The Six Defining Elements of Critical Race Theory
Mari J. Matsuda, Charles R Lawrence III, Richard Delgado, and Kimberlè Williams Crenshaw
The book Words That Wound is considered a foundational text for Critical Race Theorists. Its authors are Mari J. Matsuda, Charles R Lawrence III, Richard Delgado, and Kimberlè Williams Crenshaw. Derrick Bell - the father of CRT - wrote in a footnote that "Critical race theory's founding members are usually identified as Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, Charles Lawrence, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia Williams."1
As you can see, Words That Wound was authored by three of the four that Bell listed as "founding members" other than himself. That only leaves Kimberlè Williams Crenshaw, who coined the label Critical Race Theory. I have to point all of this out because I want readers to understand that I'm not pulling from some obscure book written by folks whose connection to CRT is questionable.
What makes this book helpful is that the first subheading in Chapter One, Introduction, is What is Critical Race Theory? After giving a little history lesson, they list six "defining elements." What follows is that list, in its entirety, so that you can see for yourself how the "founding members" defined their movement. I am not going to add any commentary or critique...for now. I am simply identifying the theory, in their own words, so that no one can argue that you nor I understand it:
In a search for a tentative expository answer to the question “What is critical race theory?” critical race scholars have identified the following defining elements:
Critical race theory recognizes that racism is endemic to American life. Thus, the question for us is not so much whether or how racial discrimination can be eliminated while maintaining the integrity of other interests implicated in the status quo such as federalism, privacy, traditional values, or established property interests. Instead we ask how these traditional interests and values serve as vessels of racial subordination.
Critical race theory expresses skepticism toward dominant legal claims of neutrality, objectivity, color blindness, and meritocracy. These claims are central to an ideology of equal opportunity that presents race as an immutable characteristic devoid of social meaning and tells an ahistorical, abstracted story of racial inequality as a series of randomly occurring, intentional, and individualized acts.
Critical race theory challenges ahistoricism and insists on a contextual/ historical analysis of the law. Current inequalities and social/institutional practices are linked to earlier periods in which the intent and cultural meaning of such practices were clear. More important, as critical race theorists we adopt a stance that presumes that racism has contributed to all contemporary manifestations of group advantage and disadvantage along racial lines, including differences in income, imprisonment, health, housing, education, political representation, and military service. Our history calls for this presumption.
Critical race theory insists on recognition of the experiential knowledge of people of color and our communities of origin in analyzing law and society. This knowledge is gained from critical reflection on the lived experience of racism and from critical reflection upon active political practice toward the elimination of racism.
Critical race theory is interdisciplinary and eclectic. It borrows from several traditions, including liberalism, law and society, feminism, Marxism, poststructuralism, critical legal theory, pragmatism, and nationalism. This eclecticism allows critical race theory to examine and incorporate those aspects of a methodology or theory that effectively enable our voice and advance the cause of racial justice even as we maintain a critical posture.
Critical race theory works toward the end of eliminating racial oppression as part of the broader goal of ending all forms of oppression. Racial oppression is experienced by many in tandem with oppression on grounds of gender, class, or sexual orientation. Critical race theory measures progress by a yardstick that looks to fundamental social transformation. The interests of all people of color necessarily require not just adjustments within the established hierarchies, but a challenge to hierarchy itself. This recognition of intersecting forms of subordination requires multiple consciousness and political practices that address the varied ways in which people experience subordination.
Who's Afraid of Critical Race Theory?, Derrick Bell