Critical race theory has been around for decades — why’s it a powder keg now? (rerun)

Hey smarties! We’re on a break for the holidays and revisiting some favorite episodes from 2021. We want to say a big thank-you for being part of the “Make Me Smart” family this year — every voicemail, question and donation made a huge difference. None of us is as smart as all of us, and we couldn’t do this show without you. There’s still time to help Marketplace reach its end-of-year fundraising goal. If you can, please donate here. Thanks, happy holidays and we’ll see you in the new year.

If you’ve been tuned in to the culture war at all in the last six to 12 months, you’ve probably heard a lot about “critical race theory.” You’ve probably heard less about what it actually is. We asked a critical race theorist.

“We had social inequality of serious dimensions … even after the victories of the civil rights movement in the embrace of a so-called colorblind society,” said law professor Cheryl Harris of the University of California, Los Angeles. “And we wanted to ask, what is the role of law in that? Is this an enforcement problem?”

CRT, as it’s sometimes called, posits that racism is not just perpetuated by individuals, it’s embedded into our institutions. But Harris said  recent Republican efforts to ban CRT from schools aren’t really about those decades-old discussions, but an effort to create a political “boogeyman.” Some conservative thinkers have said as much.

On today’s show, we’ll go deep with Harris on the nuances of what CRT is and isn’t, and what the recent controversy around systemic racism in schools has to do with the voting restrictions we talked about last week.

Later in the show, we’ll talk about California’s new rental-assistance program, Juneteenth commercialization and the economic conditions that would cause the rich not to get richer. (Spoiler alert: There really aren’t any.) Plus we’ll hear from a listener who is celebrating becoming debt-free.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

“What is critical race theory, and why do Republicans want to ban it in schools?” from The Washington Post, which gives context to the Christopher Rufo tweets we discussed.
“See which states have passed critical race theory bills” from NBC News
“Critical race theory battle invades school boards — with help from conservative groups” also from NBC News
“Fox’s anti-“critical race theory” parents are also GOP activists” from Media Matters
“California Has a Plan to Pay the Back Rent for Low-Income Tenants. All of It.” from The New York Times
“Where the World’s Richest 1% Are Gaining Wealth the Fastest” from Bloomberg