critical race theory

English

Noun

critical race theory (uncountable)

1. A movement in academia involving the application of critical theory to issues surrounding the interaction between racial dynamics and social and legal power.

   Synonym: CRT

   • 1995, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement, The New Press, page xi:

     In short, Critical Race Theory is an intellectual movement that is both particular to our postmodern (and conservative) times and part of a tradition of human resistance and liberation.

   • 2002, Kimberlé Crenshaw, "The First Decade: Critical Reflections, or 'A Foot in the Closing Door'", in: Francisco Valdes, Jerome Mccristal Culp and Angela Harris (ed.), Crossroads, Directions and A New Critical Race Theory, Temple University Press, page 19:

     We would signal the specific political and intellectual location of the project through the "critical", the substantive focus through "race", and the desire to develop a coherent account of race and law through the term "theory"... If we were going to give this inchoate thing a name, let it be a proper sign on the intellectual landscape: Critical Race Theory.

   • 2012, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, New York University Press, page 3:

     The Critical Race Theory (CRT) movement is a collection of activists and scholars interested in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism and power.

   • 2016, Gloria Ladson-Billings, "The Evolving Role of Critical Race Theory in Educational Scholarship", in: Adrienne D. Dixson, Celia K. Rousseau Anderson, Jamel K. Donnor (ed.), Critical Race Theory in Education: All God's Children Got a Song, Routledge, page

     It seems hard to believe that a decade has gone by since the term "critical race theory" was introduced into educational scholarship, and at the same time it is a very appropriate interval at which to take stock of where we are.

   • 2021 June 17, Moira Donegan, “What the moral panic about ‘critical race theory’ is about”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     But maybe the very obscurity of this genuine critical race theory is the point: before it became the object of the American right’s latest moral panic, few people had heard of critical race theory, and even fewer understood what it really was.

   • 2021 July 9, Michelle Goldberg, “The Christian Right Is in Decline, and It’s Taking America With It”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     The fight over critical race theory seems, on the surface, further from theological concerns. There are, obviously, plenty of people who aren’t evangelical who are anti-C.R.T., as well as evangelicals who oppose C.R.T. bans.

   • 2021 November 11, Jay Caspian Kang, “Can We Talk About Critical Race Theory?”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     The actual critical race theory argues that racism isn’t just what happens when an individual decides to hate a group of people, but rather an ideology that has been embedded in American institutions.

Related terms

• critical race theorist

Translations

Translations

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 批判性種族理論／批判性种族理论 (pīpànxìng zhǒngzú lǐlùn)

• French: théorie critique de la race (fr) f
• German: kritische Rassentheorie f
• Japanese: 批判的人種理論 (ひはんてきじんしゅりろん, hihanteki jinshu riron)
• Swedish: kritisk rasteori c

Further reading

• critical race theory on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “critical race theory”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.