CRT & Reparations

Week of 4/21 - 4/26

Critical Race Theory - CRT

A 2021 critical race theory article published by the New York Times explains critical race theory in the woman (Professor Kimberly Crenshaw) who came up with the terms theory.

"Professor Crenshaw put it, C.R.T. is more a verb than a noun. “It is a way of seeing, attending to, accounting for, tracing and analyzing the ways that race is produced,” she said, “the ways that racial inequality is facilitated, and the ways that our history has created these inequalities that now can be almost effortlessly reproduced unless we attend to the existence of these inequalities.”"

I don't believe CRT is a negative thing because it provides insights into the historical and systemic roots of racial inequality and injustice. By examining how our laws, policies, and societal structures have and continue to perpetuate racism, we can get a deeper understanding of how complex race relations are.

I also think it's important to remember how race was an artificial (not sure that's the word I'm looking for) creation designed to distinguish people by physical skin characteristics and give value to certain favored features. It's very crazy to think about how brutal the creation of racist ideology has been to black and brown bodies. And now that we want to take time to explore these topics, certain states such as Florida want to ban the discussion of such things.

New York Times Article

I personally want to get a better understanding of critical race theory because when debates arise about schools trying to ban the subject, I feel we should be informed enough to contribute to discussions.

Reperations

Ta-Nehisi