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Critical Race Theory ;
Free Speech
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a popularized and increasingly polarized ideology in the United States. Because of the political and ideological tension over CRT, its become increasingly hard to break down and understand. In light of the U.S.'s recent racial injustices, this theory has come up time and time again, along with arguments about how or even if it should be taught in schools. But before that question is answered, let's define CRT.
Critical Race Theory emerged in the works of Professor Derrick Bell in the 1970s and 1980s as a response to the notion that the law is neutral and fair. The central premise of CRT is that our country's history of slavery, racism, segregation, and other injustices has lasting effects on our institutions and on the law itself.
To once side of the Critical Race Theory debate, It only makes sense that a system originating in the United States -- which has a long history of prejudice and oppression -- would continue to have toxicity due to its prejudicial roots. On the other side of the debate, many parents don't want CRT in schools because they fear their children to feel like oppressors and oppressed There eyes, CRT simply reiterates racism of the past, when our children should be learning the facts about history and move on as people. But can this county and its citizens ever truly move on from something that shaped the very DNA of the system known as the United States of America? This is where the right and left disagree, and it is why CRT falls under consistent criticism.
Why Does the IDH Talk About CRT?
The IDH finds Critical Race Theory's concept of intersectionality particularly useful because it acknowledges that everyone experiences oppression differently, and that people are not just one identity: a person might have Asian heritage, but they might also be a woman and gay, or a person might be Republican, but they're also disabled and an immigrant. Algorithms inherently have a difficult time with this concept; even if there was a way to accurately datafy a person's racial history, their gender, their sexual orientation, and any other facet of their identity, would the algorithm be able accurately reflect that unique set of identity markers while also reflecting how uniquely human it makes a person? What gets lost in translation from code to human story?