robertgracin
Contributor III

This week, superego is proud to highlight contributor Clara Wilson and her essay on Critical Race Theory (CRT), a topic that sparked abundant political commentary in this week’s elections in the U.S. As a student of social work and a policy advocate, Clara sets the record straight about CRT:

 

“In order for a person to understand CRT, they would have to have a solid understanding of how laws and policies are made and the politics that inspire the creation of law. Finding a kindergartener just learning how to read with that type of foundational knowledge about law would be impossible, which is why CRT is typically taught in law school or other graduate-level courses.”

 

Between the summer of 2020 and the summer of 2021, American attitudes surrounding racial equity initiatives changed drastically. Why? To answer this question, Clara examines the effect of conservative media outlets on the public’s perception of CRT. Clara explains how the legal framework of CRT was spun into a fear-mongering political tool by Fox News, its commentators, and eventually, Donald Trump:

 

“...sometimes white Americans are more influenced by appeals to white resentment and sticking with the status quo than they are to calls for racial justice. Right-wing media outlets and politicians are extremely aware of that fact, which is why they were able to play a role in turning a potential racial reckoning into an incredibly misguided CRT cultural war. A real racial reckoning cannot occur if calls for racial justice continue to be stifled by appeals to white resentment. That script has got to change.”

 

Read the full story on superego’s Medium here.

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