Critical Race Theory: What’s the problem?

Critical Race Theory: What’s the problem?

 I am trying to understand why my Christian partners in missions and ministry are troubled by Critical Race Theory (CRT).   There are theories about everything not only including theories in the natural sciences, but in the social sciences as well. Theories in the social sciences are centered around social behavior, social interaction and the nature of groups including organizations. Theories on human social behavior are not individual selfish ideas, but statistically significant realities about social human behavior, social interaction and groups/organizations.  

 Theories are developed in the natural sciences and the social sciences based on verifiable and reliable facts. The cool thing about “theories” is that they can be proven or disproven based on solid data collection and analysis  to determine efficacy. A social theory aims to understand a social dynamic or a social phenomenon. The problem of race or as Dr. Cornell West says is the problem of the color line and it is a social dynamic worthy of analysis. Two questions among many that can be asked by a social researcher are:

· How does race impact attainment in higher education and upward mobility in the workplace?

· How do the conditions in which a group migrates: voluntarily or involuntarily, impact that group’s ability to assimilate, adapt and/or thrive?

These questions are simple examples of how a social science researcher may begin collecting data to be able to make generalized assertions about a social dynamic. So one reading about CRT can decide that they “don’t like” the results of a statistically significant or proven reality. We could be referencing Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in the natural sciences or CRT in the social sciences. The individual feeling is not the litmus test.

CRT is an academic concept over 40 years old. It argues that race is socially constructed. “In the 1700s and early 1800s, scientists studied ‘race science’—the idea that humankind is divided into separate and unequal races.” (The Science of Self. Facing History & Ourselves @ www.facinghistory.org). The German scientist, Johann Fredrich Blumenbach coined the term Caucasian in 1795 and made a race typology or the higher to the lowest racial group with Caucasians being on top and as the “original race and therefore the most beautiful.”  In other words, the concept of race or racial hierarchies more specifically was developed by the dominant racial group putting some groups at the top and others at the bottom. The ramifications of such determinations have always had cumulative impact for all racial groups that are inherent in the systems of society: educational, criminal justice, political, and more.

When I was in middle school and registering for high school courses, I was told by my teacher to register for the vocational track. (Now there is nothing wrong with vocational or trades training for there is lots of money to be made and services that need to be provided). When I informed that teacher that I wanted the college track she said that it was not for me. That all “of you” are registering for vocational ed. I argued that I wanted the courses that my field hockey-playing friend, Jeannie was taking. Fast forward, as the end of high school, I applied to two universities although my guidance counselor said that I should not apply. Once accepted provisionally to Adelphi University the counselor said, “Yeah you are in, but you won’t make it.” No doubt, the middle school teacher and the high school counselor were products of their social location to include their shared understanding of race and educational attainment based on race. So CRT is a theory with statistical significance —-meaning that longitudinal patterns are verifiable and reliable. Race does matter in practice on a large scale. CRT is not about individual prejudices and discriminatory practices, but about the perpetual overwhelmingly multiplied individual practices that produce systems that benefit some more so than others based on race.

We are all created in the image of God and ideally there would be no need for social inquiry if in fact we all fully embraced the Imago Dei in the other. The reality is though that power, greed, conquest or manifest destiny trumps the cross thereby making it necessary for the deconstruction of systems for the ushering in if a new kingdom of God in Christ. Jesus tried to identify to the first century powerbrokers the flaws in the system for the purpose of a new kingdom based on love as the fulfillment of the law. To my co-laborers in ministry, CRT aims to do the same.