A thread on the new bogeyman of “critical race theory” https://www.theblaze.com/news/ready-uk-equalities-minister-torches-blm-movement-critical-race-theory-in-house-of-commons-floor-speech

Watching dim-witted Tory junior ministers try get their heads around the works of Derrick Bell, Patricia Williams and some of the most-decorated legal scholars of last 50 years would be funny if this wasn’t so serious.

Clearly, Google has told them that critical race theory is just people shouting about “white privilege” etc so here is an idiot’s guide to CRT to help.

CRT emerged out of Harvard law in the 80’s in an attempt to explain the contradictions between the legal equality achieved through the civil rights struggle and the ongoing visible difference in the impact of the law across racial group

This is the heart of CRT. Pretty simple isn’t it. There are certainly critiques that can be made of the tradition (I see it as having become too detached from political economy, for one) but to pretend it is a dangerous, illegitimate sphere of academic inquiry is just pathetic.

CRT started with the material reality. Look at your cities. Look at your prisons. If law is blind, why does property law, criminal law etc seem to punish some groups more than others. You don’t care about this, fine, good for you. But you also want to stop others from caring?

The same people who would defend the right of Charles Murray to talk about how Black people have lower IQ’s on the grounds of free speech are now cheering a government banning teachers trying to explain the difference between legal equality and material inequality

In the UK, Black people are stopped + searched nearly 10x white people. 40% of young people in custody are BME. If your explanation for this is anything other than ‘Blacks are just naturally/culturally more criminal’… then congratulations, you have just started doing CRT!