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The following is an opinion contribution and reflects the author’s views alone.
Dear Tories,
As Princetonians, we are of the university. The language of theory and high-flown academic parlance ought to be native to us. Yet, I challenge critical race theory or CRT. What does it mean, as a peer of mine recently stated, that “the inherent features of the Black body confine institutions to the systemic racist limits of contemporary and historical racism?” Does it really mean anything? I argue that the abstract notions that proponents of CRT gesture towards are as meaningless as the arbitrary lines by which they divide us. Though perhaps not principally defined, it can be functionally defined: CRT professes a hyper-racialized America and a return to a previous — less just — era. It means dividing homes and schools, churches and hospitals. Its perniciousness can be injected into any social institution, and it is portentous.
As the gubernatorial race in Virginia demonstrated, CRT is unpopular with large swaths of the American public. Large swaths, though, are not all. Why has it taken hold? Can we reflect on the sensitive void it seeks to fill? At the least, CRT offers an alternative vision to the post-WWII notion of liberalism. “We are all atomized individuals,” we have been taught. “We are liberated to choose without limit, without restraint.” With every identity at our fingertips, we have no identity. CRT — potently — seeks to answer that call by offering each man and woman a group to affiliate with, a community with which to seek comfort. CRT is recognizing a problem we should not ignore.
It is our task to dive into CRT. We need not search far to find it on our own campus — and that deserves highlighting. We ought to showcase its pitfalls to the campus and American communities. We ought to stand for the truth amid the pressure.
Adam Hoffman
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