Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory
Detailed Answer:
What is Critical Theory
As far as where this theory came from, a group in Germany in the 1930s were applying the term “critical theory” to any ideas that came about by extending the general principals of Karl Marx beyond economics. Scholarship consensus today notes applications of critical theory include, critical race theory, queer theory, post-colonial studies, etc.
Here is a good definition provided by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: a philosophical approach to culture, and especially to literature, that seeks to confront the social, historical, and ideological forces and structures that produce and constrain it. The term is applied particularly to the work of the Frankfurt School.
Critical Theory is based on 4 claims:
- Social binary: oppressor and oppressed
The idea that human relationships should be fundamentally understood in terms of power dynamics, which divides people into one of two groups: “oppressors” and the “oppressed.”
Our personal identity is inseparable from our group identity, including being categorized as ‘oppressor’ or ‘oppressed’.
2. Oppression through ideology
Ideas are used for oppression, for example, when explaining why a group of people deserves power
3. Lived experiences gives one group insight into truths the other group cannot have
If you are an oppressed person you have special insight into truths. On the contrary, people in the oppressor group are blinded by their experiences.
4. Social justice is the goal by elimination of all social binaries, all groups are going to share power and no longer hegemonic power
The foundational human project or goal to progress toward is liberation from all forms of oppression; consequently, the fundamental virtue is standing in solidarity against the oppressor.
Critical theory becomes a worldview (or metanarrative) explaining what the world is like and a person’s place in it, and gives a framework for viewing everything in their lives.
This includes the big questions in life: who am I (your identity is either oppressor or oppressed), what is the foundational problem with humanity (oppression), what is my purpose in life (fight for liberation), what is the solution (solidarity).
Celikates, Robin and Jeffrey Flynn, “Critical Theory (Frankfurt School)”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2023/entries/critical-theory/>.
The goal is “social justice”, elevating the oppressed so power is shared. Sounds good on a surface level, but this needs to be questioned further. When Marxist ideas are carried out, fulfilling the critical theory worldview, then historically some of the oppressed group gains cultural and other forms of power, but then impose their metanarrative against another group, and once again we still have the binary, with a new oppressor and oppressed group. Is this because historically people have not carried out the social justice process correctly, or is it because the idea of critical theory is flawed?
What does the theory get right?
- We can definitely identify through history, and even today, groups of people being oppressed by ideas and other people or groups. We can even sometimes find oppression through use of norms and values and systems, not just individual acts of people.
- We should be talking more about how ideas, values, and norms can shape culture and thinking, and ask ourselves are these things shaping us or vice-versa.
- Critical race theory argues that race is a social construct, a division created by society, and the Bible agrees; Acts 17 states that we are all one blood, and throughout the Bible notes we are all made in the image of God.
- It is justice to work against any group being oppressed by another.
Seven ‘red flags’ are waving?
- A very narrow-sighted point-of-view
Ever see a horse in the city wearing blinders? The blinders restrict the view of the horse to just the road ahead, blocking all other things happening around the horse so it just follows the prescribed path put before it.
As a worldview, critical theory does the same thing. Not starting at the obvious beginning question (where does life come from or why are we here), but instead only focusses on people oppressing other people. Do you see the problem? This worldview restricts its view from all of life down to only oppression in culture, driving its believers to only the proscribed path placed before them. Therefore, all your identity and purpose are boiled down to only oppressor or oppressed groups.
Is this really all you are? No. There is much more richness to your life than only being in one of those two groups. Do you really believe a person’s purpose, value, identity and hope are all wrapped up in either being in one of their two groups? If you answer yes, then you are being led along a very restricted path set before you. You literally are being pressed down by ideas, only this time it is by people calling themselves social justice warriors invoking critical race theory.
If you answer no, then you realize the narrow-sightedness of this critical theory worldview. Blacks in America, for example, suffer demonstrably even today due to the color of their skin. Multiple times I’ve directly witnessed and got involved in my own version of social justice, with mixed results, and in conversations with professors, students, colleagues and friends after a terrible incident, such as George Floyd, I have been really surprised how often and nasty discrimination occurs. However, all the people I spoke with had so much more to their lives, and had identities and hope so much fuller and richer than contained in the narrow and sparse box critical race theory would place them in.
2. Bad logic
Correct, clear, and concrete (unchanging) definitions are important when discussing ideas, so we all have a clear picture where we are starting from, before deciding where we need to go. And you know a theory is sketchy when it attempts to change definitions to fit its ideas, and critical theory displays this warning sign.
For example, “oppression” was defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power.” The general understanding through history has been oppression through tyranny, violence, coercion, but since critical theory began being taught in universities and written about, now the definition is shifting towards oppression through ideas. Just because a person or a group thinks differently from you, you cannot claim oppression. So then critical theorists claim the ideas become institutionalized, meaning the institutions of power, government, governing boards of corporations, etc., have racist ideas inherent in them allowing the oppressors to keep the oppressed down. Big claims. What’s the evidence to support that?
Truth claims, even 2+2=4, are to be resisted. A good research project, look into who is getting benefits from proclaiming critical theory. With their new found position and voice proclaiming truth, are they still critical of truth claims, because truth claims are supposedly only bids for power.
Critical race theorists present as facts ideas going far beyond the logical support. Reminds me of a cartoon showing Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner, then losing sight of his goal and continuing to run right off a cliff (see video). Similarly, I can see these theorists running right past the goal of evidence-based support, and off the ledge of credibility. One example, when they tell what institutionalized things we must reject because infected with oppressive ideas: mathematics, rational thinking, scientific method, nuclear family, and more. They decry these as oppressive and needing to be distanced from. Good luck with that, at least they are practicing what they preach as they have clearly distanced themselves from rational thinking. If you accept and promote critical race theory, are you rejecting the above institutions?
Popularizers of this theory continually demonstrate poor thinking and scholarship. The 1619 Project by the New York Times actually won a Pulitzer Prize, while claiming historical inaccuracies that left actual historians aghast (see a simple rebuttal of their points using this video clip link). Attempting to change history is another sign of a theory built on sketchy ground.
3. Discriminatory special insights, and trust experience over logic
It sounds reasonable at first to claim oppressed people have special insights into the issue as oppressed, but oppressor groups have a blind spot in this area. My blind spot was highlighted more than once, and in diverse areas, not just race.
However, this has been extended to dangerous and foolish claims. Think about it, or just watch some examples of what happens when someone criticizes a critical race theorist. If someone not in the oppressed group disagrees, then the oppressed group is able to say, “Well you are simply blind to the truth, only we are capable of seeing it, so your objections come from your blindness and therefore have no worth.”
In science, when proponents of a theory make it unable to be falsified, it is a tell-tale sign of the impotence of the theory to firmly establish itself in facts, evidence, truth. This is what we have with critical race theory. As added poison to productive discussion, opponents to critical theory can also be branded with socially silencing labels.
Experiences are significant, but become only anecdotes to grab emotion, if not also backed by hard data. Sharing stories doesn’t justify the truth of this theory, especially when only one group is allowed to tell the stories.
When someone says, “You have to believe me and my moral conclusions because of my experience,” and rejects the need for facts to ground morality, then I know it is a person not capable of thoughtful discussion. Hard to reason with people who reject reason.
4. Inconsistencies
This theory has serious inconsistencies. Research scientist Neil Shenvi remarked on this problem, by bringing up a moral principle we can all likely agree on, “No one should be silenced because of their gender.” Blatant and ugly sexism, yet, critical theory entails it is acceptable to silence someone because of gender – if his gender is male.
Why? By covering the issue with the blanket statement, “Because you are part of the oppressor class and therefore this moral principle doesn’t apply to you.”
We can go on and on with the inconsistencies this invalid theory causes. If you consistently applied critical theory to all relationships, what would life be like? Consider the parent-child relationship. On the basis of critical theory, Shenvi noted we would have to conclude children are an oppressed group, suffering under the adult oppressor group. Between the parent and child group is a relationship of dominance and control, the implication being children are oppressed and must be liberated. Further, institutions use power to oppress criminals and the mentally ill, and there are countless instances of abuse.
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5. Critical race theory hurts more than it helps, and there are better ways to help
American economist, social philosopher, and political commentator, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Thomas Sowell observed: “Intellectuals give people who have the handicap of poverty the further handicap of a sense of victimhood”. Sowell himself grew up in poverty and was orphaned in early childhood. He continued with the quote above, in his book Intellectuals and Society (2010), that supposed intellectuals: “have encouraged the poor to believe their poverty is caused by the rich – a message which may be a passing annoyance to the rich but a lasting handicap to the poor, who may see less need to make fundamental changes to their own lives that could lift themselves.”
Additionally, the highlighting and encouraging division within a culture has had nasty results displayed consistently through history. One of the things I loved about the United States, was the melting pot idea, the unity in diversity of our people. While Germany was pushing their Aryan or “master race”, America was able to go to the Olympics and say, “How do you like our Jesse Owens?”
This brings to the surface a serious problem with critical race theory, the goal is not to understand how people are and work together, it is to divide, erase, and make new. How good will the new be after fostering such division and conflict? And why would you assume the new power ideas and institutions will act differently from the old? History demonstrates time and again how false this assumption is, and how accurate the opposing biblical claim is: the problem is not the lifeless institutions, the problem is inherent in humanity. Therefore, whatever human and human idea is using the power, the problems inherent with humanity will remain.
Martin Luther King’s message repeats the Bible’s message of unity in diversity, and all are in the same group of being equal in value, and moving in brotherhood together against the sweltering oppression that still exists.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
6. Finally, critical theory refutes itself
It is not a good look when proponents of an idea have to violate the idea to keep promoting their idea. Critical theory itself creates and perpetuates a power dynamic to oppress another group. Dr. Shenvi brought up this example as well, if a white person or a male, or a conservative, or a Christian is marginalized and excluded by those believers in critical theory, then this is ideas and power being used to oppress another group. As a result, it is our duty to liberate this group by deconstructing critical theory, or by silencing those who practice it because they are blind to our experiences. You have to apply critical theory selectively, artificially, or else it refutes itself.
7. This theory is in conflict with Christianity
While Jesus focused on and supported the oppressed, he did so in love and in truth. Jesus has validation of his reliability far beyond the people behind critical theory.
The Bible encourages finding your identity in Jesus, as he is in a position to know and enforce what is best for you overall. This identity does not limit you to one aspect of your life, as though every individual is defined almost entirely by being an oppressor or oppressed. Instead, identity in Christ carries far more richness and inherently works to support social justice. We have identity as all being made in the image of God, we are also identified as sinners (explaining why institutions are not the problem, people are), and identified as being in a brotherhood united with Christ.
While being in the image of God means all, whether black, white, male, female old, young, all possess equal value and dignity. Critical theory, on the other hand, gives unequal value and dignity to people depending on their group.
While critical theory finds unity for only one group in experience of oppression, the Bible breaks these divisions down, stating in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The Bible does not deny these differences, only relegates them to their proper place as lower importance.
Critical theory assumes power is necessarily oppressive, while Christianity calls the abuse of power as oppressive. The Bible recognizes the power differential between the creator God and the created, us, but demonstrates that not all power differentials lead to oppression as this ultimate power loved us to the point of taking on the penalty of our wrongdoings on himself.
If critical theory were accurate, then as Christians, your are not saved by God but oppressed, and therefore must liberate yourself from God, not join him in loving relationship in heaven.