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Critical Race Theory:

The Key Writings That Formed the Movement

Edited by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller and Kendall Thomas

"In the past few years, a new generation of progressive intellectuals has dramatically transformed how law, race, and racial power are understood and discussed in America. Questioning the old assumptions of both liberals and conservatives with respect to the goals and the means of traditional civil rights reform, critical race theorists have presented new paradigms for understanding racial injustice and new ways of seeing the links between race, gender, sexual orientation, and class. This reader, edited by the principal founders and leading theoreticians of the critical race theory movement, gathers together for the first time the movement's most important essays." - HELM

Why was this book challenged?

Banned book element tile

Reasons: Racial Content

Critical Race Theory is a scholarly research term credited to and created by Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, a Distinguished Professor of Law at Columbia Law University and UCLA.
“Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society — from education and housing to employment and healthcare. Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. It is embedded in laws, policies and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities. According to CRT, societal issues like Black Americans’ higher mortality rate, outsized exposure to police violence, the school-to-prison pipeline, denial of affordable housing, and the rates of the death of Black women in childbirth are not unrelated anomalies." (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Legal Defense Fund).
“Critical Race Theory" has been incorrectly co-opted as a term by opponents who seek to silence discussions of diversity and inclusion in classrooms. Learn more about how a conservative activist invented the current conflict over Critical Race Theory in the U.S.
Critical Race Theory (the book) has been targeted by opponents for censorship, according to the banned books database maintained by Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson.
Kimberlé Crenshaw was interviewed by Vanity Fair in 2021 about how she has dealt with attacks by right wing politicians against her scholarship.
Watch this video below with Crenshaw where she explains what the term Critical Race Theory actually means:

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Additional Resources and Accessibility

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