What Is Critical Race Theory?

This was published in conjunction with an alternate take: https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2021/05/24/john-mcwh.... Worth reading both.

Name should be: "Jason Stanley on critical race theory and why it matters" as that is the article's title. The article is also more opinionated than the simpler title of this post suggests.

For the record, I find that critical race theory is often a useful framework for examining the consequences of maintaining existing societal traditions and structures... but more in an academic sense. CRT doesn't necessarily have to be to be interpreted in a dogmatic sense -- there is plenty of debate and controversy within the field itself, so it doesn't have to exist as an ideology. IMO it ought to be a tool for better reasoning, rather than as set of assumptions one can bring to simplify complicated social issues.