in short, is an academic framework for looking at racism as systems, not individual flaws. In fact, contrary to the panic of banning it from public schools, it is taught almost exclusively in law schools. A scholar reportedly said to a parent who suspected their child was taught, “Congratulations! I didn’t know that your child was already studying law. “