Going to be honest here: The critique of CRT that I find least compelling is that it reads society through the lens of power differentials.

We know this focus on commensurate social power isn't unique to CRT, right?

Stay with me.

I tend to agree that social power itself is an inadequate lens for evaluating human flourishing. It's part of the conversation, but it's not everything.

HOWEVER... I first encountered this hyper focus on power in conservative space. We just called it by other names.

We used these kind of words:

government overreach
individual liberty
private property
freedom of...

and perhaps even more ironically,

authority
headship
submission
rule

It's been my experience that most prominent debates in church & society are all about the distribution of... power. Questions about authority, rule, social order, freedom--all of these are fundamentally questions about the right shape & administration of human power in community.

I'm not saying these debates are unwarranted. I'm not saying that a flattened view of rule or social position is accurate or even possible.

I'm just saying that it's specious to critique CRT on the basis that it uses power differential to discuss human community when that's the prevailing frame of reference for almost every social conversation we're engaged in. Even as conservatives.

Please understand: I'm speaking from a particular place. I came of age in as conservatism debated personal agency, social hierarchy, government control, m/f dynamics, & even proper ecclesiastical rule.

I always knew these questions to be about power & community formation.

But in talking about race, why do we change the rules of the conversation? Why do we suddenly decry conversations about social power as inherently suspect and even marxist?

I often find myself at odds w/ modern world, both conservative & progressive. I don't think Enlightenment vision of equality via radical individualism is goal or even attainable. But I also don't think some should flourish while others languish. Power is for common good.

What I would like, though, is consistency. What I would like is a little self-reflection & the acknowledgment that conservatives focus on the question of social power as much anyone else.