Critical Race Theory

Paramount to critical race theorists is a critique of the permanence and pervasiveness of race in confronting issues of inequality in the United States. In [Page 143]the mid-1970s, the racial realists and foundational scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberle Crenshaw, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia Williams are attributed with igniting the movement from which the theoretical framework of critical race theory (CRT) emerged. Early scholars of the movement sought to push the bounds of existing critical legal scholarship by making race much more central to explorations of the impact of antidiscrimination laws. Today, CRT not only remains ever useful in that effort but also has proved effective in problematizing the role that race and racism play in education, politics, the economy, and everyday life. Moreover, the substantive and ...