Opposing Critical Race Theory Doesn’t Mean Ignoring Racism

It means refusing to accept a faulty worldview, so we can tackle racism better.

Today, I have to talk about something I have long assumed that people understood: that critical race theory (or indeed any other type of critical theory) is a particular worldview, and opposing that worldview doesn’t mean ignoring racism. I had long assumed that most people understood this, but experiences in the past year have taught me otherwise. With intense discussions about the recent Virginia election results, critical race theory has become a hot topic again, so I think this is the time to clarify things.

Critical race theory is a particular theory, a particular worldview, about racial relations. It is also part of a broader tradition called critical theory, which includes other structurally similar worldviews like critical legal theory (which critical race theory descended from), postcolonial theory, and some forms of radical feminism. Critical theory is a way of seeing the world which descended from the worldview of the Frankfurt School, who believed they were applying the ‘method of Marx’ to non-economic issues. In the (contemporary) critical theory tradition, people are divided into oppressor and oppressed classes, but rather than being based on economics, they are often based on immutable characteristics, like race or gender.

I oppose the critical theory worldview because it essentially force fits a model about 19th century economics to social and cultural issues. This is counterproductive, because it ignores the nuances and the multi-dimensional dynamics of social relations. It also ignores differences inherent in each individual’s situation, instead forcing all of us into strictly defined roles in ‘classes’ in their ‘systems of oppression’. Furthermore, the assumptions and the implications of the critical theory worldview are ultimately incompatible with liberal democracy as it is currently practiced. Therefore, I believe critical theory, which in fact has strong historical roots in revolutionary politics, is ultimately useless for a reformist politics, which is what we need right now.

Opposing critical race theory doesn’t mean ignoring racism. It doesn’t mean ignoring, or refusing to accurately teach, the role of racial oppression in the history of America, Canada, Australia, and other Western countries. It doesn’t mean ignoring the racial discrimination that still exists throughout the West today, or refusing to support the social change needed to end that discrimination. Opposing critical race theory (or other types of critical theory) merely means opposing a worldview that puts individuals into rigid ‘classes’ based on their immutable characteristics. And I believe that’s what’s actually needed to advance an anti-racist future.

TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who recently published her autobiography The TaraElla Story, in which she described the events that inspired her writing.

She is also the author of the Moral Libertarian Horizon books, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for Western democracies in the 21st century.