Thursday, Nov. 4, The College of William and Mary’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law held an interactive panel discussion on Zoom titled “The Attack on Critical Race Theory.” The event was co-sponsored by the W&M Center for Racial & Social Justice, American Constitution Society and Black Law Students Association.
The panel consisted of three distinguished professors with expertise on critical race theory (CRT): Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute and professor at UC Irvine David Theo Goldberg, associate professor of education at the College and faculty fellow of the W&M Center for Racial & Social Justice Jamel K. Donnor and professor of law at the College and director of the W&M Center for Racial & Social Justice Vivian Hamilton.
Student fellows Julian Miller and Haarika Reddy helped to moderate and facilitate the discussion, with Reddy fielding audience questions and Miller introducing the panelists and asking them the questions.
Goldberg opened the panel discussion by outlining the historical context of CRT. He explained that CRT is a part of a larger debate dating back over 100 years about the extent to which race influences the construction of American society. He drew a distinction between what he calls “critical race theory 1.0” and critical race studies, and he highlighted the dissonance between structure and individual action as a key part of this larger debate.
“The other sort of structuring feature of the debate is the tension between structure and agency—whether individual agency and individual responsibility drive the way people act in society, or whether we are structured in the social positions we are made to inhabit by the society to inhabit social positions in particular kinds of ways,” Goldberg said.
“The other sort of structuring feature of the debate is the tension between structure and agency—whether individual agency and individual responsibility drive the way people act in society, or whether we are structured in the social positions we are made to inhabit by the society to inhabit social positions in particular kinds of ways,” Goldberg said.
Arguing that the attacks against CRT are “fabricated through and through,” Goldberg then sought to discredit the opponents of CRT. He attributed the origins of these attacks against CRT to theorists Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin and Herbert Marcuse, explaining and debunking their respective theories.
Goldberg further criticized the work of Christopher Rufo and Mark Levin. He took issue with Rufo and his followers’ focus on colorblindness, or the ideology that the best way to facilitate equality is to disregard differences of race, culture and ethnicity between individuals, and he also traced the origins of colorblindness to judge John Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson.
Goldberg ended his section of the panel by positing his ideas for why CRT has been gaining so much traction in recent years. Using statistical evidence to support his claim, he discussed the rise in racial tensions as the white population in America has been increasingly diminishing with the growth of minority populations, foreshadowing the elimination of one majority racial group.
Following Goldberg’s overview of CRT from a historical perspective, Donnor joined the discussion to offer a concise rundown of his thoughts on CRT. Donnor discussed the work of Derrick Bell, who called attention to the anti-Black sentiment and pseudoscience in the best-selling book “The Bell Curve” by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein. According to Donner, Bell questioned why Murray and Herrnstein chose to publish the empirically disproven information that “Black people, on average, scored 15 points lower than white people on IQ exams,” when doing so would only fuel racial hostilities.
“In other words, the intentional denial of empirical facts and observable reality, in tandem with the manufacturing of lies, distortion, stereotypes, policy, distractions and falsifying of data, are a well-worn tactic of racists and white supremacists,” Donner said.
“In other words, the intentional denial of empirical facts and observable reality, in tandem with the manufacturing of lies, distortion, stereotypes, policy, distractions and falsifying of data, are a well-worn tactic of racists and white supremacists,” Donner said.
However, Donner looked toward the future of CRT with optimism, noting that marginalized voices are finally being heard as discussions around CRT are becoming increasingly prevalent in modern society.
“It’s important to remember that ideas are powerful, ideas are priceless,” Donner concluded.
“It’s important to remember that ideas are powerful, ideas are priceless,” Donner concluded.
Hamilton then entered the conversation to break down the basics of CRT in simpler terms to ensure that everybody in the virtual room was able to have a mutual understanding of CRT. She defined CRT as “an academic discipline that emerged from precursors like legal realism and critical legal studies” but noted that CRT is extremely hard to concretely define as it is a vast discipline that countless scholars have contributed to over the years. Hamilton also outlined the three core principles of CRT.
First, theorists state that race is a social construct, meaning that social norms rather than inherent biological differences are what create race. Second, racism according to CRT is not “aberrational” but rather institutional, pervading society at every level. Racism is created and upheld by laws and institutions, even if the individual functionaries of those institutions do not have racist intentions. Third, CRT is political in nature because critical race scholars contribute to the field in order to advance racial justice.
After establishing the necessary framework for understanding CRT, Hamilton sought to answer why there has been such an unprecedented focus on CRT in recent years. She credited the murder of George Floyd for placing racial injustice at the forefront of the nation’s consciousness and sparking initiatives to expand race inclusive education. However, according to Hamilton, with this renewed racial awakening came an equal pushback from those who became personally offended that they might be called racist or have privilege.
“Opponents of reform insisted that the formal equality that displaced the explicit racism of the Jim Crow era has transformed the United States…into a colorblind, equal opportunity society,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton then particularly highlighted Christopher Rufo, a journalist with the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute, as a crucial reason for the ongoing national campaign against race inclusive education.
Hamilton discussed how Rufo appropriated the seminal works of critical race theorists like Ibram Kendi and Robin De D’Angelo to create a caricature of CRT as a catch-all for radical leftist ideology that conservatives largely feared and hated. According to Hamilton, Rufo’s work and explicit demands in July 2020 directly led to President Trump issuing an executive order banning anti-bias training in federal workplaces as well as many different state legislative acts prohibiting race-related education in public elementary and secondary schools.
“It’s been extremely difficult to disrupt or to correct this sort of caricature of CRT that has sort of taken hold very intentionally in the popular imagination,” Hamilton said. “And the results have been concrete, we’re seeing laws that ironically demonstrate exactly one of the tenets of CRT, which is that law can be used to perpetuate racial inequality in the status quo.”
The three panelists then opened up the conversation to audience members, leaving time at the end to answer previously submitted audience questions. The three discussed how to explain CRT to someone who believes CRT is anti-white, as well as the future of CRT legislation and combating the constructed caricatures of CRT.
Leaving off the discussion on a poignant note, the three each shared their respective recommendations for further source material on CRT for those looking to learn more. Kiara Bridges’ “Critical Race Theory: A Primer” and Ian Haney Lopez’s “Dog Whistle Politics” were the two recommendations provided by Hamilton and Donner respectively.