![]() ![]() These attacks against critical race theory are a direct response to that. (Photo by Becker1999 via Wikimedia Commons, CC by 2.0) The police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others shocked the world - and opened many Americans to the reality of pervasive violence and discrimination against people in communities of color, Bridges said. ![]() I think the country became receptive to hearing racial critiques of the status quo - and people were open to doing something about it. Those folks who had tended to think of police as heroes without capes - they saw these nine minutes of brutality. Because when George Floyd was killed in the most brutal and public of ways, many people started to have an epiphany. The sociopolitical moment that we’re living through right now directly flows from the racial reckoning that we began to have after George Floyd was killed last year. It’s also to make sure they go to the polls in 20, to vote in a government that would protect “their” America from being “lost.” Looking back, I’m struck that the campaign against critical race theory seemed to come in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. It’s to keep those folks who are afraid of losing some American ideal that Trump was supposed to protect - to keep them in fear of losing their country. Can you elaborate on that - among the critics, what are their motives and intentions? It’s so inconsistent with the values around equality, justice and liberty for all that the country purports to embrace. And that’s why this present moment is as dangerous as it is, because we ought to critique American life simply because it’s so inconsistent with what the Constitution demands. I see blatant falsehoods.īut part of the point of these attacks is to neutralize and delegitimize powerful critiques of American life. I hesitate to say that it’s even a caricature. Their descriptions of critical race theory bear no resemblance whatsoever to the theory that I described in some degree of detail in my book. These attacks are simply using critical race theory, that name, to reference any talk about race and racism that these conservative activists and lawmakers don’t like. They’re not about the theory that emerged in law schools in the 1970s and ‘80s to explain the failures of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bridges: By now, we all know that these attacks are not about critical race theory. ![]() Bridges and published in 2018 by Foundation Press “Critical Race Theory: A Primer,” was written by Berkeley Law professor Khiara M. senator, speaking on a popular right-wing television station, described the legal field as “fatalistic … cynical, ahistorical, sophomoric, insipid, and dumb as a bag of hair.”Īs the attacks gained momentum and drifted further from fact, Bridges came to a conclusion: During a blitz of attention to white police violence against Black people, and with communities of color suffering disproportionately from COVID-19, Americans were opening to the idea that racism could be systemic - and deadly. A prominent conservative magazine described it as indoctrination and “racially based shaming of children” in classrooms. Republican-allied media routinely label it as racist and divisive. institutions and processes codify and reinforce racial inequality in areas such as health, education, criminal justice and voting rights.īut following the victory of Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the blast furnaces of conservative strategic communication have transformed critical race theory into something Bridges doesn’t recognize. Bridges, author of “Critical Race Theory: A Primer,” the field had been developing for 40 years as a framework for analyzing how the law and other U.S. According to UC Berkeley law professor Khiara M. Bridges, law professor (Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley School of Law)Īt first it was just one thread in the weave of pre-election coverage. ![]()
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