What, exactly, is CRT?

[Trausti]

This Huffington Post article on how hip-hop king R. Kelly got away with serial rape for thirty years, challenges the notion that blacks and whites are treated equally in "post-racial" America.

It’s been proven time and time again that people don’t listen to Black girls — not just anecdotally, but statistically. Society couples that adultification with oversexualization and strips Black girls of their agency early: By age five, Black girls are seen as more adult than their white counterparts. This leads Black girls to being among the most susceptible to sexual violence, second only to Indigenous girls. As many as six in 10 Black women report being subjected to coercive sexual contact before age 18, according to a report from TIME’S UP. The National Center for Violence Against Women in the Black Community also reports that 40% of sex trafficking survivors are Black.

When people treat Black girls as adults, they’re less likely to listen to Black girls’ accusations or look for them when they go missing. The cases of missing Black girls often go ignored and underreported in the media. (In 2020 alone, more than 70,000 Black girls under 18 went missing.)

So who's committing this sexual violence on black and native girls? Are we allowed to notice that or nah?

 

[Derec]

So who's committing this sexual violence on black and native girls? Are we allowed to notice that or nah?

Well, Kelly IS an Irish name ...
</critical race theorist>

 

[Bomb#20]

Various posters have laid out the models by which poverty echoes as a wave through time, and does so in such a way as to do continual injury to the society it happens in. It outlines ways to cancel those waves that do this injury.

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." - Terry Pratchett​

I love Pratchett; he was funny and a brilliant writer, and what he said is very clever; but what he said isn't true. Light really is faster than anything. The darkness was there first and is waiting for the light, yes; but it's not because dark is faster. It's because dark was there all along. Dark didn't get there; dark started out there. Dark is the default condition of the universe. Darkness doesn't need to travel in order to be everywhere.

Likewise, it's not quite accurate to say poverty echoes as a wave through time. Poverty was there all along. Poverty is the default condition of Homo sapiens. Wealth echoes as a wave through time. When there's a background of lots of wealth and it's echoing through time, sure, the gaps between wealth may look like they're echoing through time, just as the gaps in a transmission in an optical fiber may look like darkness propagating from one end to the other. But it's an illusion. Darkness doesn't get there. And we EEs all make believe that P-doped silicon has these positive charge carriers called "holes" that move along the crystal lattice, because it's convenient to think about it that way; but we know it's just a figure of speech. It's not really one hole taking an extended trip; it's just one negatively charged electron after another taking a short step, filling in the old gap and leaving a new gap where the electron used to be.

This isn't a quibble over semantics. It makes a real difference. Sure, one can think of poverty echoing as a wave through time, but the reasonable takeaway from that metaphor is that the society it happens in exhibits systemic classism. It isn't racial. When you're poor, poverty is a problem for you regardless of what color you are. Calling that situation "racism" is not the honest reporting of fact it pretends to be; it's propaganda.

And there's a reason for the propaganda. Self-styled reformers and revolutionaries have been railing for centuries against wealth echoing as a wave through time. Once, they railed against it by appealing to a metaphysical accounting convention, which they claimed proved wealth wavers were parasites; but that lost its persuasive power when economists learned to avoid metaphysics. Then they railed against it by telling workers that stopping wealth waves from echoing would make them rich; but that lost its persuasive power once enough workers who took the bait had grown even poorer. So at this point there is no case remaining against wealth wave echoing that still has any appeal to anyone who thinks critically. So the railers need a way to shut off critical thought in their listeners. Enter the propaganda -- enter "racism". We have become so rightly accustomed to recognizing racism as indefensible that if propagandists manage to smear the tar of racism onto whatever they're railing against, plenty of listeners will regard the controversy as settled and stop applying critical thought to it.

So let us abandon talk of "systemic racism" until the CRT-mongers can produce a non-propaganda justification for employing such thought-suppressing language. What they are demanding an end to is actually systemic classism. Still, if systemic classism is doing a continual injury to the society it happens in, and if they can outline ways to cancel this injury, then we should hear them out regardless of what we think of their deceptive propaganda.

So what have they got? Well, they've got "poverty echoes as a wave through time", and they've got "cancel those waves". But as discussed above, actually it's wealth that echoes as a wave through time, not poverty. And canceling wealth waves is a well-trodden path. We already know where it leads: it leads to canceling wealth. This is not rocket science -- most wealth only exists in the first place because some wealth wave passed through. Now, if the CRT propagandists can show us a way to eliminate systemic classism that can make everyone rich, that is well and good; but if their plan to eliminate systemic classism is just going to return Homo sapiens to its default condition in the absence of waving wealth, then they are the ones who will be doing continual injury to every society CRT happens in.

 

[Swammerdami]

So who's committing this sexual violence on black and native girls? Are we allowed to notice that or nah?

Well, Kelly IS an Irish name ...
</critical race theorist>

So violence is irrelevant unless it's between two different races. Got it.

And you "thinkers" are the ones touting race-neutrality. What jokesters!

 

[Lumpenproletariat]

Does the Anti-CRT crusade = the Anti-Ethnic-Studies crusade?

In California when the new Ethnic Studies requirement was enacted, all the right-wing pundits branded it as CRT being imposed in the schools, even though "CRT" is not in the new law. So when they say "CRT" they really mean "Ethnic Studies."

If they are wrong, someone has to explain what the difference is.

Does everyone agree at least that CRT and Ethnic Studies are virtually the same thing?

No.

translation: they're the same, because if they were not, we'd also get an answer to the follow-up question:

If there is a difference between CRT and Ethnic Studies, what is the difference?

Probably the correct answer is that "Ethnic Studies" is a SUBSET of "CRT" -- i.e. All Ethnic Studies crusaders are CRT crusaders, but not all CRT crusaders are Ethnic Studies crusaders.

If this is not correct, then let's have an explanation how Ethnic Studies promoters differ philosophically from the CRT promoters.

If no such answer is forthcoming, but all we get is the simplistic "No" response, it proves that they are the same philosophically.

Also we need an answer to the question:

Doesn't "Ethnic Studies" mean the study of Non-White people? No? If it does not mean that, then couldn't a school have classes in White Studies, teaching the achievements of Whites, and call that "Ethnic Studies" just as classes in Native American or Black or Latino culture are "Ethnic Studies"?

Or, why couldn't the Ethnic Studies department offer a course in White Studies, which would promote appreciation of White culture? Aren't Whites also an ethnic group which could be studied?

So in California, where schools must now include "Ethnic Studies" as a requirement for graduation, couldn't a rural "Red" district include classes in White Studies in order to meet this requirement? offering White students classes where they can be taught more about the great contributions of their race?

 

[Trausti]

So who's committing this sexual violence on black and native girls? Are we allowed to notice that or nah?

Well, Kelly IS an Irish name ...
</critical race theorist>

So violence is irrelevant unless it's between two different races. Got it.

And you "thinkers" are the ones touting race-neutrality. What jokesters!

The observation is that it’s politically incorrect to notice violence perpetrated by non-Whites. Hence the effort to cast this violence as White racism.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I find it fascinating that a significant number of people in this thread are willing to irrationally categorize ethnic studies as part of CRT. It really substantiates how pervasive the problem is in this country--a thing that these people are trying unsuccessfully to argue against.

 

[Trausti]

I find it fascinating that a significant number of people in this thread are willing to irrationally categorize ethnic studies as part of CRT. It really substantiates how pervasive the problem is in this country--a thing that these people are trying unsuccessfully to argue against.

Good. So you’d be okay with an ethnic studies class on the accomplishments of White people?

 

[ZiprHead]

I find it fascinating that a significant number of people in this thread are willing to irrationally categorize ethnic studies as part of CRT. It really substantiates how pervasive the problem is in this country--a thing that these people are trying unsuccessfully to argue against.

Good. So you’d be okay with an ethnic studies class on the accomplishments of White people?

Explain what you think an ethnic studies class is.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I find it fascinating that a significant number of people in this thread are willing to irrationally categorize ethnic studies as part of CRT. It really substantiates how pervasive the problem is in this country--a thing that these people are trying unsuccessfully to argue against.

Good. So you’d be okay with an ethnic studies class on the accomplishments of White people?

See post#736.

 

[Shadowy Man]

I find it fascinating that a significant number of people in this thread are willing to irrationally categorize ethnic studies as part of CRT. It really substantiates how pervasive the problem is in this country--a thing that these people are trying unsuccessfully to argue against.

Good. So you’d be okay with an ethnic studies class on the accomplishments of White people?

Exactly! How many more centuries can universities go without acknowledging the accomplishments of white people??

There ought to be at least one class where we can learn about something a white person has done in history, yes?

 

[Shadowy Man]

Like when I studied all we heard about was all the great work done by middle easterners to create and advance the fields of math, physics, and astronomy, when just a mere 600 years later some unknown guy named Newton came up with a couple of useful equations. He should get some recognition by now!

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Like when I learned studied all we heard about was all the great work done by middle easterners to create and advance the fields of math, physics, and astronomy, when just a mere 600 years later some unknown guy named Newton came up with a couple of useful equations. He should get some recognition by now!

This is just like how they didn't let white people golf on Mondays. Critical race theory is so sneaky, it even existed before it existed.

 

[Politesse]

It kind of makes you realize how pointless it is to argue with these people. You're trying to explain social theories at the graduate level, they're way back on the level of "If two college courses mention the Blacks, they must be secretly the same course."

They're a lost cause. We just need to focus our efforts on educating the next generation.

 

[Angra Mainyu]

Some of debunked CRT as described by CRTists in the thread. But CRTist do not realize their ideology has been debunked, and look to indoctrinate others - believing they are being rational. It's kind of like Christianity, but when Christians had a lot more influence.

 

[Trausti]

Some of debunked CRT as described by CRTists in the thread. But CRTist do not realize their ideology has been debunked, and look to indoctrinate others - believing they are being rational. It's kind of like Christianity, but when Christians had a lot more influence.

When you read the papers by CRT “scholars,” they quite openly admit that they are political activists. This is probably why CRT rejects empiricism.

 

[thebeave]

Does everyone agree at least that CRT and Ethnic Studies are virtually the same thing?

No.

You're right...in theory, they are different things. The concern (not unfounded) is that the ES curriculum, as delineated in the bill, is a bit discretionary, so it could potentially be used as a Trojan Horse to inject CRT (and similar lefty agendas) into the classroom. This LA Times opinion piece (by The LA Times Editorial Board) gets into some detail of the new law:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-09-20/editorial-californias-ethnic-studies-is-not-quite-ready-for-prime-time

And despite the supposed guardrails in AB 101, there is too much leeway for unapproved curriculum to be taught. It allows school districts to adopt or adapt from the approved curriculum, but they also are free to create their own. Who is going to determine when the lessons aren’t appropriate and when they are biased?

Edited to Add: The authors of the original version of AB101 (which was rightfully rejected in 2019) have separated themselves from this latest, signed version of AB101 and have created their own Ethnic Studies group, called Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Institute. It is found on this website here:

http://www.liberatedethnicstudies.org/

Have look at their homepage. You will find this graphic on display front and center. This notion that CRT is some sort of made up right wing myth doesn't seem to hold water:

 

[none]

Nobody is asking for colonists to apologize for 90 million dead indigenous people in North American, or white people, or Europeans.
We just want to discuss the fact that these people are dead.

 

[none]

We are tired of having to share this history being incarcerated.

 

[Politesse]

You're right...in theory, they are different things. The concern (not unfounded) is that the ES curriculum, as delineated in the bill, is a bit discretionary, so it could potentially be used as a Trojan Horse to inject CRT (and similar lefty agendas) into the classroom. This LA Times opinion piece (by The LA Times Editorial Board) gets into some detail of the new law:

Teachers can teach at their discretion anyway, we don't practice censorship in this state.