The Discomfort Surrounding Critical Race Theory

Conversations of critical race theory, an academic framework for the analysis of racism as constructed and perpetuated by the law, have engendered a collective panic among right-wing Americans. For one, the term ‘critical race theory’ is often misunderstood in what it is. Its verbiage makes it sound lofty and pretentiously intellectual, like it belongs on the shelf of a political philosophy student with the likes of Sigmund Freud, Judith Butler, and Karl Marx. So the virtual emptiness of its phrasing has rendered it another source of white racial hysteria.

The preferred narrative of American history for these individuals is one that is most comfortable for white male Americans. The issue with critical race theory for those that understand it is its transparency. It doesn’t delicately tiptoe or seek to grant comfort. It doesn’t center around white people’s feelings and their desire for the relief of personal innocence. It doesn’t minimize the oppression of Black Americans, nor does it amplify the morality of white Americans. It does impose a shared guilt. It does disprove racism as a matter of personal prejudice, then requiring more of white people than the denial of racism within oneself. Critical race theory acknowledges that racism is interwoven into the fabric of this country - in its laws, institutions, and culture - and that it is not a problem of a bygone era. White racial virtue, with the censorship of critical race theory and other such frameworks, attempts to confine racism to the past and to the flawed character of the individual. Racism was a problem in some distant, abstract history, but white people rectified it. And when it exists today, it is not a pervasive contamination, it can be pointed to a few select troubled individuals.

However, the U.S. remains captive to and a reflection of its past. Almost every political conversation that takes place today - gun ownership rights, the Black Lives Matter movement, the legitimacy of presidential elections, etc. - is a direct product of America’s past. Racism in the U.S. does have roots in the Founding Fathers’ pens, but its legacy has undoubtedly persisted and cannot be swept under the rug with classic historical amnesia and the crafting of fictitious narratives. To pull the U.S. out of its seemingly never-ending loop of unresolved issues, these issues need to be recognized as ones that exist, taking precedence over white comfort.