How can I learn about CRT?

There are two ways to learn about CRT (critical race theory).

(1) Start with the assumption that it is bad, and go looking for memes, short web posts, and video clips—and if you’re ambitious, maybe even a book—that reinforce that opinion. In public forums, listen intently and cheer loudly when opponents of CRT speak, and boo and heckle when anyone tries to say a word in the other direction. Ask first whether the speaker is “one of us” or “one of them” and respond accordingly. After you have read several web pages, present yourself as an expert and offer to teach others. You are now a CRT educator, qualified to show other people how simple it is and why anyone who disagrees is a radical leftist.

(2) Start by seeking out explanations from the people who produced the theory and try to understand what problem or question they were trying to address, and how they thought this theory accounts for it. Then, after you have read multiple books of this sort, read critiques, and again ask yourself why are they objecting, and whether they have a more compelling explanation of the problem or question that evoked the theory. In public forums, listen. respectfully to everyone and see what ends up making most sense to you. Don’t worry if you end up as neither a cheerleader nor a determined opponent of CRT but something in between; in real life, things tend to be complicated.

If you’re committed to the first way, I can’t help you, and you don’t need my help anyway; it’s easy.

If you’re interested in the second way, here are three books that I have found:
(a) Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, by Richard Delgado, Jean Stefancic, with a foreword by Angela Harris https://www.schulerbooks.com/book/9781479802760;
(b) Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement (Paperback), edited by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neils Gotanda, Garry Peller, and Kendall Thomas, with a foreword by Cornel West https://www.schulerbooks.com/book/9781565842717;
(c) Critical Race Theory in Education: A Scholar’s Journey, by Gloria Ladson-Billings https://www.schulerbooks.com/book/9780807765838.

I’m a beginner myself and can’t give you a conclusion. I can’t even give you a list of books that weigh all the pros and cons fairly. I just haven’t got that far. I have, however, concluded that what we have been hearing from people in school board meetings is coming from people who are devoted to the first way of learning sketched above, not the second. See CRT in the textbooks! (not) and What Angela Rigas said at the school board meeting. (Another candidate for school board is a “CRT educator.” You can find his most famous three-minute lecture online in the FoxNews archive.)

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