Difference between revisions of "Critical Race Theory"
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| − | Critical Race Theory (or CRT for short) has become a divisive political topic in the United States and across the globe, with political conservatives exposing it as an argument to delegitimize progressive thought. | + | Critical Race Theory (or CRT for short) has become a divisive political topic in the United States and across the globe, with political conservatives exposing it as an argument to delegitimize progressive thought. In this article we investigate what Critical Race Theory is, why it has become an instrument of political criticism, and how this is relevant to veganism. |
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| + | ==What is it?== | ||
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| + | Critical Race Theory is one of those ideologies that's hard to define because there's not a lot of central authority or a clear universal definition, unlike [[Definition_of_Vegan|Veganism]]. | ||
CRT stems from after civil rights reforms as an evaluation of race in society and culture, and attempt the answer the question of why racial disparities persisted. Fundamentally, it's a departure from liberal beliefs of colorblindness in law. It advances the idea that we live in a white-dominated society, and that racism benefits whites so the majority white dominated culture will not change. | CRT stems from after civil rights reforms as an evaluation of race in society and culture, and attempt the answer the question of why racial disparities persisted. Fundamentally, it's a departure from liberal beliefs of colorblindness in law. It advances the idea that we live in a white-dominated society, and that racism benefits whites so the majority white dominated culture will not change. | ||
Revision as of 23:48, 22 February 2022
Critical Race Theory (or CRT for short) has become a divisive political topic in the United States and across the globe, with political conservatives exposing it as an argument to delegitimize progressive thought. In this article we investigate what Critical Race Theory is, why it has become an instrument of political criticism, and how this is relevant to veganism.
Contents
What is it?
Critical Race Theory is one of those ideologies that's hard to define because there's not a lot of central authority or a clear universal definition, unlike Veganism.
CRT stems from after civil rights reforms as an evaluation of race in society and culture, and attempt the answer the question of why racial disparities persisted. Fundamentally, it's a departure from liberal beliefs of colorblindness in law. It advances the idea that we live in a white-dominated society, and that racism benefits whites so the majority white dominated culture will not change.
These are interesting ideas that may be worthy of consideration, but unfortunately these claims come with no evidence and by the nature of CRTs rejection of culturally dominant modes of discourse will not come with evidence because CRT rejects the idea of measurable evidence and testable hypotheses themselves on the basis that these are in themselves dominant white modes of thinking in social science -- modes which they believe tend to exclude people of color -- in other words, asking for evidence or testable claims amounts to racist expectations. This makes criticizing CRT functionally impossible without being charged with supporting latent racism, and thus, immune from any sort of criticism, regardless of validity.
Examining many of its positions, particularly the unfalsifiable claims and rejection of scientific methodology in favor of story telling, it comes off as anti-science, anti-egalitarian, conspiratorial, and ironically enough for proponents of CRT, very often racist in its assumptions of the unwillingness of a defined "white" to challenge racism due to self interest. Many proponents hold even more overtly racist views.
Is it actually racist?
Lack of scientific basis
Politics is a field that is generally less about science and evidence and more about rhetoric.
Many of these positions seem to be the result of intuitive speculation, that is, not only is it mere speculation, but rather than basing it on any given evidence or reason, they're speculating merely with what they find intuitive.
Criticism from conservatives
Relevance to Veganism
Similar to ideas such as anti-natalism, overt misanthropy, and deontological ethics, it is potentially harmful to the vegan movement to be advocating CRT, as not only is it a socially harmful idea that lacks evidence and fails under scrutiny, it creates the impression that Vegans and the animal rights movement value ideology and rhetoric over empirical evidence and reason. Veganism as a movement must not fall under the umbrella of becoming a partisan political issue (which unfortunately climate change has become) if it is to become a widely accepted ideal for society; Advocating partisan positions such as CRT doesn't help this.
