5) CRT elevates and prioritizes black ‘voice’, black ‘lived experience’, and the indispensability and authority of black experiential knowledge relative to the social analysis of law in particular and society in general. In this vein, it incorporates the notion of ‘naming one’s own reality.’
6) CRT recognizes interest convergence as a social reality, namely, that black interests will be served only to the extent that they serve white interests.
7) CRT challenges ahistoricism and offers revisionist history by replacing white majoritarian interpretations of events with ones that fit more readily with black and brown experience. In this vein, it incorporates the notion of ‘naming one’s own reality’.
8) CRT puts forth the notion of racial realism, that societal benefits map to a racial hierarchy in society where Whites are situated at the top. Adjacent to this recognition is the notion of hegemony, the dominance or power of Whites over Blacks maintained not by force but through the customs, ideas, norms, values, and traditions of Whites supported via the tacit consent of Blacks. The dominance of Whites in society has compelled Blacks to adopt a double consciousness, the ‘two-ness’ tension faced by Blacks to see themselves through Whites, white perspectives and the ‘white gaze’ AND to see themselves through their own individual, black perspectives.
9) CRT promotes the notion of intersectionality, which is, the claim that different facets of our identity interact in distinct and complex ways based upon the particular intersection of social categories we occupy, yielding a life and existence that can be generally characterized by either privilege, oppression, or both.
10) CRT critiques the system of meritocracy and argues that it often serves to reify white supremacy and the status quo.
11) CRT critiques egalitarianism and its protean character arguing that it is often weaponized to do the opposite of what it promises.
12) CRT puts forth the notion of interlocking systems of oppression which contends that various social categories (such as Black, female, gay, differently-abled) marked by oppression are interdependent and serve to reinforce, compliment, (and even complicate) one another and cannot be individually effectively liberated without liberating all.
13) CRT contends that whiteness is property. The claim that being White – in and of itself – yields substantial cultural capital in the form of privileges, benefits, and resources in society.
14) CRT problematizes certain (not all) hegemonic (dominant) understandings of objectivity and neutrality relative to accepted knowledge and knowledge production asserting they often serve to reify white supremacy and the status quo.
15) CRT is oppositional in nature and is consequently an emancipatory enterprise. That is, it is praxis-centric in its absolute commitment to the alleviation of racial oppression and injustice as well as other adjacent marginalizations.
Having given an overview of CRT and its unifying ideas, in the next article I will offer five of eight cautions regarding CRT.
This 3-part series by Dr. Pat Sawyer is part of a larger series discussion on Critical Race Theory. Read Dr. Sawyer’s other articles in this series here:
Cautions Regarding Critical Race Theory, Part 2
Cautions Regarding Critical Race Theory, Part 3
Read the entire series here.
Read the Complete Critical Race Theory Series
Part 1: Framing Critical Race Theory
Part 2: What Is CRT and Should We Be Concerned?
Part 3: Cautions Regarding Critical Race Theory
Part 4: Cautions Regarding Critical Race Theory II
Part 5: A Missiological Assessment of Critical Race Theory
Part 6: A Missiological Assessment of Critical Race Theory II
Part 7. A Missiological Assessment of Critical Race Theory III
Part 8: A Missiological Assessment of Critical Race Theory IV
Part 9: Sociological Theory and Precursors to Approaching Critical Race Theory
Part 10: Critical Theory and Precursors to Approaching Critical Race Theory
Part 11: Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism, and Biblical Ethics
