Misleading words used in the CRT universe that you should know
A shortlist of words that smuggle the CRT ideology into naïve and well-meaning communities.
- Anti-racism
In CRT lexicon anti-racism is not the same as being opposed to racism. For CRT theorists anti-racism means making an active effort to oppose and undermine the institutions that they allege keep black people down. These range from private education, to policing, and the criminal justice system, capitalism, private enterprise, and property rights. To be anti-racist you must disavow those institutions and work to discredit them and break them down. - Equity
For CRT theorists equity means complete equality of outcomes. People must not only have the same opportunities but also the same outcomes from those opportunities. Where some people earn more or own more valuable assets than other people that is seen as evidence of racism. The state would then be justified to intervene in the society in question to redistribute its resources and doing so would be an effective means to counter racism. - Diversity
In CRT theory diversity has a different meaning to the common use of the term. It is not taken to mean an environment of a broad spectrum of views, backgrounds, or opinions but rather one where whiteness and white-privilege has been overthrown. A diverse community, business, or school is therefore taken to be one where CRT theorists dominate and no other views are tolerated. - Inclusion
See the definition of diversity above. - Privilege
In CRT theory privilege means the unearned advantages that white people enjoy because of their oppression of black people, irrespective of class, ethnicity, or history. - Whiteness
For CRT theorists whiteness means a mindset and outlook towards black people that sees them as sub-human or alternatively support for the institutions that keep black people down. All white people suffer from whiteness and must be forced to admit this and promise to take measures to become aware of their whiteness and privilege and to apologize for it. But privilege and whiteness can never be overcome until the society and systems that underpin it are broken down. - Racism
Racism in CRT is taken to mean the prejudice that white people enforce on black people. According to CRT theorists, black people can never be racist because the internal power balances of western democracies are so skewed against them. Black people can be prejudiced against white people and choose not to like white people or discriminate against them which is understandable given how white people act to keep black people down. But that prejudice is not racist as racism implies having the power within a society to keep another race down or to deny resources to it. - Intersectionality
Discrimination on grounds such as race, gender, sexual preference, disability, religion, etc. interconnect. The more grounds of discrimination someone suffers from, the higher up the hierarchy of victimhood they reach. Intersectionality is a concept that falls within CRT because it includes identities that critical race theorists categorize as victims. - Cultural appropriation
What white people are guilty of when they enjoy/utilize/replicate the music, traditions, cuisine, or fashions of another race. Critical race theorists hold that white people steal many of their ideas from black people who never get to profit from those ideas. Hence, for CRT theorists white people should be prevented from sharing/enjoying/or practicing cultural traits that are unique to black people.
A school may decide, for example, that whilst black children may braid their hair, white children may not. - Lived experience
Lived experience can be a past historic, negative event that a person has not actually experienced but which happened to predecessors. Examples include apartheid and slavery. Another version is an experience such as discomfort experienced when walking into a room of people one perceives as hostile even though no hostility is expressed.
