CRITICAL RACE THEORY

In The Genesis of Political Correctness: The Basis of a False Morality, I explained: ‘The objective of Critical Theory was to criticize in such a way as to debunk the objective of the criticism.’ One Marxist writer attributed Adorno (1903-1969), Marcuse (1898-1979), and Habermas (born 1929) as being ‘central figures of critical theory’. I wrote: ‘For Habermas, it is the transmission of culture and beliefs from one generation to the next and across society that needs to be prevented. False consciousness is deemed to be sustained by communication, and this communication should be targeted and controlled.’ I continued:

‘Habermas argued that Marx’s theories could no longer be relied upon to achieve revolutionary change for a number of reasons: with advanced capitalism the state and the economy are interlocked; the increase in living standards with advanced capitalism meant that economic grounds were no longer sufficient for revolution; and “the proletariat as proletariat, has been dissolved” and cannot be relied upon as a revolutionary agent … The response was for immanent critique to become “total critique” – an attack on the whole of Western society. Habermas saw those who experienced most deprivation and were likely to be the least integrated into society as being the most likely supporters of revolutionary change. Such unintegrated people needed to be radicalised and promoted into positions of power. Critical theory is a means of justifying and promoting this.

Habermas, Marcuse, and the other members of the Frankfurt School remained committed to “catastrophic total revolution”, but their language changed, and milder terms were used in order to disguise their true politics. In part, this was due to the need for funding from American universities and foundations. Hegel and Freud were used as fronts for Marx. Code words were adopted, with “emancipation” and “democracy” often being used for revolution and socialism, respectively. Critical theory was used for the Frankfurt School’s version of Marxism. Marcuse advocated that the Left needed to soften its language, partly to differentiate itself from the brutal communist dictatorships, and even to criticize those dictatorships in order to accentuate that differentiation, and partly because socialism, let alone outright communism, alienated the American public. The Frankfurt School shifted their stance from praxis (the process for the realization of theory) for a communist revolution towards education for tolerance.

Whatever its flowery language and pretended scientific intellectual basis, critical theory amounted to an attack, by means of destructive criticism passed off as scientific analysis, upon all aspects of Western culture, including Christianity, capitalism, the family, hierarchy, morality, tradition, patriotism and nationalism, and conservatism. It was an attempt to turn existing understandings and common sense into a state of flux and, eventually, to replace those beliefs with a contrived neo-Marxist ideology masquerading as the truth. The ultimate aim was the destruction of Western civilization and a communist revolution.’

An article in The Nation dated the 17 September 2020, stated:

‘The Trump administration recently released an Office of Management and Budget memo denouncing the expenditure of federal moneys on trainings on “critical race theory, white privilege, or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil.” Citing unnamed news sources, the memo asserts that federal employees have been subjected to trainings in which they are required to acknowledge that “virtually all Whites are racist” and that they have benefited from racism, in contravention of basic American values. Trump’s Department of Education recently took up the effort to censor Critical Race Theory, announcing that it would review training materials and even employee book clubs to eliminate this allegedly “un-American propaganda”.’

The actual memo from the Executive Office of the President, entitled, ‘MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES’ stated:

‘It has come to the President’s attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date “training” government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda. For example, according to press reports, employees across the Executive Branch have been required to attend trainings where they are told that “virtually all White people contribute to racism” or where they are required to say that they “benefit from racism.” According to press reports, in some cases these training have further claimed that there is racism embedded in the belief that America is the land of opportunity or the belief that the most qualified person should receive a job.’

Therefore:

‘The President has directed me to ensure that Federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions … all agencies are directed to begin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on “critical race theory,” “white privilege,” or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil. In addition, all agencies should begin to identify all available avenues within the law to cancel any such contracts and/or to divert Federal dollars away from these un-American propaganda training sessions.’

An article for CNN entitled ‘What critical race theory is – and isn’t’, asserted:

‘You may be hearing the term a lot these days, politicized and presented by its critics as a Marxist ideology that’s a threat to the American way of life. It’s not. It’s a concept that’s been around for decades, a concept that seeks to understand inequality and racism in the US … What’s critical race theory? Critical race theory recognizes that systemic racism is part of the American life, and challenges the beliefs that allow it to flourish.’

A better informed site, Got Questions, states:

‘Question: “What is the critical race theory, and how should a Christian view it?”

Answer: Critical race theory is a modern approach to social change, developed from the broader critical theory, which developed out of Marxism. Critical race theory (CRT) approaches issues such as justice, racism, and inequality, with a specific intent of reforming or reshaping society. In practice, this is applied almost exclusively to the United States. Critical race theory is grounded in several key assumptions. Among these are the following:

• American government, law, culture, and society are inherently and inescapably racist.

• Everyone, even those without racist views, perpetuates racism by supporting those structures.
• The personal perception of the oppressed—their “narrative”—outweighs the actions or intents of others.

• Oppressed groups will never overcome disadvantages until the racist structures are replaced.

• Oppressor race or class groups never change out of altruism; they only change for self-benefit.

• Application of laws and fundamental rights should be different based on the race or class group of the individual(s) involved.

In short, critical race theory presupposes that everything about American society is thoroughly racist, and minority groups will never be equal until American society is entirely reformed. This position is extremely controversial, even in secular circles. Critical race theory is often posed as a solution to white supremacy or white nationalism. Yet, in practice, it essentially does nothing other than inverting the oppressed and oppressor groups.’

Academia has continued to promote the agenda set out by the Frankfurt School, with a variety of courses devoted to critical theory. For example, UC Berkeley describes one of its programmes thus:

‘The Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory offers courses on the nineteenth-century notion of critique; on the Frankfurt School and other twentieth-century currents of critical theory and philosophy; and on contemporary forms and modes of critical theory, including critical race theory, post-colonialist theory, feminist critique, gender studies and queer theory, and the diverse approaches to critique arising with and after structuralism and poststructuralism. The Program emphasizes the centrality of theoretical critique in the examination of contemporary values, of the power relations that constrain and enable political, social, cultural and economic life, and of the modes of justification that legitimate historical and cultural inquiry and sociopolitical analysis.’

The photograph above is from the UC Berkeley site and is of Marcuse and Angela Davis – both communists.

The recent debate between President Trump and the Democrat challenger, Joe Biden, included the following exchange (italics my own emphasis):

‘55:04 WALLACE

Mr. President, Mr. President. President Trump, I’d like to continue with this. I promise we’re gonna get to the issue of law and order in a moment. Your administration directed federal agencies to end racial sensitivity training that addresses white privilege or critical race theory. Why did you decide to do that, end with sensitivity training? And do you believe that there is systemic racism in this country, sir?

55:37 TRUMP

I ended it because it’s racist. I ended it because a lot of people were complaining that they were asked to do things that were absolutely insane. That it was a radical revolution that was taking place in our military, in our schools, all over the place. And you know it and so does everybody else. And he would know it.

55:54 WALLACE

What is radical — What is radical about racial sensitivity training?

55:59 TRUMP

If you were a certain person, you had no status in life, it’s sort of a reversal. And if you look at the people, we would pay people hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach very bad ideas and frankly very sick ideas. And really, they were teaching people to hate our country. And I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to allow that to happen. We have to go back to the core values of this country. They were teaching people that our country is a horrible place, it’s a racist place, and they were teaching people to hate our country. And I’m not gonna allow that to happen.

56:31 WALLACE

Vice President Biden?

56:33 BIDEN

Nobody’s doing that. He’s just, he’s racist. Here’s the deal, I know a lot more —

56:38 WALLACE

Let him finish. 

56:40 BIDEN

The fact is that there is racial insensitivity. People have to be made aware of what other people feel like, what insults them, what is demeaning to them. It’s important that people know they don’t want to, many people don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings. But it makes a big difference. It makes a gigantic difference in the way a child is able to grow up and have a sense of a sense of self esteem. It’s a little bit like how this guy and his friends looked down on so many people. They look down their nose on people like Irish Catholics like me who grew up in Scranton. They look down on people who don’t have money. They look down on people who are of a different faith. They look down on people who are a different color. In fact, we’re all Americans. The only way we’re going to bring this country together is bring everybody. There’s nothing we cannot do, if we do it together. We can take this on and we can defeat racism. 

57:35 WALLACE

Vice President — I mean, President Trump, sir.

57:37 TRUMP 

During the Obama-Biden administration, there was tremendous division. There was hatred, you look at Ferguson, you look at, you go to very many places. Look at Oakland. Look what happened in Oakland. Look what happened in Baltimore. Look what happened- Frankly, it was more violent than what I’m even seeing now, 

57:55 BIDEN

Oh my god, this is ridiculous.

57:56 TRUMP

But the reason is that the Democrats that run these cities don’t want to talk, like you, about law and order. 

58:03 BIDEN

Violent crime — Violent crime —

58:03 TRUMP

You still haven’t mentioned, are you in favor of law and order?

58:04 BIDEN

I’m in favor of law. You — 

58:07 TRUMP

Are you in favor of law and order?

58:13 BIDEN

Law and order with justice where people get treated fairly. And the fact of the matter is violent crime went down 17%, 15% percent in our administration. It’s gone up on his watch.’

People need to have the confidence of their own common sense, and make their own minds up as to whether the rioters, and those excusing if not supporting their violence, are responsible for the present unrest; and decide whether or not CRT and the so-called training is about promoting sensitivity, or about promoting hatred.