Critical Race Theory: “[I]ntellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour.” (Britannica)

1. CRITICAL RACE
THEORY
WHAT IT IS, WHERE IT CAME FROM, AND HOW RATIONAL PEOPLE MAY TRY TO
DEAL WITH IT
JAMES C. MILLER, PH.D.

2. CRITICAL RACE THEORY DEFINED
“[I]ntellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis
based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded
feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially
constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress
and exploit people of colour.” (Britannica, emphases added)

3. OUTLINE
How we got here:
• Self-Idolatry & Post-Modernism
• Child Development and
Egocentricity
• Hard and Soft Sciences
• Education
• Critical Theory (Frankfurt School)
• Critical Legal Studies (CLS)
• Critical Social Justice
• Christian Privilege
What it is (Baucham):
• Wokeness
• Critical Race Theory (CRT)
• Whiteness
• Racism and “Antiracism”
• Ethnic Gnosticism
What we may do

4. HOW WE GOT HERE

5. SELF-IDOLATRY & POST-MODERNISM
Violating the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
(Exodus 20:3)

6. POST-MODERNISM
[I]n Western philosophy, a late 20th-century movement characterized by
broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of
reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and
maintaining political and economic power. (Britannica, emphases added)

7. POST-MODERNISM
Postmodernists deny that there are aspects of reality that are objective;
that there are statements about reality that are objectively true or false;
that it is possible to have knowledge of such statements (objective
knowledge); that it is possible for human beings to know some things with
certainty; and that there are objective, or absolute, moral values. (Britannica,
emphases added)

8. POST-MODERNISM
Reality, knowledge, and value are constructed by discourses; hence they
can vary with them. This means that the discourse of modern science,
when considered apart from the evidential standards internal to it, has no
greater purchase on the truth than do alternative perspectives, including
(for example) astrology and witchcraft. (Britannica, emphases added)

9. SOME PROBLEMS WITH POST-MODERNISM
• Post-modernism can be defined as unbelief about metanarratives. But
would not postmodernism itself be a metanarrative?
• Post-modernism claims that there is no absolute truth. But is not this an
absolute truth? Is it not an absolute truth, according to postmodernism,
that there is no absolute truth? This is circular and contradictory
reasoning.
NotesOnLiberty.com

10. SOME PROBLEMS WITH POST-MODERNISM
• Post-modernists may find that the world is made up of dichotomies or binary
oppositions that cancel out, without any logic, leaving us with an immense void.
• In the absence of an absolute truth that can be objectively identified one gets
subjective opinions. Without objective truths individuals are isolated in their
subjective opinions, which represents a division of people.
NotesOnLiberty.com
It is, perhaps, these two problems that help mediate self-idolatry: it is my truth
that is the most important truth, and nothing else matters.

11. CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND
EGOCENTRICITY
The problem of the adult’s adolescent mind and self-idolatry

12. CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget (1896-1980). Theory of cognitive development.
• Birth to ~2, sensorimotor stage: know the world primarily through senses and
motor movements.
• ~2 to ~7, pre-operational stage: development of language and the emergence of
symbolic play.
• ~7 to ~11, concrete operational stage: logical thought emerges, but struggle
with abstract and theoretical thinking.
• ~12+, formal operational stage: more adept at abstract thought and deductive
reasoning.

13. CHILD DEVELOPMENT
• The adolescent is not fully adept at abstract thought and deductive
reasoning.
• This, coupled with lack of experience, is a problem in adolescents.
• It is a problem in adults with arrested development, i.e., failure to mature
fully in terms of cognition and management of emotions.
• May be linked to impaired development of connectivity in the brain.

14. EGOCENTRICITY DEFINED
• Inability to accurately assume or understand any perspective other than
one's own.
• Inability to understand that another person's view or opinion may be
different than their own.
VeryWellMind.com

15. EGOCENTRICITY DEFINED
• A cognitive bias, assuming that others share the same perspective as they
do, unable to imagine that other people would have a perception of their
own.
• The egocentric person believes that they are the center of attention.
Egotists and narcissists are greatly influenced by the approval of others,
while for the egocentric person this may or may not be true.
VeryWellMind.com

16. DEVELOPMENT OF EGOCENTRICITY
David Elkind (1931- ). Piaget proposed the idea of egocentrism in children, and
Elkind expanded that concept to incorporate teenagers as well.
As cognitive development progresses through the stages identified by Piaget, the
nature, quality, and characteristics of egocentrism change correspondingly. New and
more sophisticated cognitive structures develop. In this sense, egocentricity can be
said to be a negative but necessary by-product of cognitive development because it
creates at each stage a new set of unrealistic, non-objective representations of the
world. (Muuss, 1982)
Muuss, R. E. (1982). Social cognition: David Elkind's theory of adolescent egocentrism. Adolescence, 17(66), 249–
265.

17. DEVELOPMENT OF EGOCENTRICITY
David Elkind (1931- ). Piaget proposed the idea of egocentrism in children, and Elkind
expanded that concept to incorporate teenagers as well.
Teens become absorbed in their emotional, physical and mental states. A
preoccupation with one's self is formed, resulting in self-consciousness.
The “imaginary audience.” Teens think that they are as important to everyone
else as they are to themselves. They worry about the reaction others may have to
every action they commit, every word they say and even their clothes. They
behave as though every little thing they do is being observed and scrutinized by an
unknown group of people.

18. DEVELOPMENT OF EGOCENTRICITY
David Elkind (1931- ). Piaget proposed the idea of egocentrism in children, and Elkind
expanded that concept to incorporate teenagers as well.
The “personal fable.” The teenager feels that the story of his or her life is unique
and special. This leads to "nobody understands me!" statements. Connected to
young people's common belief that they will never die.
JCM: These also are characteristics of the adult who never became fully adept at
abstract thought and deductive reasoning.

19. DECENTERING
The major mechanism contributing to the decline of egocentricity . . . is the
developmental process of decentering. Decentering makes it possible to shift the
focus of awareness from a limited aspect of reality or self to several, and eventually
to a whole array of different dimensions. (Muuss, 1982)
Piaget: Decentering begins to occur in the ~7 to ~11 concrete operational stage
and the ~12+ formal operational stage.

20. DECENTERING
Does decentering always develop completely? Or do the “imaginary audience” and
“personal fable” problems continue throughout adulthood?
Our educational system may contribute to a failure to decenter (Bloom, The Closing
of the American Mind, 1987).
Recall the Obamacare requirement to keep a “child” on family insurance until age
26.
Thus, the next slide . . .

21. MY MODEL OF SELF-
IDOLATRY AS
EGOCENTRICITY
The right-hand tail
of the curve
contains people
who have not
become fully adept
at abstract thought
and deductive
reasoning and who
are egocentric.

22. MY MODEL OF SELF-
IDOLATRY AS
EGOCENTRICITY
Has the peak of the curve tended to shift to
the right over time, i.e., more cases of
“arrested development”?:
• With the development of liberal or
progressive thought? Post-modernism?
• Affected by education?
• As we’ve moved from rural to urban living?
• “When we get piled upon one another in large
cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt
as Europe.” (Thomas Jefferson)

23. THINKING LIKE AN ADULT VS. THINKING LIKE AN
ADOLESCENT
“Nature or nurture?” Certainly, some ”nature.”
• The OT and Greek plays indicate that individual human behaviors have not changed
in thousands of years, though technology and communication mechanisms have
changed drastically.
• Evidence relating to the “flesh”?

24. THINKING LIKE AN ADULT VS. THINKING LIKE AN
ADOLESCENT
• Anokhin et al., 2017. First evidence for genetic influences on neural correlates of
response inhibition during adolescence. Ability to inhibit context- or goal-
inappropriate responses is essential for adaptive self-regulation of behavior.
Heritability of inhibition-related frontal N2 and P3 (ERP) [event-related potential;
1980s] components in twins at 12, 14, & 16 yrs, with 50 to 60% of inter-individual
variability being attributable to genetic factors.
• Evidence relating to the “flesh”?
Anokhin, A. P., Golosheykin, S., Grant, J. D., & Heath, A. C. (2017). Heritability of brain activity related to
response inhibition: A longitudinal genetic study in adolescent twins. International journal of psychophysiology :
official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 115, 112–124.

25. THINKING LIKE AN ADULT VS. THINKING LIKE AN
ADOLESCENT
“Nature or nurture?” Certainly some “nurture.”
• Evidence suggests that epigenetic regulators may account for the embedding of early social
experiences. These early modifications to the epigenetic code are hypothesized to have
consequences for developing neural structures and function. Epigenetic changes might also
channel or moderate the effects of genetic variation on emotional and cognitive processes, and
psychiatric conditions. (Moore & Kobor, 2018)
• Evidence relating to the “world”?
S.R. Moore and M.S. Kobor (2018). Epigenetic Mechanisms and the Developing Brain: Bridging the Nature–Nurture Divide. Ch 6 in
Emergent Brain Dynamics: Prebirth to Adolescence (Strüngmann Forum Reports), A. Benasich & U.Ribary (ed.), The MIT Press.
Epigenetics: the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike
genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body
reads a DNA sequence. (CDC)

26. ADMONISHMENT FROM ST PAUL
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like
a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. (ESV, 1 Corinthians
13:11)

27. HARD AND SOFT SCIENCES
Critical theory fits nicely within the soft sciences

28. HARD AND SOFT SCIENCES
Two different approaches to the doctoral dissertation became obvious in
the 1960s:
• Hard science (e.g., physics, physiology, experimental psychology):
• Review the literature
• Derive a testable hypothesis
• Test the hypothesis mathematically (i.e., statistically)
• Draw an objective conclusion: the data do or do not support my
hypothesis

29. HARD AND SOFT SCIENCES
Two different approaches to the doctoral dissertation:
• Soft science (e.g., sociology, political “science”):
• Review the literature
• Draw a subjective conclusion “Thus, it’s my theory that . . . “

30. HARD AND SOFT SCIENCES
• Experimental Psychology: well-designed mathematical analyses of animal
behaviors or human behaviors and subjective selections. Not Clinical
Psychology.
• Problems with the soft sciences: writer’s bias, anecdotal evidence, non-
testable theories

31. HARD SCIENCES: PROBLEMS
Significant problems have developed in otherwise hard sciences in the latter
part of the half century of my involvement.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” (Attributed
to Disraeli by Mark Twain)

32. HARD SCIENCES: PROBLEMS
One may present statistical analyses of cherry-picked data or falsified data,
or present raw or summarized data in a biased manner.
The presentation may be accepted without question because this is
“science,” when, in fact, it is actually a biased argument aimed at persuasion.
See, for example, Darrell Huff, HowTo LieWith Statistics. W W Norton,
1954.
Climate data and COVID data have been shown to have been presented in
these manners.

33. EDUCATION
CIVILIZING THE SENSUAL AND RATIONAL COMPONENTS OF THE “SOUL”

34. THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND
ALLAN BLOOM, SIMON & SCHUSTER, 1987
• Students entering college in the mid-1960s: inalienable natural rights;
rational and industrious man; honesty and respect for laws; dedication to
family
• Fundamental basis for unity and sameness

35. THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND
ALLAN BLOOM. SIMON & SCHUSTER, 1987
• Students entering college in the mid-1980s: moral postulate that truth is relative
• Student opinion: “The study of history and of culture teaches that all the
world was mad in the past; men always thought they were right, and that led
to wars, persecution, slavery, xenophobia, racism, and chauvinism. The
point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to
think you are right at all.”
• No shared goals; open to anything and everything (pp 25-26)
• These mid-1980s freshmen are now in their mid-50s and, thus, in leadership
positions.

36. READING
“l have begun to wonder whether the experience of the greatest texts from early
childhood is not a prerequisite for a concern throughout life for them [students] and for
lesser but important literature. The soul's longing, its intolerable irritation under the
constraints of the conditional and limited, may very require encouragement at the outset.
At all events, whatever the cause, our students have lost the practice of and the taste for
reading. They have not learned how to read nor do they have the expectation of delight
or improvement from reading. They are ‘authentic,’ as against the immediately preceding
university generations, in having few cultural pretensions and in refusing hypocritical ritual
bows to high culture.” (Bloom, 1987, p 62)

37. MUSIC
• Addiction to rock music (and now gaming?) provides overwhelming sensual effects in youngsters.
(See next slide on the link between the auditory and limbic systems.)
• “The first sensuous experiences are decisive in determining the taste for the whole of life, and
they are the link between the animal and spiritual within us.” (Bloom, 1987, p 79)
• Rock music (and now gaming?) “artificially induces the exaltation naturally attached to the
completion of the greatest adventures … Without effort, without talent, without virtue, without
exercise of the faculties…”. (Bloom, 1987, p 80, emphases added)
• Subsequently, as adults, these students will “find it difficult to have enthusiasm or great
expectations.” (Bloom, 1987, p 80)

38. CONCLUSIONS ABOUT FUNCTIONAL NEUROANATOMY
MILLER JC, LINDENFELD G. AUDITORY STIMULATION THERAPY FOR PTSD. 88TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
AEROSPACE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, DENVER CO, MAY 2017.
These knowns:
• The effects of rhythmic sound on emotion,
• The functional neuroanatomy of auditory linkage to the limbic system,
• The functional neuroanatomy of limbic system interactions associated with fear
conditioning, and
• The effects of deep brain stimulation on emotional behavior
Taken together support the contention that “through the [auditory] pathway we are able to
directly modulate neural activity in the amygdalo-hippocampal circuit during memory
retrieval and reconsolidation.” Lindenfeld, G., & Bruursema, L. R. (2015, May 28). “Resetting the Fear Switch
in PTSD...” Academia.edu.

39. CRITICAL THEORY
A product of the soft sciences

40. DEFINITIONS
In the social (soft) science of critical theory,
• “critical” is “geared toward identifying and exposing problems in order to
facilitate revolutionary political change.” In other words, it implies
revolution. It is not interested in reform.
• Note the likelihood of identifying a problem but avoiding the issue of solving
the problem in a logical manner.
• “theory” (proper noun) is a philosophy, a worldview.
Adapted from Baucham, 2021

41. ORIGINS OF CRITICAL THEORY
“Critical Theory” (cap C, cap T): refers to “German philosophers and social
theorists in the Western European Marxist tradition known as the Frankfurt
School.” Esp. 1930s. Based initially upon Marx and Freud, though most of those
ideas are now viewed as passé.
“a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human ‘emancipation from slavery’,
acts as a ‘liberating ... Influence’, and works ‘to create a world which satisfies the
needs and powers of’ human beings (Horkheimer 1972b [1992, 246]).”
Quotes from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

42. ORIGINS OF CRITICAL THEORY
“many ‘critical theories’ in the broader sense have been developed. “
“In both the broad and the narrow senses, however, a critical theory
provides the descriptive and normative bases for social inquiry aimed at
decreasing domination and increasing freedom in all their forms.” [“You
can’t tell me what to do!”]
Quotes from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

43. CRITICAL THEORY: MARXIST CONTENT
• Have-nots (proletariat) must overcome the haves (bourgeoisie); by force, if
necessary; then a temporary “dictatorship of the proletariat”; then we all live
communally with no need for a “state”.
• Rodney King, 1992: “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?
Can we get along?”
• Communal living failed at Jamestown in it’s first year and elsewhere due to human
nature, i.e., original sin, self-idolatry. Some will always take advantage of others.
• Critical Theory ignores both innate sinfulness and post-Marx failed attempts by
nations to impose communal living.

44. CRITICAL THEORY:
FREUDIAN ASPECT
“[T]he id, a primal desire that drives us
to achieve basic urges [with immediate
gratification];
“the super-ego, a sort of moral
compass; and
“the ego, a development from the id that
analyzes the simultaneous needs of the id,
superego, and the stimuli of reality in
order to synthesize choices.”

45. CRITICAL THEORY: FREUDIAN ASPECT
“Freud explains that the id is inherent in everyone, as we inherit it from birth. The
super-ego and ego, on the other hand, are influenced by more personal experiences.
“
“the super-ego comes from our childhood, and is influenced based on parents, or
lack thereof “
“The ego, as explained before, is a synthesis-center of the id, super ego, and outside
stimuli, therefore it is fitting that it is affected by personal experience.”
Sigmund Freud’s “Outline of Psychoanalysis”, cited in scholarblogs.emory.edu, Freudian Discourse on Nature
v Nurture, Luke Roberts, 19 Apr 2015.

46. THE HYPOTHALAMUS

47. THE LIMBIC
SYSTEM:

48. THE LIMBIC SYSTEM:
EMOTIONS

49. CEREBRAL
LOBES

50. FRONTAL LOBE

51. CRITICAL THEORY: FREUDIAN ASPECT
My view of Freud’s personality structure:
• The inherent id, focused on immediate gratification, would be infected by original
sin, i.e., the effect of self on sinfulness. (Perhaps mediated by the limbic system.)
• The influence on the super-ego of parents who have post-modern views, or the lack
of parents, would be a contribution of the world to sinfulness. (Perhaps mediated by
the frontal cortex.)
• Thus, the ego, being the synthesis of the id, super-ego, and outside stimuli, would be
sinful.

52. CRITICAL THEORY AND SELF-IDOLATRY
The basic idea of critical theory in general seems to be one of complete
personal freedom, e.g., “I don’t want anyone telling me what to do.”
Seems quite juvenile/adolescent, based in self-idolatry.
This id-like need for instant gratification leads, perhaps, to ignorance of long-
term and unintended consequences and to ignorance of the values of
inductive and deductive reasoning.
Antithetical to the reality of behaviors triggered by sin.

53. REASON, OR LACK THEREOF
Dialectic of Enlightenment, Horkheimer and Adorno, 1947. Philosophy and
social criticism from the Frankfurt School:
A central claim is about the “entwinement of myth and
Enlightenment,” as providing a deep historical treatment of the
genesis of modern reason and freedom and how they turn into their
opposites. Rather than being liberating and progressive, reason has
become dominating and controlling with the spread of instrumental
reason. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, emphases added)

54. REASON, OR LACK THEREOF
Dialectic of Enlightenment, Horkheimer and Adorno, 1947. Philosophy and social
criticism from the Frankfurt School:
Liberal institutions do not escape this process and are indeed part of it with
their institutionalization of self-interest and self-preservation, tending toward
a “totally administered society”.
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, emphases added)
So, the products of myth and “enlightenment” are preferable to the logical
products of reason! This idea fits in nicely with the research methods of the
soft sciences.

55. CRITICAL THEORY
SUMMED UP
Using sociological theories and
political theories to criticize and
undermine existing sociological
and political structures.
Objective: no one will be
telling me what to do!
Attractive to people with
“arrested development.”

56. CRITICAL LEGAL STUDIES (CLS)

57. ORIGINS
Influenced by the Frankfurt School of the 1930s, Legal Realists rebelled
against accepted legal theories of the day and urged the legal field to pay
more attention to the social context of the law.
Founding members participated in social activism surrounding the Civil
Rights movement and the Vietnam War.
Subsequently, started officially in 1977 at a conference at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.
Adapted from Cornell Law School, law.cornell.edu

58. CRITICAL LEGAL STUDIES (CLS)
A theory which states that the law is necessarily intertwined with social issues,
particularly stating that the law has inherent social biases.
Proponents believe that the law supports the interests of those who create the law.
As such, CLS states that the law supports a power dynamic which favors the
historically privileged and disadvantages the historically underprivileged. CLS finds
that the wealthy and the powerful use the law as an instrument for oppression in
order to maintain their place in hierarchy. [See “whiteness” in later slides]
Adapted from Cornell Law School, law.cornell.edu, emphasis added

59. CRITICAL SOCIAL JUSTICE

60. ORIGINS
• Karl Marx, “Conflict Theory”: different social classes all competing for a limited
pool of resources such as food, housing, employment, education, and leisure time.
• Antonio Gramsci, “Hegemony” [Gr., dominance, supremacy]: dominant group
imposes its ideology on the rest of society through conditioning, i.e., the voluntary
consent of both the oppressed and their oppressors to maintain the status quo.
• The Frankfurt School expanded Conflict Theory and applied it to the issue of
hegemony.
Adaptec from Baucham, 2021

61. ORIGINS
• Also, consider the concept of intersectionality: “the complex, cumulative
way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism,
sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect especially in the
experiences of marginalized individuals or groups” (Merriam-Webster).
• This concept was introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989,
“Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique
of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.”
Now it’s in the dictionary.

62. CRITICAL SOCIAL JUSTICE
• “[A] specific theoretical approach to addressing issues of prejudice and
discrimination on the grounds of characteristics like race, sex, sexuality,
gender identity, disability and body size.”
• “[S]ome of its intellectual ancestry [is] in Marxist thought and the concept of
‘critical consciousness’”
• That is, becoming aware of oppressive power systems – note the similarity with
“woke” -- but more from postmodern concepts of knowledge, power and
discourses.
Quotes from Counterweight, https://counterweightsupport.com, emphases added

63. CRITICAL SOCIAL JUSTICE
• “[H]olds that knowledge is not objective but is culturally
constructed to maintain oppressive power systems. This is
believed to be achieved primarily by certain kinds of knowledge being
legitimized by powerful forces in society, then being accepted by
everyone and perpetuated by ways of talking about things – discourses.”
Quoted from Counterweight, https://counterweightsupport.com, emphasis added

64. CRITICAL SOCIAL JUSTICE
• “These oppressive power systems believed to exist and permeate
everything are called things like white supremacy, patriarchy, colonialism,
heteronormativity (assuming that most people are heterosexual),
cisnormativity (assuming that people are men or women depending on
their reproductive systems), ableism, and fatphobia.
Quoted from Counterweight, https://counterweightsupport.com, emphases added

65. CRITICAL SOCIAL JUSTICE
• “[M]ost of us cannot see these oppressive discourses and systems
because they are just the water we swim in.
• “The marginalised have a greater ability to see them and so have a
greater competence to define them and point them out. Knowledge is
thus tied to identity and one’s perceived position in society in relation
to power – often referred to as ‘positionality’.”
Quoted from Counterweight, https://counterweightsupport.com, emphases added

66. CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE

67. CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE
One of the foundational CSJ textbooks, Teaching for Diversity and Social
Justice, is a mainstay in schools of education.
In it, the term “Christian privilege” refers to “the social advantages held by
Christians in the U.S. who experience social and cultural advantages relative
to non-Christians” derived from hegemony [domination, supremacy].
Baucham, 2021

68. CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE
Hence, it [Christian privilege] is rooted in “the assumptions underlying
institutional rules and the collective consequences of following those rules,”
and therefore, “is generally unacknowledged by those who hold it, because
it is maintained through the pervasive but largely invisible culture of
normative religious practices.” [doublespeak?]
Baucham, 2021

69. WHAT IT IS (BAUCHAM)
WOKENESS, CRITICAL RACE THEORY, WHITENESS, AND RACISM

70. WOKENESS
Greg Gutfeld, Fox News. “Wokism is ... the opposite of forgiveness. That’s why
everyone is so disgusted by it. … It’s a 100 percent kind of a political entity like
Marxism or Maoism. It is not a human behavior, it’s a construct that humans
have to be forced into[?]. That’s why nobody likes it, except for academics who
are living in some kind of abstract universe.”

71. ORIGINS
• The phrase, “wide awake”, was used in 1854 by New York City's nativist
paramilitarists.
• Adopted in 1860 among supporters of Abraham Lincoln. The Republican
Party cultivated the Wide Awakes movement primarily to oppose the
spread of slavery.
Adapted from Wikipedia

72. ORIGINS
• “Woke” used in 1938 by Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) near the end of
the recording of his song "Scottsboro Boys.”
• “Woke” meant “well-informed” or “aware,” especially in a political or
cultural sense, in a 1962 New York Times Magazine article titled "If You're
Woke You Dig It" by African-American novelist William Melvin Kelley,
describing the appropriation of African American slang by white beatniks.
Adapted from Wikipedia

73. ORIGINS
• More political connotations of “woke” appeared in 1971 in the play
Garvey Lives! by Barry Beckham as "a call to global Black citizens to
become more socially and politically conscious."
• Relative political dormancy until 2014? Referred mainly to maintaining
wakefulness.
Adapted from Wikipedia

74. ORIGINS
• Following the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, The phrase “stay woke” was
used by activists of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement to urge awareness of
police abuses.
• Romano. 2020: adopted by members of online groups, identifying them as
professing of social consciousness and activism, from which woke evolved into a
"single-word summation of leftist political ideology, centered on social justice
politics and critical race theory.”
Adapted from Wikipedia, emphases added

75. CRITICAL RACE THEORY
A product and subset of Critical Theory, Critical Legal Studies, and Critical Social Justice

76. CRITICAL RACE THEORY DEFINED
“[I]ntellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis
based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded
feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially
constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress
and exploit people of colour.” (Britannica)

77. 1989
Harvard Law professor Derrick Bell and colleagues held a conference in
Wisconsin at which Critical Race Theory was officially born.
Bell’s protege, Kimberlé Crenshaw, introduced the idea of Intersectionality in
her paper “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist
Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist
Politics.” (Intersectionality is discussed, below, in Critical Social Justice)
Source: Voddie Baucham Jr.., Fault Lines:The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism's Looming
Catastrophe (pp. XI-XII). Salem Books, 2021. Kindle Edition.

78. 1989
Peggy McIntosh published an article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the
Invisible Knapsack.”
Harvard professors Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen published their little-
known but monumentally influential book, After the Ball: How AmericaWill
Conquer Its Fear & Hatred of Gays in the 90s.
Baucham, 2021

79. DESIRED EFFECTS OF CRITICAL RACE THEORY
“Simply stated, CRT is nothing more than a derivation of Marxist,
communist ideology wherein a person’s race rather than a person’s class —
i. e., working class versus managerial/owner class [Marx] — is the basis for
struggle and conflict. Rather than unite Americans of all races into a strong,
vibrant nation, CRT strives to divide Americans and keep them divided into
different racial groups in conflict with one another. “
Paul Gardiner, (29 Jun 2021). An Open Letter to America’s Veterans and Veterans Organizations: An urgent call.
FrontpageMag.com.

80. HOWEVER, READ EPHESIANS 2:13-16 (ESV)
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by
the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and
has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of
commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new
man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in
one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”
Christ removed the barriers between Jews and Gentiles, and between all people
and God. “All humanity died with Christ on the cross. (Rm7:4).” (LSB notes;
emphases added)

81. TWO ISSUES WITHIN THE CHURCH
”Ethnic tensions are only a problem for Christians who forget this truth [Eph 2:13-
16] or subordinate it to a competing ideology (whether that be on the left or the
right). When that happens, a fault line appears: those on one side “press the
text” of the Bible, while those on the other see that approach as short-sighted and
insensitive. “
”Those belonging to the social-justice crowd present themselves as the only ones
pursuing justice, to the exclusion of all who disagree with their assessments—who,
by that definition, are pursuing injustice.” Baucham 2021, p. 4

82. THE FAULT LINE
”The current moment is akin to two people standing on either side of a
major fault line just before it shifts. When the shift comes, the ground will
open up, a divide that was once invisible will become visible, and the two
will find themselves on opposite sides of it. That is what is happening in
our day. In some cases, the divide is happening already. Churches are
splitting over this issue.” (Baucham, 2021, p. 5)

83. ANTIRACISM AS A RELIGIOUS CULT
The antiracist movement has many of the hallmarks of a cult: stays close to the
Bible; hides the fact that it has a new theology and a new glossary of terms that
diverge ever-so-slightly from Christian orthodoxy. It has:
“New cosmology (CT/CRT/I); original sin (racism); law (antiracism); gospel (racial
reconciliation); martyrs (Saints Trayvon, Mike, George, Breonna, etc.); priests
(oppressed minorities); means of atonement (reparations); new birth (wokeness);
liturgy (lament); canon (CSJ social science); theologians (DiAngelo, Kendi, Brown,
Crenshaw, MacIntosh, etc.); and catechism (‘say their names’).“
“Antiracism offers no salvation—only perpetual penance in an effort to battle
an incurable disease.” (Baucham 2021,
p. 67)

84. WHITENESS
As defined by “Antiracists” per Baucham, and not as believed by Baucham

85. ON THE FIRST DAY, WHITE PEOPLE CREATED
WHITENESS
”Although many White people feel that being White has no meaning, this feeling is
unique to White people and is a key part of what it means to be White; to see
one’s race as having no meaning is a privilege only Whites are afforded. To claim
to be ‘just human’ and thus outside of race is one of the most most powerful and
pervasive manifestations of Whiteness.
“Whiteness: a set of normative privileges granted to white-skinned individuals and
groups which is “invisible” to those [Whites] privileged by it.”
Baucham, 2021, pp. 69-70

86. ON THE SECOND DAY, WHITE PEOPLE CREATED
WHITE PRIVILEGE.
“I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are
taught not to recognize male privilege. . . . I have come to see white privilege as
an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but
about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible
weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas,
clothes, tools, and blank checks.”
“White Privilege: a series of unearned advantages that accrue to white people by
virtue of their whiteness.”
Baucham, 2021, p. 72

87. ON THE THIRD DAY, WHITE PEOPLE CREATED
WHITE SUPREMACY
“White supremacy is a historically based, institutionally perpetuated system
of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and peoples of color
by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of
maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege.”
“White Supremacy: any belief, behavior, or system that supports,
promotes, or enhances white privilege. “
Baucham, 2021, p. 74

88. ON THE FOURTH DAY, WHITE PEOPLE CREATED
WHITE COMPLICITY
”The white complicity claim maintains that all whites are complicit in systemic racial
injustice; this sometimes takes the form of the mantra ‘all whites are racist.’ When
white complicity takes the latter configuration, it implies not that all whites are
racially prejudiced, but rather that all whites participate in and, often unwittingly,
maintain the racist system of which they are part and from which they benefit.”
“White Complicity: White people, through the practices of whiteness and by
benefiting from white privilege, contribute to the maintenance of systemic racial
injustice.”
Baucham, 2021, p. 76

89. ON THE FIFTH DAY, WHITE PEOPLE CREATED
WHITE EQUILIBRIUM
”White equilibrium is a cocoon of racial comfort, centrality, superiority,
entitlement, racial apathy, and obliviousness, all rooted in an identity of being
good people free of racism. Challenging this cocoon throws off our racial balance.
Because being racially off balance is so rare, we have not had to build the
capacity to sustain the discomfort. Thus, whites find these challenges unbearable
and want them to stop.”
“White Equilibrium: The belief system that allows white people to remain
comfortably ignorant. “
Baucham, 2021, p. 77

90. ON THE SIXTH DAY, WHITE PEOPLE CREATED
WHITE FRAGILITY
”Though white fragility is triggered by discomfort and anxiety, it is born of
superiority and entitlement. White fragility is not weakness per se. In fact, it
is a powerful means of white racial control and the protection of white
advantage.”
“White Fragility: the inability and unwillingness of white people to talk about
race due to the grip that whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege, white
complicity, and white equilibrium exert on them (knowingly or unknowingly).”
Baucham, 2021, pp. 78-79

91. RACISM AND ANTI-RACISM

92. “RACISM” REDEFINED
”There is a serious movement afoot to change the definitions found in English
dictionaries to suit the theology of antiracism. But what is the definition of racism
that CSJ is striving for?” Robin DiAngelo:
• Given the dominant conceptualization of racism as individual acts of cruelty, it
follows that only terrible people who consciously don’t like people of color can
enact racism. Though this conceptualization is misinformed, it is not benign.
In fact, it functions beautifully to make it nearly impossible to engage in the
necessary dialogue and self-reflection that can lead to change.
Baucham, 2021, emphases added

93. RACISM RELOCATED
Latasha Morrison: Racism is “a system of advantage based on race,
involving cultural messages, misuse of power, and institutional bias, in
addition to the racist beliefs and actions of individuals.”
• It is important to note that this redefinition of racism, among other
things, changes the location and therefore the nature of the sin. We are
no longer dealing with the hearts of men; we are addressing
institutions and structures.
Baucham, 2021, emphasis added

94. AN IRONY OF ANTIRACISM
If DiAngelo and Morrison are right and 1) racism is corporate as opposed
to individual, 2) racism is America’s sin, and 3) racism is connected only to
whiteness, then it follows that as a black man, I am not only exempt from
racism, but I am also not an American. At least not in any real sense. I am
an ontological “other” who is a victim of America’s sin, while not
participating in it.
Baucham, 2021

95. ANTIRACIST THEOLOGY
In an antiracist handout for educators, DiAngelo gives the following list to
help participants understand the concept:
• Racism exists today, in both traditional and modern forms.
• All members of this society [the U.S.] have been socialized to participate in
it.
• All white people benefit from racism, regardless of intentions; intentions
are irrelevant.
Baucham, 2021

96. ANTIRACIST THEOLOGY
At the heart of the “woke” movement lies the idea that the sin of racism is
no longer to be understood as an individual sin.
Instead, the term now incorporates the idea of “institutional/structural
racism” and its implications.
Hence, America has sinned, and certain Americans [i.e., white Americans]
have inherited that sin whether they know it or not. [A version of original
sin.]
Baucham, 2021

97. ANTIRACIST APOLOGETICS
If you challenge this “antiracist” definition of racism,
• If you are white, then “That’s your white fragility speaking.”
• If you are a “person of color,” then “That’s your internalized racism.”
• In both instances “You are just trying to ‘shut down the conversation’ about
racial justice,” or “You just haven’t done your homework so you don’t know
any better.”
Baucham, 2021

98. MORE THEOLOGY
“You’ll need to examine your own life and the lives of your ancestors so
you can see whether you’ve participated in, perpetuated, or benefited from
systems of racism,” Morrison writes in Be the Bridge.
Baucham, 2021, pp 87-88

99. MORE THEOLOGY
That’s right: it is not enough for white Christians to examine their hearts and
lives to see whether they stand guilty (which they do); they must also examine
the attitudes and actions of their ancestors—which, according to antiracist
cosmology, includes all white people.
And this is no small thing. In Morrison’s theology, this is a cardinal doctrine.
“That is the power of the unconfessed sin of white supremacy, racism, and
resulting colorism: it leads to death, sometimes physical, sometimes
metaphorical.”
Baucham, 2021, pp 87-88

100. ETHNIC GNOSTICISM

101. ETHNIC GNOSTICISM
“Ethnic Gnosticism” is a term I [Baucham] coined several years ago to explain what I see
as a dangerous and growing phenomenon in the culture that is creeping into the church.
Ethnic Gnosticism, then, is the idea that people have special knowledge based solely on
their ethnicity.
This is a hallmark of both Critical Race Theory and its predecessor, Critical Theory.
Baucham, 2021, pp 91-92
JCM: are these people, then, not “elites”? Would they not be similar to National
Socialist (Nazi) Aryanists?

102. MINORITY GNOSTICISM
It would be more accurate, though, in light of the broader assumptions of
the Critical Social Justice movement to use the term “minority gnosticism”
In fact, it is their “oppressed” status that, according to CSJ, gives these
groups their special knowledge.
Baucham, 2021, p 92

103. MINORITY GNOSTICISM
This is a central tenet of Critical Race Theory. “The voice-of-color thesis,”
writes Richard Delgado, “holds that because of their different histories and
experiences with oppression, black, American Indian, Asian, and Latino
writers and thinkers may be able to communicate to their white
counterparts matters that the whites are unlikely to know.”
Baucham, 2021

104. AN ADVANTAGE GAINED THROUGH
STANDPOINT EPISTEMOLOGY – WHERE I STAND
The debt CRT owes to radical feminism is the towering influence of
standpoint epistemology [philosophical study of knowledge], the hallmark of
Ethnic Gnosticism.
“Each oppressed group,” writes Sandra Harding, “can learn to identify its
distinctive opportunities to turn an oppressive feature of the group’s
conditions into a source of critical insight about how the dominant society
thinks and is structured.”
Baucham, 2021,, p 93

105. AN ADVANTAGE GAINED THROUGH
STANDPOINT EPISTEMOLOGY
Thus, she concludes, “standpoint theories map how a social and political
disadvantage can be turned into an epistemological, scientific, and political
advantage.”
And, CRT would add, a political advantage. Standpoint theory posits that “there
is a cognitive asymmetry between the standpoint of the oppressed and the
standpoint of privileged that gives an advantage to the former over the latter.”
Baucham, 2021, p 93

106. MANIFESTATIONS OF ETHNIC GNOSTICISM
Ethnic Gnosticism has three basic manifestations:
1. It assumes there is a black perspective all black people share (unless they are broken).
Of course, no one will admit this since it is obviously racist. However, this is exactly
what Ethnic Gnosticism advocates.
2. It argues that white people’s only access to this perspective comes from elevating and
heeding black voices.
3. It essentially argues that narrative [black perspective] is an alternative, and ultimately
superior, truth. [as defined in standpoint epistemology]
Baucham, 2021, pp 93-94

107. A PRIESTHOOD
White People Cannot “See” without Black Voices
• Ethnic Gnosticism argues that white people’s only access to the singular
black perspective comes from elevating and listening to black voices.
• This is why I refer to it as “the new priesthood.”
• Of course, this only includes black voices that speak “the singular black
truth” rooted in “the experience of black oppression.”
Baucham, 2021, p 99

108. STORYTELLING
Essentially, CRT uses storytelling as an alternative truth. [a subjective vs. an
objective argument]
As the old legal adage goes, “If the law is on your side, pound the law; if the facts
are on your side, pound the facts; if neither is on your side, pound the table.”
CRT would change the last part of that to “if neither is on your side, 1) assume it
is because of racism, and 2) tell a [‘legal’] story or counterstory.” (next slide)
Baucham, 2021, pp 105-106

109. STORYTELLING
Legal storytelling is “using stories, parables, and first-person accounts to
understand and analyze racial issues,”
Counterstorytelling is “writing that aims to cast doubt on the validity of
accepted premises or myths, especially ones held by the majority.”
Baucham, 2021, p 105

110. WHAT WE MAY DO

111. BE AWARE
“Fifth Column” - a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in
espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders. (Merriam-Webster)
In the 1940s and 1950s, the Fifth Column in the U.S. was the Communist Party.
Now, the Fifth Column in the U.S. includes the insidious, mostly-unrecognized (thus, “secret”)
influences of post-modernism, CRT, and wokeness.
This Fifth Column sabotages the uniting of people through study and understanding of the Bible
and its world-explanation. In turn, this sabotages our adherence to the principles of inalienable
natural rights, rational and industrious man, honesty and respect for laws, and dedication to
family. (Bloom, 1987, p 25, 58)

112. BE ALERT
The question-begging spiral. Take an imaginary discussion about a young
man in trouble with the law who was eventually expelled from school:
• Could his history of drug use be a contributing factor? Not his fault… Racist policies flooded the inner
city with drugs.
• How about his record of poor academic performance and absence from school? No… Inequities created
inferior schools that minorities are unmotivated to attend.
• Could the lack of a father in his home have anything to do with it? No… That is a byproduct of slavery
and an excuse used to blame the victim.
In the end, the answer to everything is racism.
Baucham, 2021, pp 155-156

113. PROBLEM DEFINITION
We are dealing with at least two main problems.
• First, critical theorists (including CRT) seem to have adolescent-like
thinking processes, including strong egocentricity. Their personal truths
have been learned and encouraged throughout their years of
development and education and are strongly entrenched.

114. PROBLEM DEFINITION
We are dealing with at least two main problems.
• Second, critical theorists reject reason and logic as invalid and totalitarian.
Thus, objective analyses, e.g., statistics, have no relevance for them.
Thus, one may be left only with the use of persuasive argument based upon
subjective observations and anecdotes.

115. UNDERSTAND
When the antiracist speaks of “racial injustice,” he is:
1. assuming definitions inherent to CRT,
2. speaking about inequities that he believes can only arise from racism and oppression, and,
therefore,
3. proposing solutions that are designed to re-engineer society in order to erase inequities.
One of the biggest problems with antiracism is the fact that it is law-based. It
condemns based on melanin, and although it constantly uses the words, it holds
out no hope of salvation, restoration, or reconciliation.
Baucham, 2021, p 210, 215

116. MAINTAIN PERSPECTIVE
• Thomas Sowell: “The crucial question is not whether evils exist but whether the evils of
the past or present are automatically the cause of major economic, educational and other
social disparities today.”
• In Sowell’s view, the fundamental problem is the assumption that “disparities are
automatically somebody’s fault, so that our choices are either to blame society or to ‘blame
the victim.’…
• Yet,” he asks, “whose fault are demographic differences, geographic differences, birth order
differences or cultural differences that evolved over the centuries before any of us were
born?”
Baucham, 2021, p 157

117. REMEMBER FORGIVENESS
Who am I to tell a white brother that he cannot be reconciled to me until he has
dredged up all of the racial sins of his and his ancestors’ past and made proper
restitution? Christ has atoned for sin!
Consequently, the most powerful weapon in our arsenal is not calling for
reparations: it is forgiveness.
Antiracism knows nothing of forgiveness because it knows nothing of the Gospel.
Baucham, 2021, p 229

118. APPROACH?
• Imagine holding some beliefs so deeply that it’s very difficult to change your
mind, even when faced with compelling evidence.
• Gain their trust, shown perhaps by them asking questions about your viewpoint.
• Focus on “You can believe what I’m saying” and “You’ll feel good if you accept
my position.”
• Shape the argument to appeal to the critical theorist’s opinions, needs, and
desires.
Extracted from Pearson Education, Inc. (Pearson Longman) (2006). Chapter 5, Writing Argument and Persuasion.

119. APPROACH?
• Demonstrate that your information is trustworthy by reference to authorities.
• Look for examples, anecdotes, and analogies to dramatize your case and make it
emotionally compelling.
• Can you show their position to be erroneous, incomplete, over-simplifying, or
missing the point?
Extracted from Pearson Education, Inc. (Pearson Longman) (2006). Chapter 5, Writing Argument and Persuasion.

120. APPROACH?
• Do we agree that we should value the wellbeing of others just as much as our
own wellbeing? 2nd Table of the law. Greatest Commandment.
• MLK’s admonition to judge people by character vs. color of skin. (iffy)

121. DISCUSSION