“Critical Race Theory” has become a fixture in the debate over how to teach children about the country’s history and race relations. Since President Trump's 2020 Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, the term CRT has become a political hot button, even though the original theory had nothing to do with the K-12 education.
CRT was developed in the 1970s and 80s mostly at Harvard Law School in response to continuing racial discrimination following the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The original scholar of the movement was Derrick Bell. Bell himself won several civil rights cases but observed that even landmark civil rights cases were of limited practical impact to most Blacks.
Developed as the practice of exploring the role of race and racism (originally against Blacks) in law and society, the original theory's core concept is that race is a social construct and that racism is not merely the product of individual prejudice, but is something embedded in the legal system, social system, and our assumptions. Over the years, this core concept has been expanded to include other minorities.
The objective of this SDG is neither to promote nor attack Critical Race Theory but to understand its relevance and current concerns about inequality in the United States.
