What is critical race theory? Should it be taught in schools?
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Ethical Decisions 
What is critical race theory? As with most politically charged terms, it depends on whom you ask. People define CRT in a way that suits their political agenda.
Then how do we get some clarity? I think the best way to understand CRT is to look at its intellectual origins, which are actually quite interesting – much more so than the tiresome talking points that circulate in social media.
CRT has roots in critical theory, which developed in the Frankfurt School during the 1930s and 40s. A social theorist associated with this school of thought, Jürgen Habermas, strongly influenced the critical legal studies movement in the U.S. during the 1970s. Critical legal studies that focused on race then evolved into critical race theory.
Why is this interesting? Because in its deepest musings, the Frankfurt School asked a question we must urgently answer. How can we justify values in a society that respects only science (or perhaps not even science) as a source of objective knowledge? Logical positivism, dating from the late 19th century and still an influence on our thinking today, recognizes only empirically verifiable claims as having any rational foundation. Critical theory is critical of what it thinks this philosophy has done to modern society, particularly its lack of social justice. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer even argued that the nihilistic implications of positivism led to the complete moral breakdown we saw in the Holocaust.
The early critical theorists adopted a Marxian/Freudian critique that sounds a little trite today. But Habermas, representing the second generation of theorists, attempted to rediscover a rational basis for value claims in his theory of communication. In particular, he derived a principle of government according to which government coercion is justifiable only when it benefits all segments of society, meaning all socioeconomic classes, ethnic groups, races, genders, etc. (keep in mind that almost any law contains an element of coercion). Nazi policies obviously failed this test.
Critical legal studies systematically applied this same test to U.S. laws and public institutions, and found many to be lacking. Critical race theory expands this activity by focusing on policies that are nominally race-neutral but have discriminatory effects. In particular, it takes aim at classical liberalism, which sees equality under the law, and colorblind policies in particular, as the proper remedy for racial injustice. CRT argues that injustice can and does flourish in this environment.
CRT also makes the epistemological claim that one cannot understand the social reality of a minority group without experiencing it, much as one can’t understand a culture without living in it — due to the very nature of culture rather than simply a lack of exposure to it, and due to the fact that minorities actually live in a different culture than the dominant classes. As a result, well-intentioned policies crafted by elites fail to address the reality on the ground. The only solution, according to CRT, is to put minority individuals in positions of power at all levels.
Should CRT be taught in schools? Of course not, if we are talking about primary and secondary schools. The kind of thinking just described is obviously rather sophisticated. It is better suited for advanced undergraduate students and postgraduate students in a university.
Yet one can still ask whether material that CRT opponents call critical race theory (a different matter entirely) should be taught in schools. I can’t answer this, because I really don’t know what kind of material they have in mind. Certainly, instruction should be age-appropriate. Fortunately, there is a large literature on cognitive and moral development that can offer guidance on what kind of ideas children are ready to absorb at a given stage of development. Maybe we should pay attention to this literature rather than shouting at each other, as so often occurs in public school board meetings.
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