The critical race quantum computer draws from the literature on critical race theory and the work of anti-racism. The critical race theory (CRT) movement is “a collection of activists and scholars engaged in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power” (Collins 2002, Crenshaw 1989, Davis 2011, Delgado et. al 2017). CRT draws from critical legal theory, radical feminism and was originally taught as an approach to legal practice to support future lawyers in their abilities to challenge the neutrality of constitutional and other forms of law (Delgado et. al, 2017).

Although more tenets of critical race theory have been added to the CRT canon, the following six features are considered fundamental to CRT (Crenshaw, 1989; Delgado et. al, 2017):

1) ordinariness, which refers to the everyday, everywhere nature of racism that makes the work of anti-racism more challenging

2) interest convergence, or the notion that change away from racist policies and practices only occurs when it favors the dominant group

3) race as a social construction, or the recognition that race and racism are not rooted in biology but are created by society as a way to benefit and uphold white supremacy

4) the different ways in which different racial groups are racialized by the dominant group, which can be seen in the ways Jewish and Italian people, once considered non-white, have since been moved into the racial category of white to bolster the white populace

5) intersectionality, or the notion that no one can be only categorized by their race, we are also gendered, sexualized, ableized, and more

6) the “unique voice of color,” or the idea that people of color are capable of communicating the uniqueness of their experiences to white people and can share stories of what it means to exist in their own unique ways to broader society