Compelling Video on ‘Critical Race Theory’

Critical Race Theory (CRT), a vile, race-based philosophy rooted in Marxism, has invaded and infested our universities, K-12 schools, most public institutions, and now even our military.

In the video below, Christopher F. Rufo presents the history of CRT, its Marxist roots, the devastation it is causing, and offers some ways to push it back and destroy it. And he does it all in less than 18 minutes.

For fairness and balance, this compelling video should be required viewing in every public university, school, government agency, and military organization where CRT is currently being pounded into the minds of our children, students, government employees, and our country’s defenders. And those who’ve thus far paid CRT no mind should watch this video as a virtual inoculation against it.

Bottom line: CRT is not virtuous. It is evil.

CRT’s purpose is to turn Americans against one another, abandoning the vision of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr as well as the core American principles of equality of opportunity and equality under the law. Anywhere it has taken root it should be driven out, and those who continue to pump the CRT poison into America’s bloodstream should be removed from any position where they can promulgate it.

For more on CRT, see (for example) this link. Or use a DuckDuckGo.com to search on “Critical Race Theory”.

—————————————————

A transcript of Rufo’s video essay appears below —

Time 0:00
Critical Race Theory is everywhere. It’s rapidly becoming the new orthodoxy in America’s public institutions. And yet, most Americans have no idea where it comes from, and what kind of society it envisions. In this video, I’ll walk through the history of Critical Race Theory, explain why it’s a threat to the country, and most importantly, show you how you can fight it.

Time 0:27
Let’s start at the beginning with a short history of Marxism. Traditionally, the Marxist left has built its political program on the theory of class conflict. Marx believed that the primary mechanism of power in society was the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The solution to this conflict, according to Marx was revolution. He believed the proletariat would eventually gain consciousness of its plight, seize the means of production and usher in a new socialist society.

Time 0:55
Over the course of the 20th century, a number of regimes attempted Marxist revolution, and all of them ended in disaster, the socialist countries racked up a body count of nearly 100 million people sent to the gulags, murdered in the streets, or starved to death due to the failure of socialist agricultural policy. Marx envisioned the new man who would transcend the limitations of the industrial world, but in practice, his ideas unleashed man’s oldest and darkest brutalities.

Time 1:26
By the mid 1960s, Marxist intellectuals in Europe in the United States had begun to understand these failures. They recoiled at the tyranny of the Soviet Union, and came to realize that the call for the proletarian revolution would never work in the industrial nations of the West, which had large middle classes and a rapidly growing standard of living. Most Americans believe they could transcend their origins through education, hard work, and community support. But rather than abandon their political project, the Marxist scholars of the era calling themselves critical theorists simply updated their theory of the revolution. They set out in search of another entry point for their politics, and found it in the social and racial unrest of the 1960s.

Time 2:10
Over the course of the decade, the critical theorists gradually abandoned the old economic dialectic of bourgeoisie and proletariat and replaced it with a new a racial dialectic of white and black. This provided the ideological basis for the radical movements of the era, including the Communist Party USA, the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Army, and the Weather Underground. The vision of the critical theorists and the racial revolutionaries, however, eventually lost out to the vision of the civil rights movement and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, which promised the fulfillment of the American ideal of equality under the law.

Time 2:45
To alleviate poverty through government action, the radicals sought to overthrow the American regime, but most Americans simply wanted to improve it. But this too, was destined for disappointment on the left. In the following 30 years, the left became disillusioned with the idea of equality under the law and with the anti poverty programs of the Great Society which failed to reduce poverty and social pathologies, despite trillions in public spending. For many of the intellectuals on the left the entire project of colorblindness meritocracy, private property and individual rights came to be seen as a failure. So they went back to the drawing board and increasingly sought to revive the most radical strands of Marxist thought from the previous generation. This is where Critical Race Theory comes in.

Time 3:34
Critical Race Theory is an academic discipline that came to fruition in the 1990s, building on the intellectual framework of critical theory and identity politics. Sometimes it’s directly labeled Critical Race Theory, but it’s usually deployed under a series of euphemisms such as equity, social justice, diversity and inclusion, and culturally responsive teaching. This is deliberate. The critical race theorists are masters of language construction and realize that Neo Marxism would be a hard sell to the American public. But equity is soft, persuasive, non threatening, and easily confused with the American principle of equality.

Time 4:12
But the distinction between these two words equality and equity is vast and crucially important. Equality is the idea that was first proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence consecrated in blood during the Civil War, and codified into law with the 14th and 15th amendments and the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of the mid 1960s. The critical race theorists explicitly reject this vision, arguing that equality under the law is camouflage for white supremacy, patriarchy, and make it racial oppression. In their academic work, they’ve directly attacked the principles of non discrimination colorblindness, individual rights, private property, school integration, freedom of speech and meritocracy.

Time 4:53
The critical race theorists would replace the system of equality with a system of equity which represent diametrically opposed philosophies. Whereas equality seeks to protect individual rights regardless of race, equity seeks to divide the world into competing racial groups and ensure race-based equality of outcomes, endorsing active racial discrimination to get there. In a foundational paper called whiteness as property, the critical race theorist Cheryl Harris has proposed suspending private property rights, seizing land and wealth from the rich and redistributing it along racial lines.

Time 5:26
The critical race guru, Ibrahim Kendi, has proposed the creation of a Department of Antiracism with the power to nullify veto or abolish any law at any level of government and silence the speech of political leaders and intellectuals who are not deemed antiracist. The new department would be unaccountable to voters, the executive or the legislature. In other words, it would become an all powerful fourth branch of government and mean the end of the Federalist system.

Time 5:53
Finally, like the critical theorists before them, the critical race theorists would abolish the economic system of capitalism and replace it with an economic system of collectivism. According to Kendi, in order to truly be antiracist, you also have to truly be anticapitalist. Identity is the means to Marxism as the end, the same as it ever was.

Time 6:20
So how does this ideology translate into real world practice? For the first two decades, Critical Race Theory, remained an obscure field of inquiry relegated to academic journals and university campuses. But today, Critical Race Theory, is quickly becoming the default ideology of our public institutions. It’s spread from the universities, to government agencies, public school systems, teacher training programs, and even corporate HR departments. It’s been transformed from a series of academic concepts into diversity training programs, corporate compliance modules, public policy frameworks, and public school curricula.

Time 6:55
Last year, I conducted a series of reports focused on agencies at the federal government, I discovered that the FBI was holding workshops on intersectionality theory, the Department of Homeland Security was telling white employees they were committing micro inequities, and had been socialized into oppressor roles. Finally, the Sandia National Laboratories which designs America’s nuclear arsenal sent white male executives to a three day reeducation camp, telling them that white male culture was analogous to the KKK, white supremacists and mass killings.

Time 7:27
This year I finished another series of reports focused on Critical Race Theory, and education. The stories are shocking. In Cupertino, California an elementary school forced third graders to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities then rank themselves according to their power and privilege. In Springfield, Missouri, a middle school forced teachers to locate themselves on an oppression matrix telling straight white English speaking Christian males, they were members of the oppressor class, and must atone for their covert white supremacy. In Philadelphia, an elementary school forced fifth graders to celebrate black communism, and simulate a black power rally to free Angela Davis from prison where she had once been held on charges of murder. And finally, in Seattle, the school district told white teachers they were guilty of spirit murder against black children and must bankrupt their privilege in acknowledgement of their thieved inheritance.

Time 8:18
This is a revolutionary change. In the previous century, state institutions were presented as neutral technocratic and oriented towards broadly held perceptions of the public good. This is no longer the case. Our institutions are being radicalized by Critical Race Theory, and the levers of state power are being turned against the American people with no sign of slowing down.

Time 8:43
Here’s the problem: Thus far, Americans of good faith have been unable to resist Critical Race Theory’s blitz through our institutions. There are four main reasons for this.

Time 8:53
First, most Americans have developed an acute fear of speaking about sensitive social and political issues, especially race. According to a recent Gallup poll, 52% of liberals 64% of moderates and 77% of conservatives are scared to share their political beliefs in public, they’re afraid to get mobbed on social media fired from their job, or berated by the institutions. So they simply remain quiet, which cedes the territory to the most intolerant voices, who can dominate the public conversation and install their ideology in the country schools, government agencies and corporations. Consequently, these institutions become monocultures, dogmatic, intolerant, suspicious and hostile to a diversity of beliefs. The Equity and Inclusion department is established in the name of a social good, but in practice serves as a political office, enforcing the new orthodoxy and punishing any dissent.

Time 9:48
Second, the critical race theorists have constructed their argument like a mouse trap. They claim that any disagreement with their program is simply evidence of the dissenters, white fragility. unconscious bias. internalized white supremacy. They project this idea of false consciousness on all of their opponents, they transform principle disagreement into evidence of guilt. I’ve seen this play out dozens of times in my reporting, diversity trainers will make an outrageous claim such as all whites are intrinsically oppressors or white teachers are guilty of spirit murdering black children, and then flat out refuse to consider any evidence to the contrary. If they’re confronted, they’ll adopt a tone of patronizing concern and explain that participants are feeling white denial and reacting out of guilt and shame. The dissenters are instructed to remain silent, lean into the discomfort and accept their complicity in white supremacy. Thus, the mousetrap is shut and the program continues without interruption.

Time10:45
Third, many liberals, moderates and conservatives have failed to separate Critical Race Theory,’s premise from its conclusion. The premise of Critical Race Theory, is quite simple: America has a history of slavery, racism and injustice, and we should examine the relationship between racism, power and society. This is undoubtedly true. Nobody taking an honest look at American history could deny it. But the critical race theorists’ conclusion that the American regime is irredeemably racist and must be overthrown through moral, political, and economic revolution is false. The critical race theorists use their premise as a bludgeon bullying people into accepting their conclusions. This is dishonest and manipulative. It’s entirely logical and moral to accept the premise that the United States has a history of racial injustice. And even that residual racism is still a pernicious force in American society, but reject the critical race theorists political program, which as we’ve seen, is little more than repackaged 1960s style Marxism.

Time 11:43
Finally, the writers and activists who’ve had the courage to speak out against Critical Race Theory, have often fought on purely theoretical terms pointing out Critical Race Theory, is flawed logic, internal contradictions, and bad history. These are all worthy criticisms, but they move the debate into the realm of the academic and the abstract, which is friendly terrain for the critical race theorists and absolves them from grappling with the practical and tangible consequences of their philosophy. We shouldn’t challenge the critical race theorists to debate the finer points of Marx and Marcuse. We must confront them with the reality that they’re creating. Do they support schools separating third graders into oppressor and oppressed? Do they support a curriculum teaching that all white people perpetuate systemic racism? Do they support schools instructing white parents to become white traders and advocate for white abolition? Do they believe that counter genocide is a solution to America’s problems?

Time 12:35
These are all real world examples from my investigative reporting, and a better challenge to Critical Race Theory, than 1000 academic papers. The real test for the critical race theorists is not to defend their ideas as abstractions, but to defend the real world impact of their ideas. And this brings us to the key point: Critical Race Theory, is no longer a phenomenon of the mind. It’s a phenomenon of political power. If we want to successfully oppose this new orthodoxy, we must seek to change the structures that have enabled it into being we must address politics as politics and confront power as power.

Time 13:15
So this is the task — to defeat the ideology of Critical Race Theory, and reassert the American ideals of freedom and equality. There are four ways we can accomplish this public policy, civil rights lawsuits, grassroots mobilization, and winning the public debate.

Time 13:32
First, we can and must fight Critical Race Theory, in the domain of public policy. And in fact, we’re already doing this. Last year, my reporting led President Trump to issue an executive order banning Critical Race Theory, based training programs from the federal government. President Biden rescinded this order on his first day in office, but it provided a model for red state governors and legislators who want to protect their citizens from racist centralism collective guilt and Neo segregation. Governor Ron Santas has banned Critical Race Theory, in Florida’s K-12. curriculum, and red states have introduced bills to achieve the same goal through legislation.

Time 14:09
Second, we must fight against Critical Race Theory in the courts. To do this, I’ve launched a new legal coalition to stop public institutions from conducting programs that stereotype scapegoat or demean people on the basis of race. Our argument is that Critical Race Theory is not only intellectually and morally bankrupt, but in practice violates existing law. It violates the First Amendment, which protects citizens from compelled speech, the 14th Amendment, which provides equal protection under the law, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits public institutions from discriminating on the basis of race. Eventually, one of our cases will reach the Supreme Court and will win.

Time 14:47
Third, there’s a bipartisan and multiracial coalition that’s emerging to fight Critical Race Theory at the grassroots level. Parents have begun fighting against racially divisive curriculum, schools and employees have begun speaking out against Orwellian practices in the workplace, Asian American parents in particular have been successful in pushing back at the local level. They’ve recognized that Critical Race Theory, poses a major threat to their children, categorizing them as oppressors discriminating against them in college admissions, and punishing their success. In my reporting, many Chinese Americans told me that they survived the Cultural Revolution in their home country, and refuse to let it happen here in America.

Time 15:24
Finally, we must develop a new moral language on these issues and appeal to higher principles than our opponents do. We must promote the true story of America, a story that is honest about injustice in our history, but places them in the context of our nation’s highest ideals, and the progress we’ve made towards realizing them. We must raise the debate to a higher level. For example, we often find ourselves debating about diversity. Diversity is good, all things being equal, but it’s a secondary value. We should really be aiming towards excellence, which provides a common standard and challenges people of all backgrounds to achieve their true potential. When we elevate the debate to this higher conceptual plan, we force our opponents to debate on our territory and excellence speeds diversity every time.

Time 16:12
The stakes of this fight are incredibly high. It’s not an exaggeration to say that a governing regime based on Critical Race Theory would mean the end of freedom and equality in America. According to their own policy prescriptions, the critical race theorists would limit or abolish the right to private property, freedom of speech, equal protection under the law, non discrimination, free enterprise and the Federalist system of government. In its place, they would create a new regime of group based rights, race-based redistribution of wealth, omnipotent bureaucratic authority, and active racial discrimination. It’s not a program of reform. It’s a program of revolution that rejects the founding principles and would overturn the premise of the Constitution.

Time 16:55
The secret to winning this fight is courage. This is the fundamental virtue required of our time, the courage to speak the truth, the courage to withstand epithets, the courage to face the mob. When enough of us do this, when we break through the wall of fear that prevents so many people from speaking out, the narrative of Critical Race Theory will begin to crumble. It’s easy to stop a lone dissenter. It’s much more difficult to stop 10, 20, 100, 1000, a million people who stand up together. Truth and justice are on our side. If we can muster the courage, we will win