The subject of Race Relations in America is one of several that we have been reluctant to write about. It is a controversial topic that people divide over and get angry about. Opinions are entrenched and unlikely to change regardless of the merits of the opposing arguments.
Furthermore, conservative opinions about race relations are often labeled as racist dismissed without fair consideration. It is easier to label an idea as “racist” than it is to discuss it in a meaningful way. Lamp in a Corner has a Christian worldview, and we are Conservative. We try not to be racist; whether intentionally or inadvertently.
The primary purpose of Lamp in a Corner is to tell others about Jesus Christ. Our comments about current events are secondary. We are in an election year, however, where Woke ideas like Critical Race Theory (CRT) are at issue, and an informed electorate is a necessary component of democracy. It is our duty is to be informed.
The word “theory” is part of CRT. Are theories reliable? The common understanding of a theory is that it is “an educated guess.” [1] We have also heard it said that, “A theory is an unproven speculation about reality.” However, theories are at their best when they are based on what are believed to be known, tested, and proven concepts. They must be revised, however, if new evidence makes it necessary.
A theory is only as good as the underlying assumptions (axioms, postulates) that support it. Before we buy off on Critical Race Theory and support Woke candidates, the basic assumptions of CRT need to be tested.
What is CRT? The NAACP defines CRT as:
“Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society — from education and housing to employment and healthcare. Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. It is essentially an academic response to the erroneous notion that American society and institutions are “colorblind.”
Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is embedded in laws, policies and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities. According to CRT, societal issues like Black Americans’ higher mortality rate, outsized exposure to police violence, the school-to-prison pipeline, denial of affordable housing, and the death rates of Black women in childbirth are not unrelated anomalies.
The scholarly framework holds that racism goes far beyond just individually held prejudices, and that it is in fact a systemic phenomenon woven into the laws and institutions of this nation. A cursory review of U.S. history — or even just news headlines from 2020, where far too many examples of police brutality and violence against Black people propelled a historic racial justice movement — proves the truth of this theory. The classroom itself, currently the focal point of the ongoing fight to suppress uncomfortable truths about America, has traditionally been the site of some of this nation’s most egregious acts of state sponsored racism. This includes segregation, which the LDF has been at the forefront of challenging since our founder and the first Black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall successfully litigated Brown v. Board of Education in the 1950s.” [2]
To be manageable for a Blog, (rather than to write a book), a more concise definition is needed. To fit our format, therefore, we will define CRT as an attempt to show how racism is endemic in the legal, social, and economic systems of society. CRT is a key component in Woke ideology. It is a change agent – a way of identifying and implementing corrective measures to achieve social justice. The underlying assumptions of CRT are still dynamic and subject to change or modification.
Accounts disagree about origin of Critical Race Theory. Here is what we have been able to learn:
Most Internet sources say that CRT was developed by Liberal academics, lawyers, and activists in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, as an attempt to combine ideas that existed before then into an organized system of thought. [3] Conservative sources point out that Critical Race Theory has Marxist origins, [4] and that it uses the Bolshevik (Communist) tactic of exploiting the grievances between people groups to create division and hostility. Thus, it turns perceived injustices into class warfare. [5]
Both are correct – in part. Things happen for more than one reason. Although they are offered by opposing points of view, these ideas about CRT should be studied together. They cannot be fully understood independently.
Lamp in a Corner would add that Critical Race Theory may have also been influenced by Postcolonial Theory, which helps to account for the idea that White people are to blame for the ills of society. For the sake of brevity, we will try to summarize Postcolonial Theory in our own words:
It states that the Imperialism of some European nations and England resulted in their conquest of large parts of the world to create colonies. The Europeans and English governed their colonies by force, or by exploiting the conflicts between local rulers, tribes, and people groups.
The colonial powers exploited the colonies by extracting whatever wealth they found. This provided the motivation to maintain the colonies – often without the consent of the governed.
Colonization disrupted the traditional religious beliefs, social values, and economic and political systems that were previously the fabric of society that maintained the social order of the colonized peoples.
In the Twentieth Century, two world wars left the Europeans and the United Kingdom without the political, economic, and military strength to maintain their colonial empires. The result was decolonization. Decolonization was rapid, and it often left the former colonies poorly prepared to govern themselves.
Decolonization was followed by Economic Imperialism. Industrialized nations are said to have exploited the so-called underdeveloped countries for cheap labor and raw materials. During the Cold War, the Western Democracies and the Soviet Union attempted to divide the underdeveloped nations into opposing spheres of influence.
In turn, this caused the years of general chaos and political upheaval that followed. Consequently, White Imperialists are blamed for many of the problems that continue to plague the world to this day.
If we want to be honest, it is necessary to include opposing points of view. So, tell it all or don’t tell it at all.
Those who dispute Post Colonial Theory think that colonization modernized native societies where the ordinary people were oppressed, uneducated, and living in primitive conditions. Colonization improved public health and education, and it upgraded living conditions for the common people. Although colonization was flawed, it was preferable to the primitive conditions that preceded it.
Tribalism, religious violence, border disputes, the pressure of urbanization, and transition into the world economy are also contributing factors to the prevalence of worldwide conflict. In short, there is plenty of blame to go around for the world’s wars and chaos. Not all of it is the fault of people of European or British ancestry.
Critical Race Theory postulates that American society, is systemically racist. We are told that all of our institutions were created by White people according to the behavioral norms and the values of the White culture. Therefore, our society oppresses People of Color because their cultural norms and values are different.
It follows, then, that the social system is systemically racist and favors White people over non-Whites, due to their racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and lifestyle. They call this White Privilege. So, White Privilege is thought to give White people a competitive advantage in all aspects of society … economic, political, educational, medical, and so forth, while it holds non-Whites back.
CRT also provides its own way of interpreting History. It focuses on the way that Black people have been mistreated throughout American History. Slavery, and the decades of oppression that followed, are a terrible blight on our collective past, and CRT attempts to exploit that as proof of systemic racism. CRT has advocated that reparations should be paid to compensate Black people for their past victimization and the lingering effects our History has had on social justice in American society today.
While it is true that injustice has been part of American History, many of us disagree that the White citizens of today are responsible in some way for the errors of the past. In short, we didn’t do it, and we don’t think we should be required to pay for it. Further, we do not want our schools and universities to shame our kids for being White.
Unfortunately, CRT ignores the fact that Americans eventually corrected many of the injustices that have plagued our past. We fought a bloody Civil War that abolished slavery, and the 13th Amendment made slavery illegal. A decades-long civil rights movement desegregated our institutions and achieved advances for persons from all backgrounds in education, employment, equality before the law, and other aspects of American society. We created a safety net of social assistance to help provide for the needs of the poor. Affirmative Action was implemented in an attempt to improve employment hiring practices in government agencies and businesses that have government contracts.
The advocates of CRT have created a conceptual model for the implementation of social justice. It is called Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DEI. To borrow from Britannica.com:
Diversity means that an organization reflects the composition of the community. These include gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, age, disability, culture, class, religion, and life experience.
The concept of diversity gets distorted when quota systems are imposed. If 25 percent of those incarcerated in a prison are Black, that does not mandate that 25 percent of the correctional staff must also be Black. If 11 percent of a community is Hispanic, that does not create a requirement for 11 percent of the public school employees must be Hispanic. President Trump has advocated that employment opportunities must be provided on the basis of merit, to those who have prepared themselves by education and experience to add value; that is to make the greatest contribution to the hiring organization.
Equity is the attempt to make sure that a person’s identity does not govern the outcomes of their participation in all aspects of society. It seeks to ensure equal treatment by eliminating the systemic barriers that keep some people groups from successful participation in education, employment, health care, government, the military, and all other societal institutions. The goal is to ensure equal treatment by causing organizations to change their methods of operation to cause successful outcomes for individuals from every background.
Conservatives argue that Americans from all backgrounds should have equal opportunity. We believe that positive outcomes are achieved by an individual’s performance on the job, and not by government manipulation of the operational practices of organizations.
Inclusion is almost self-explanatory. It involves efforts to enable persons from all backgrounds to feel like they are included in an organization … like they are part of the team. It tries to create the circumstances which allow all individuals to make a significant contribution. Organizations are encouraged to accept and support diverse ideas and recommendations. [6]
We can agree that organizations work best by cooperation and teamwork. We disagree with the idea that bad performance, ideas or suggestions should be accepted because of a person’s background.
The alternative President Trump and his administration have implemented is a system in which hiring and participation in business and government organizations are based on merit. It offers equality of opportunity, rather than equity of outcome. Persons of all backgrounds need to be able to meet the needs of their employers in order to be able to participate in their activities.
The advocates of CRT emphasize social justice. On the face of it, most people favor a society that offers a level playing field to all of its members. The American people value fundamental fairness.
The United States of America is not ruled by any individual or group. We are ruled by the laws created by our duly elected government. Our constitution was written by White men, but it protects the basic God given human rights of all US Citizens.
Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution states:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Our constitution safeguards freedom of religion, speech, the press, peaceable assembly, and petition for redress of grievances. Private American citizens have the freedom to keep and bear arms. Except in time of war, we cannot be required to house members of the armed forces in our homes. We may not be subjected to unreasonable search and seizure without a warrant issued upon probable cause.
The US Constitution provides that Americans must be indicted by a grand jury to be charged with capital crimes and serious offenses, and they cannot be required to testify against themselves. If acquitted, we cannot be tried again for the same offense. Citizens cannot be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, and our property cannot be seized without just compensation. If we are charged with a crime we have the right to a trial by jury, representation by legal counsel, disclosure of the evidence against us, face our accusers, and to present evidence and witnesses in our favor. The accused have the right to post bail, and excessively high bail amounts are prohibited. Americans are protected from excessive fines and from cruel and unusual punishment.
As some are prompt to point out, slavery is a blight on the history of our nation. A bloody civil war and the 13th Amendment put an end to slavery. What followed was decades of unfair treatment of Black people. We still have work to do to ensure that all Americans are treated fairly.
This is the point at which we find ourselves now. Most of us want social justice. How to achieve it is where we part company.
Our freedoms are basic and time-honored human rights given to everyone by God, not the government. The constitution is a pledge to all our people that the government will protect our God-given freedoms.
Social justice will not be ensured by fundamentally changing our laws, Capitalist economic system, educational institutions, and other social systems. Rather, we must make ourselves aware of problems in how our social systems are applied and make changes where they are needed; as we always have.
Why do Woke politicians, Democratic Socialists, left-wing educators, and activists say that the constitution is obsolete, outdated, not relevant, and racist? Why do they want to get rid of it? Could it be that under Socialism the people are the servants of the state, rather than the way it is in a Constitutional Republic where the government is the servant of the people. Is it about power? Is it that they think they have a superior understanding of what is best for the people – even more than the people themselves do? Do you think they might want to take away our freedoms, and control us through the imposition of a socialist nanny state?
College students, kids who have been indoctrinated by the public schools, rebels in search of a cause, and others who are easily led are quick to say that the constitution must be radically altered or replaced. They say that it is “old school,” and that it doesn’t have meaning in today’s world. That is because they have been kept ignorant of what is in it. Today’s young people have not been taught the basics of History, Civics, or Business. Instead, they are steeped in the half-truths of CRT.
“Go ahead! Make my day!” Tell me how our freedom of the press, speech, religion, peaceful assembly, or equal protection under the law are not as precious today as they were when they were written 250 years ago. Tell me which of our constitutional freedoms does not benefit Black people, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, transgender persons, women, and everyone else.
Public opinion is fickle and changeable. It is here today and gone tomorrow. To guard against the erratic, variable, and unpredictable nature of public opinion the founding fathers purposely made amending the constitution difficult, yet it has been done 27 times. It can and will be done again … if there is sufficient need for it. Attempts by radicals to circumvent the constitution, or do away with it, happen because extremist ideologues lack the broad public support needed to successfully amend it.
Any reasonable person must recognize that the basic human rights that are protected by our constitution ensure that we are among the freest people in the world. We are one of the most just societies on Earth. CRT aims to fix something that isn’t broken. Social justice will not come from big government intervention into every aspect of our lives.
Whether you agree with CRT or not, there is a dark side to it and to the whole Woke movement. It is antidemocratic and dangerous because it tries to suppress opposing points of view.
Social media allows conservatives to be “flamed” in the most vile language imaginable. Conservative voices have been cancelled out, and the persons who provide conservative opinions have been threatened. On most of the Liberal major broadcasting networks, smirking, patronizing TV news personalities, feigning deep concern, present 100 negative segments on President Trump and the Republicans for every positive segment. (These figures are figurative – no pun intended.)
On our college campuses conservative students’ grades are adversely affected if they express conservative ideas. They are shouted down by other students, and some have been beaten up. When Conservatives are invited to speak on campus, they are shouted down, and some have had to be escorted out for their own safety.
Conservatives have lost their jobs because they spoke out on issues like abortion and sexual orientation. Christian business owners have been persecuted because they would not provide services to same sex weddings.
The list goes on and on. Take fair warning, fellow Americans. Will it be your turn next?
CRT also employs scapegoating:
“Scapegoating, sometimes called playing the blame game, is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame and consequent negative treatment.” [7]
The most salient example of the evil of scapegoating is found in Adolph Hitler’s persecution of Europe’s Jews. He blamed them for all of the problems the Germans had, especially following World War I, and he used that to justify his “final solution,” which was the extermination of European Jewry in his death camps.
If we allow White people to be falsely accused and blamed for all of the woes of the world, what will come of that? CRT has been opposed by President Trump. What will happen if Conservatives lose control of the US Senate, House of Representatives, and the Presidency? The 2026 midterm election is about more than a lot of our voters realize.
Adult US Citizens have the
right to vote in free, fair, and legal elections. We must be vigilant, because evil people,
foreign and domestic, are constantly trying to influence the outcomes of our
elections. The right to vote, and the
integrity of elections, are foundational to democracy. There is nothing in our governance that is
more vital.
Get out and vote for Conservatives. *
*NOTE: The politically
correct terms for referring to people groups are always changing. It is difficult for us to know the latest way
to properly refer to people of different backgrounds. If we got it wrong, it was not intentional,
and no disrespect was intended.
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