What critical race theory is actually about

Critical race theory is an academic movement focused on recognizing the effects slavery and institutional racism continue to have on the U.S. Critical race theory is an intellectual framework for analyzing American history introduced by legal scholars as a way to recognize the effects that racism has had on the U.S. The theory dates back to the 1970s, although it was apparently coined during a 1989 conference led by several scholars and has roots even farther back, with civil rights activists such as W.E.B. Du Bois. A book titled Critical Race Theory: An Introduction defines the movement as “a collection of activists and scholars interested in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power.” Critical race theory has been applied to examine how the history of racism in the U.S. has affected multiple areas of society, such as discriminatory labor practices, access to education, bank lending, and housing segregation, as well as a host of microaggressions. One of the founders of critical race theory, Kimberlé Crenshaw, described it as “an approach to grappling with a history of White supremacy that rejects the belief that what's in the past is in the past, and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it.” [Time, 9/29/20; CNN, 10/1/20]  

On All In with Chris Hayes, Democratic Tennessee state Rep. London Lamar explained critical race theory. During the May 4 edition of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, host Chris Hayes asked Democratic Tennessee state Rep. London Lamar about the state’s pushback against critical race theory in schools. Lamar explained Republicans in Tennessee want educational conversations around race to be “limited, very surface level, and will not allow teachers to go to in-depth conversations.” Lamar went on to say critical race theory asks people to “look at what has happened in history, make it better so we can move forward.” [MSNBC, All In with Chris Hayes, 5/4/21]  

Fox News’ new favorite anti-civil rights activist: Christopher Rufo 

Rufo is affiliated with several conservative organizations. Christopher Rufo is a right-wing activist who covers “critical race theory, homelessness, addiction, crime, and the decline of cities on America’s west coast” for the City Journal — a public policy journal published by the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, where he also serves as senior fellow and director of the “initiative on critical race theory.” Rufo also serves as a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, focusing on “domestic policy studies,” and is the former director of the Center on Wealth & Poverty at the Discovery Institute, a think tank which promotes — among other things — the idea of “intelligent design.” [City Journal, accessed 5/6/21; Manhattan Institute, accessed 5/6/21; Heritage Foundation, accessed 5/6/21; Discovery Institute, accessed 5/6/21; Discovery Institute, accessed 5/6/21]  

Rufo has appeared on Fox News programming at least 32 times since 2019. Since 2019, Christopher Rufo has appeared on Fox News weekday programs at least 32 times, according to Media Matters’ internal database. Rufo has been a guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight 14 times and has appeared on The Ingraham Angle 10 times. He has been on Fox’s “news” side as well, including three appearances on America’s Newsroom.

Alongside Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, Rufo begins obsessively and inaccurately attacking anti-racism

Rufo claimed Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights forced employees to take what amounted to “cult programming.” In a July 8, 2020, article for City Journal, Rufo reported that he submitted a “public records request” about a sensitivity training that white city employees in Seattle were asked to take. Rufo called the training “disturbing,” and wrote the discussion was framed around the idea “that black Americans are reducible to the essential quality of ‘blackness’ and white Americans are reducible to the essential quality of ‘whiteness’—that is, the new metaphysics of good and evil.” Rufo called the training “cult programming.” [City Journal, 7/8/20]

Rufo supposedly exposed what he called the “diversity-industrial complex.” In a July 16, 2020, article for the New York Post, Rufo highlighted federal sensitivity trainings where white employees were allegedly told that “virtually all white people contribute to racism” and have views that run counter to dismantling racist systems. Rufo attempted to expose what he calls the “diversity-industrial complex” by pointing out that the man responsible for most of these trainings is white. This led Rufo to the conclusion that the trainer “has used his own privilege to enrich himself at taxpayer expense.” [New York Post, 7/16/20]

Rufo took credit for President Donald Trump’s executive order rescinding federal racial sensitivity trainings. In an October 4, 2020, opinion article for The Wall Street Journal, Rufo claimed his “reporting on critical race theory in the federal government was the impetus for the president’s executive order” ending trainings focused on critical race theory. Rufo went on to describe the trainings as pushing “a deeply ideological agenda that includes reducing people to a racial essence, segregating them, and judging them by their group identity rather than individual character, behavior and merit.” [The Wall Street Journal, 10/4/20]

In a Heritage Foundation report, Rufo demonized critical race theory. In a March report for the Heritage Foundation, Rufo claimed that critical race theory scholars think the foundation of American society is fundamentally illegitimate. Rufo attempted to minimize critical race theory’s concern about racial income disparities by claiming the wage gap between white and Black workers — as well as the poverty gap between white and Black families — disappears when you control for things like education achievement and family structure. He concluded his questionable analysis by warning that the field of study’s “leading intellectuals have proposed a regime of race-based apportionment of rights, property, and income, overseen in some proposals by a centralized, unelected authority with nearly unlimited state power.” [Heritage Foundation, 3/23/21]       

Rufo praised Sen. Tom Cotton's (R-AR) bill banning critical race theory in the military, which he consulted on. On his own website, Rufo praised Cotton for his bill banning critical race theory training, literature, or lessons in the military. In his article, Rufo admitted he read and provided feedback on the initial draft of the legislation, which he went on to praise as pushing back against the supposed racial division promoted in critical race theory. Rufo said that while Cotton’s bill probably will not go anywhere because Democrats control the Senate, it is important because it raises “provocative questions.” [ChristopherRufo.com, 3/24/21]

Rufo accused critical race theorists of endorsing what amounts to “racial segregation.” In an April 21 article for the Claremont Institute’s The American Mind, Rufo claimed that the Trump administration’s decision to ban training based on critical race theory would be “uncontroversial” in a “healthy society.” He then took issue with the Biden administration’s reversal of the ban because, according to Rufo, critical race theory endorses “racial segregation, race-based guilt, and ritual humiliation.” [The American Mind, 4/21/21]  

Rufo claimed critical race theory was developed after Marxists failed to divide the country across class lines. In his accounting of critical race theory, Rufo claimed it was derived from Marxism and the failed attempt to start class warfare in the United States. He said Marxists simply swapped class for race and in the 1990s, started using the word “ equity” because it sounded non-threatening and could easily be confused with “ equality.” He went on to argue that a government system based on equity would do away with property rights, individual rights, equality under the law, freedom of speech, and federalism. [City Journal, 4/22/21]

During numerous Fox appearances, Rufo calls critical race theory a “divisive and graceless ideology” 

Rufo: “This is not only a kind of moral panic, but it’s actually now being disseminated through the institutions, and parents across the country should be on guard.” During an appearance on Fox News Primetime, Rufo encouraged parents of students to “speak out” against critical race theory, describing it by saying, “This is really a radical ideology that’s supported by a very small sliver of the population. I think of it as a kind of elite, institution-driven revolution against middle-class people, against middle America, people of all different racial backgrounds.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 2/16/21]

Rufo: “The goal of this is to move away from a model of achievement-based education towards a model of political activism.” On America’s Newsroom, Rufo complained that critical race theory is being taught in not just left-leaning states, but in “purple and red states” as well. Rufo specifically claimed that a school district in North Carolina is “encouraging teachers ... to subvert parents and push this ideology onto students without the consent of families.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 3/19/21]

Rufo: Parents, teachers, and students do not want an “education that indoctrinates us into a divisive and graceless ideology.” America’s Newsroom co-anchor Dana Perino claimed during a segment with Rufo that “lest people think this is just happening at very expensive private schools in Manhattan, this headline from the National Review: Biden set to push critical race theory on U.S. schools.” Rufo responded that President Joe Biden “is trying to nationalize critical race theory by creating incentives for public schools across the country. … They’re trying to take the curriculum and principles in California and Berkeley and Los Angeles and now incentivize schools everywhere to adopt them.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 4/20/21]

Fox News personalities follow suit, smearing the academic movement as inherently racist  

Fox’s Laura Ingraham: Teaching critical race theory will turn children into “mini-Ilhan Omars.” During the July 8, 2020, edition of Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham went on a rant about public school curricula and the outsized influence “Black Lives Matter zealots” have. She went on to suggest that they want to remake “education from top to bottom” and replace academic classes with critical race theory to turn students into “mini-Ilhan Omars.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/8/20]

Fox’s Tucker Carlson: Critical race theory tells you you’re “damned to hell” because of your race. During the September 8, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, host Tucker Carlson claimed that critical race theory is “indoctrination” and tells people they’re “damned to hell because of the way they were born. In a word, critical race theory is racism.” During his segment, Carlson highlighted Rufo’s work, saying he has been covering critical race theory “virtually alone.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 9/8/20]

Carlson: “According to critical race theory, some races are inherently better than other races.” Carlson said critical race theory teaches people that some races are “inherently better than other races” and said it is spreading “bewilderingly” quickly. During the February 4 edition of his Fox News show, Carlson interviewed a Cornell professor who created a website to track the spread of what Carlson called these “diseased ideas” in schools. The law professor said critical race theory uses current discrimination to remedy past discrimination and teaches people that the most important thing about them is the color of their skin. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/4/21] 

On Fox, Candace Owens said that “it’s time for us to pull our kids out of school” over critical race theory. During the March 14 edition of Fox Business’ Sunday Morning Futures, the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens urged parents to pull their kids out of school rather than have them taught about critical race theory. Owens said kids aren’t learning math and science and instead are learning “how to hate white people; they’re learning how to hate their country. And this is problematic for the future.” [Fox Business, Sunday Morning Futures, 3/14/21] 

Fox’s Leo Terrell: Critical race theory in schools is “intimidation.” On March 17, Fox News contributor Leo Terrell said teachers are “targeting individuals based on their concept that if you don’t agree with our critical race theory, we’re going to go after you,” which he called an “intimidation effort.” Terrell continued on to encourage parents to speak against this “indoctrination of rewriting history.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/17/21] 

Carlson: Schools teaching critical race theory have gone “completely off the deep end.” In a March 17 segment about a Virginia county using critical race theory in its curriculum, Carlson called it a “noxious lie that some races are better than other races, some are moral, others are immoral. It’s pure racism.” Carlson interviewed a parent at one of the county’s schools, who said he was targeted by the school for speaking out. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/17/21]  

On Fox, The Federalist’s Ben Domenech blamed a rise in crime partly on critical race theory. Federalist founder Ben Domenech blamed the increase in “violent crime” and other “problematic statistics” in part on a culture focused on identities and critical race theory. Domenech said when critical race theory is “injected” into things like policing, it is going to cause them to pull back in many areas. [Fox News, Special Report, 3/18/21]

Terrell: There is no systemic discrimination or institutionalized racism. During the March 19 edition of Fox’s The Story, Terrell slammed critical race theory as “racist” and declared that there is neither systemic discrimination nor institutionalized racism in the U.S. He insisted that critical race theory is just a Democratic talking point with the goal of turning public schools into “Democratic laboratories.” [Fox News, The Story, 3/19/21]   

Carlson: Critical race theory is a “cult.” Carlson called critical race theory a “cult” and an “age-old lie” that is everywhere, including in schools, universities, and corporations, during the March 22 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/22/21]

Fox’s Will Cain: Critical race theory is “modern-day Jim Crow.” While discussing a report that the insurance company Cigna had its employees take sensitivity training that involved critical race theory, Fox & Friends co-host Will Cain called it “modern-day segregation” and “modern-day Jim Crow.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/23/21]

On Fox, Daily Wire podcaster Matt Walsh said critical race theory will leave us “where we were 70 years ago.” During the March 24 edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson asked Daily Wire Podcast host Matt Walsh where the country will be if we continue with critical race theory. Walsh replied that the country will “go in one big circle — we end up where we were 70 years ago, but as you say, the colors are changed.” He went on to say this is why it’s so important for people to call it out and call it what it is, which is “anti-white racism.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/24/21]

Fox’s Brit Hume: “America may be … the least racist country on earth.” During the April 20 edition of Fox News Primetime, Fox contributor Brit Hume called the U.S. “the least racist country on earth.” He went on to call critical race theory “absolute bunk,” and guest host Ben Domenech responded that it’s “un-American in a very deeply disturbing way.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 4/20/21]     

Fox contributor Dan Bongino: “Time to cut the crap. This is racist.” During the April 20 edition of Fox News’ Hannity, contributor Dan Bongino said that “critical race theory is going to come knocking on your door” if you are a parent and that there’s “no escaping this.” Bongino went on to tell parents to “stop screwing around. It’s time to cut the crap. This is racist,” adding that the theory is “liberal mumbo jumbo.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/20/21] 

Fox’s Newt Gingrich: “The real racists are the people who want to brainwash your child.” During the April 21 edition of Fox News’ Fox News Primetime, Domenech asked Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich what people can do in order to push back against critical race theory. Gingrich called it “the new racism” and called the “real racists” people who want to “brainwash your child so that they feel guilty about being born white or being born of mixed background.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 4/21/21]    

Fox contributor: Critical race theory is a “Marxist concept” that will “warp the minds of American children.” During the April 22 edition of Fox News’ America Reports with John Roberts & Sandra Smith, Fox News contributor and New York Post columnist Miranda Devine said the U.S. is teaching an ideology that will “warp the minds of American children and indoctrinate them” with critical race theory. She went on to call critical race theory a “sick ideology” and a “cult” that will teach white kids to “hate themselves.” [Fox News, America Reports with John Roberts & Sandra Smith, 4/22/21]  

Fox’s Greg Gutfeld: Critical race theory is “hard-leftish brainwash.” During the April 23 edition of Greg Gutfeld’s Fox News show Gutfeld!, he criticized critical race theory as “hard-leftish brainwash” before calling it “indoctrination” rather than education. [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 4/23/21]   

National Republicans adopt Fox News messaging in attempting to ban critical race theory in schools and sensitivity trainings across the country

The Trump administration issued an executive order banning federal diversity trainings. On September 4, 2020, the Trump administration directed federal agencies to end all racial sensitivity trainings that touch on topics including white privilege and critical race theory, which the administration called “divisive, anti-American propaganda.” The Office of Budget and Management sent a letter to federal agencies demanding they halt the trainings, which the letter stated contribute to misguided views and racial division in the country. [NPR, 9/5/20]

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR): The goal of critical race theory is “segregation.” On March 16, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) tweeted out a Fox News article about critical race theory and said the goal of the academic movement was “segregation.” In a follow-up tweet, he wrote, “Critical race theory is the belief that people have value based on the color of their skin, and that our race defines everything about us.” [Twitter, 3/16/21]

Cotton introduced a bill banning racial sensitivity training in the military. If passed, the bill would prevent military officials from teaching troops that the U.S. was founded on racism and racist institutions. In a draft copy of the bill, Cotton wrote, “Anti-American and racist theories, such as Critical Race Theory, teach students to distrust and even hate their country and fellow citizens.” He continued, “The United States Armed Forces should not promote or otherwise encourage anti-American and racist theories that demoralize and divide its members while undermining its mission to 'bear truth, faith and allegiance' to the Constitution.” [Slate, 3/25/21] 

Two Republican congressmen sent letters to the Department of Education condemning Biden’s “dangerous” critical race theory grant. Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and Jeff Duncan (R-SC) sent letters to the Department of Education asking the agency to rethink the Biden administration’s plan to give grants to public schools that teach The 1619 Project — an investigative journalism project placing an emphasis on the repercussions of slavery. The two Republican congressmen called the move “dangerous” and divisive. [Fox News, 4/27/21]

State politicians seek to ban critical race theory trainings, education 

Iowa House passed a bill banning “divisive” topics at sensitivity trainings. In March, the Iowa House passed a bill that would prevent Iowa’s state and local governments from including “divisive” topics in their sensitivity trainings, specifically topics that stem from critical race theory. Republicans who backed the bill criticized the academic theory as racist, and a similar bill passed the Iowa Senate the previous week. [The Des Moines Register, 3/17/21]

Gov. Ron DeSantis allocated millions to prevent Florida public schools from teaching critical race theory. In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a $106 million increase in investment in civics education due to pandemic-related federal funding, $17 million of which would be used to develop a civics curriculum with “foundational concepts” and not “unsanctioned narratives like critical race theory.” [The Associated Press, 3/17/21]  

A Louisiana state representative tried to prevent schools from teaching students about the U.S.’s racist history. Louisiana Republican state Rep. Ray Garofalo Jr. introduced a bill to prevent schools from teaching that the state or the country is “systemically sexist or racist.” The bill specifically prevents giving students or teachers information that “teaches, advocates, acts upon or promotes divisive concepts.” Garofalo’s bill is still alive, although it did not pass out of the House committee hearing and the representative said he is revising language before reintroducing it “for further discussion.” [The Washington Post, 4/28/21]    

Bill banning critical race theory in Texas public schools passes out of state House committee. A bill banning critical race theory in the state curriculum, classroom education, and training for employees passed out of the state House Committee on Public Education. The bill instead requires the State Board of Education to include understanding of the country’s founding documents and “the fundamental moral, political, and intellectual foundations of the American experiment in self-government” in the state curriculum standards. [The Texan, 4/28/21] 

Oklahoma House passes bill banning critical race theory in schools. On April 29, the Oklahoma House passed a bill banning public school teachers from incorporating critical race theory into their lessons. Republican state Rep. Kevin West, who sponsored the bill, said critical race theory teaches students “that because they’re a certain race or sex, they’re inherently superior to others or should feel guilty for something that happened in the past.” [KOCO News, 4/29/21]

Missouri attempts to ban curriculums that include teaching about inherent racism. A bill banning curricula that identify “people, entities, or institutions as inherently, immutably, or systemically sexist, racist, biased, privileged, or oppressed” won preliminary approval in the Missouri House in April. Under this bill, banned lesson plans would include those teaching The New York Times’ 1619 Project and critical race theory. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/29/21] 

Arizona attempts to fine teachers who use critical race theory in their classrooms. An amendment to an Arizona Senate bill threatens a $5,000 fine to teachers who use critical race theory in their curricula. The Arizona House passed the amendment on May 5 and it now awaits a vote in the state Senate. Republican state Rep. Michelle Udall sponsored the amendment and said Arizona acknowledges U.S. history, but “cannot allow children in our public schools to be taught that they are not created equal, that their skin color, ethnicity or sex somehow determines their character or actions” before referring to critical race theory as another form or racism. [AZ Central, 5/5/21]  

Fox News covers its own self-made news cycle with stories about the backlash against critical race theory

Fox’s Maria Bartiromo and former Trump official Mark Meadows praised Gov. Ron DeSantis for “banning” critical race theory in Florida schools. On March 19, Fox News Primetime host Maria Bartiromo and former Trump official Mark Meadows praised a recent speech by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in which he declared that “there’s no room in our classrooms for things like critical race theory.” Meadows said, “Gov. DeSantis was exactly right. He was right to call it out. Bravo to him. I hope a number of other governors follow suit.” Baritromo claimed, “It’s absolutely extraordinary and outrageous that these teachers are assuming our kids are racists even before they murmur a word.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 3/18/21]

Carlson highlighted a complaint from Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) about the “introduction of elements of critical race theory in cadet instruction” at West Point. Carlson specifically mentioned a lecture at the United States Military Academy titled “Understanding Whiteness and White Rage” which he called “a pure racial attack.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 4/8/21] 

Fox’s Brian Kilmeade: “Republicans in Congress [are] fighting back against the Biden administration’s proposal that could boost critical race theory in schools.” Kilmeade introduced a segment with author Douglas Murray by highlighting Republican opposition to a Biden administration proposal that would encourage schools to address systemic racism. Murray said, “It’s very worrying and I’m very pleased indeed to see GOP leaders pushing back against this so firmly.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/28/21]   

Fox’s John Roberts: “The Department of Education [is] facing major backlash for suggesting a new rule that would spend federal grant money on helping schools teach what critics are calling a dangerous and divisive curriculum: critical race theory.” Correspondent Mike Emanuel also reported on the Biden administration’s proposed rule to “send federal grant money to teach a controversial curriculum.” [Fox News, America Reports, 4/28/21]

Fox’s Martha MacCallum interviewed a Texas parent who claimed that “social and emotional learning” is “a primer for later on imposing critical race theory.” MacCallum introduced a segment by noting that that some parents in a Texas school district are suing over “a cultural competence plan” that they say “institutionalizes racism by forcing students to question microaggressions and white privilege.” MacCallum also claimed that a “lot of parents are very scared to speak up. They don’t want the ramifications for their kids and the pushback.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 4/28/21]

Fox & Friends hosted an Idaho lawmaker who sponsored a bill banning critical race theory in schools. Idaho Republican state Sen. Carl Crabtree appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss a bill he sponsored “banning” critical race theory because, he said, of “isolated incidents of students being coerced, and these were conservative students, about their viewpoints.” Crabtree explained that lawmakers declined to define critical race theory in the bill because “everybody has a different view” of what the term means. Co-host Ainsley Earhardt ended the interview by listing other states where lawmakers were considering similar bans. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/29/21]