Critical Race Theory: A Study in Bipartisan Incoherency

How two sides can fight even when they have no significant disagreement

There are four different things called critical race theory or CRT, each of which only remotely resembles the other three.

1)CRT as it is actually taught in colleges and graduate schools

2)K-12 public school lessons about racial issues, which are allegedly influenced by CRT. Call those CRTK12.

3)CRT as it exists in the imaginations of Republican rabble-rousers. Call that CRT-Rep

4) K-12 public school lessons about racial issues as they exist in the imaginations of Republican rabble-rousers. Call that CRTK12-Rep

Republican Rabble Rousers have managed to win at least one election, and may win more, by convincing some voters that all four of these things are the same. In fact, There is essentially no overlap between CRT and CRT-Rep, and even less overlap between CRTK12 and CRTK12-Rep. That however, has not stopped Republicans from passing laws designed to vanquish this straw man of their own devising. These laws ban the teaching of CRT as they define it, but in fact their definition includes things that were never part of either CRT or CRTK12. In Mississippi, for example, a law was recently passed banning CRT, and this law will not even affect the one course on CRT being taught in a Mississippi Law school.