What is critical race theory and why is Trump attacking it?
I first heard about critical race theory (CRT) from an American colleague at an academic conference in Germany a few years ago. At that time, I was still interpreting the data I collected during interviews with Turkish origin ethnic minority students in Belgium on their experiences of diversity, contact and exclusion in education. I initially found it hard to grasp how CRT, an American perspective, could be relevant to understand the experiences of Turkish ethnic minorities in Belgium, a group which is not necessarily seen as racially different from ethnic majority.
My preliminary analyses of the research findings were mainly inspired by mainstream integration theories which often tend to offer a decontextualized and an individual level understanding of people’s experiences. This means, the burden of acculturating in a society is usually put on those with a migration background and the role of societal structure and conditions in facilitating equal participation in society are understated. The narratives of students clearly indicated the strong presence of discriminatory remarks or excluding attitudes from peers and teachers, but maybe they just ran into ‘bad apples’, I thought at the beginning. The stereotypical and degrading questions or attitudes that they were exposed to could also be due to some misunderstanding. Teachers could be well-intentioned and trying to protect them from future failure when they had low expectations from Turkish origin students.
What CRT does is to challenge our understanding of ongoing racism and inequality and encourage achievement of social justice and equity.
There were many other incidents, which made Turkish Belgian students feel invisible and unvalued, such as underrepresentation of ethnic minorities at university, lack of an inclusive curriculum that gave voice to diverse perspectives, and the lack of open conversations in class and on campus about social inequalities or cultural differences. Students’ stories hinted not only at the everyday interactions which constructed them as others but also at the failure of educational institutions in providing equitable experiences and opportunities to them because of their ethnic background.
Until I began to read critical race research, I did not realize that all these different aspects of Turkish descent students’ experiences are linked and part of a structure that systematically deprives them of opportunities and benefits available to members of ethnic majority groups. That racism is not necessarily an issue of some prejudiced individuals with old-fashioned views and even well-intentioned people support the sustenance of this system, albeit unconsciously. That the social, academic, psychological, and material impact of racism on ethnic minorities needs to be foregrounded instead of the intentions of the perpetrators. That achieving racial equity is not possible only by organizing anti-bias training programs to decrease prejudice or by fighting against symptoms of racism but a more structural change is needed. A change that incorporates a fundamental transformation of how our social, economic, and political institutions are designed.
Critical race theory in Western-Europe
Scholars of color in legal studies in the US came up with CRT during the civil rights movements to challenge racial inequalities in American institutions. They have defined racism as the beliefs, practices, or structural systems that support the socio-economic domination of privileged White groups. Central to CRT is the notion that racism is deeply hardwired into the fabric of the society and for this reason, appears normal and reasonable to people. CRT scholars have shown how race figures into structural inequalities in society through both individual acts and structural processes that shape experiences of people across health, economy, housing, and education. Although CRT was initially devised to make sense of the experiences of people of color living in the US, its scope has been extended to shed light on how racism intersects with gender, class, ethnicity, culture, religion and linguistic background.
Critical race research made me realize that different aspects of Turkish descent students’ experiences are linked and part of a structure that systematically deprives them of opportunities and benefits available to members of ethnic majority groups.
Still, there is little scholarly and public focus on “race” in continental Europe and CRT is often dismissed because of its American origin. Despite being deeply ingrained in the fabric of societies and societal institutions, racism is characterized by the denial of racial differences and color-blindness. Mathias Möschel, one of the few scholars investigating race in the European context, says that the concept of race has been put aside in Europe after World War II following the fall of Nazi Germany. In Europe, racism has been mainly associated with the horrors of the Holocaust and the impact of Europe’s colonial past on contemporary inequalities is largely overlooked. By adopting strategies such as color-evasion (i.e., denial of racial differences), Europe has downplayed and rejected ongoing structural racism. Both the racism against people of color and ethnic/religious minorities is a continuum of White nationalism and supremacy that is tied to Europe’s colonial past.
Why is critical race theory being attacked?
Black Lives Matter protests in the US following the death of George Floyd encouraged many to take to the streets in Europe and call out the history of racism in their own countries. In Belgium, France, Spain, Netherlands, Germany and the UK, people demanded justice for people exposed to racial profiling, police brutality and systematic discrimination in labor, education and housing. Despite these large-scale protests, little has been achieved since then in terms of creating lasting and meaningful political change. In addition, conversations about race, colonialism and inequalities remain touchy subjects in many contexts. Besides failing to address such structural problems and using this opportunity to improve the lives of people, the US and the UK governments have recently attacked CRT in an attempt to silence growing conversation about race.
Contrary to how it is portrayed by politicians, CRT is not anti-White or does not consider all White people to be racist, just as it does not have a view of Black people as victims without any power.
President Donald Trump denounced CRT during the several speeches he gave last month and signed an executive order to stop anti-bias training relying on CRT or addressing White privilege. During the first general election presidential debate, he described such training as racist and un-American. Following Trump’s order, two campuses announced that they are cancelling diversity, equity and inclusion programmes. A month later, the UK’s Women and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch condemned the Black Lives Matter movement and CRT.
Badenoch described the CRT as “ an ideology that sees my blackness as victimhood and their whiteness as oppression” and said such ideologies do not belong in British schools. Interestingly, there is little evidence to suggest that CRT concepts are actively being taught in British schools since many teachers lack the training and time to teach about racism. By depicting critical race theory as an attack on people, both Trump and Badenoch aim to deflect attention away from power inequality and suppress the conversations and ideas that are challenging and criticizing it. Closing down discussions about the need for structural change and justice, they seek to maintain racial boundaries as there is a growing fear that more white people are involved in the fight against racism.
Contrary to how it is portrayed by politicians, CRT is not anti-White or does not consider all White people to be racist, just as it does not have a view of Black people as victims without any power. What CRT does is to challenge our understanding of ongoing racism and inequality and encourage achievement of social justice and equity. CRT teaches us that we cannot get rid of racial inequalities by ignoring race. Using these notions, we could educate students to be more empathetic and conscious of the society they live in so that they could actively contribute to the achievement of societal justice. We should continue to discuss, analyze, and teach about ways of exposing and redressing structural inequalities and racism despite censorship attempts by the governments. The notions and the language developed by CRT to address racism and inequality are vital to pushing for the much-needed actual structural change.
A slightly different version of this article was published in Dutch on DeWereldMorgen.
