The Patriot Post® · In Brief: Critical Race Theory Is Repackaged Marxism
Political analyst Liz Wheeler explains how CRT infiltrated American society. First, the history:
Critical race theory isn’t a theory at all. Nor is it a “perspective” of teaching history. It is racism and bigotry, and not only that — it’s an attempt to revive a failed Marxist agenda.
Critical race theory is an offshoot of critical theory, the brainchild of the Frankfurt School, a group of 20th-century Marxists associated with the Institute for Social Research. …
In 1937, Max Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School wrote a manifesto about “critical theory,” in which he claimed that when examining society, people cannot reason objectively. In classic Marxist fashion, critical theory divides everyone in society into classes of oppressed and oppressors, but posits that the so-called oppressed stand in the way of revolution when they adhere to the societal belief systems and cultural norms of their so-called oppressors. Therefore, the cultural institutions that stand in the way of the Marxist revolution must be destroyed through relentless criticism (hence the name: critical theory).
Then the implementation. The Marxists thought that their ideology was failing in the West because Western workers still couldn’t really let go of “institutions of the ruling class like the family, religion and country.” Real re-education was needed, as was a new oppressed class.
When Horkheimer and his fellow Marxists fled Germany to escape the Nazis, they found refuge at Columbia University. Horkheimer returned to Germany after the world defeated the Nazis, but left behind his associate, Herbert Marcuse. It was Marcuse who helped morph critical theory into critical race theory in the United States, by identifying a new “worker” for the revolution who could be re-educated to overthrow societal norms: racial minorities.
In the words of Marcuse, “Underneath the conservative popular base is the substratum of the outcasts and outsiders, the exploited and persecuted of other races and other colors.” According to Marcuse, “their opposition is revolutionary even if their consciousness is not.”
Since a worker-led revolution wasn’t happening, they needed another “oppressed” class to serve their purpose. That purpose was to tear down Western institutions that stood in the way of revolt and stage a Marxist revolution. Using racial minorities as their new vanguard would be brilliant. Who better to re-educate than a demographic of people whose ancestors had suffered oppression in America based on their skin color? Who better to paint as victims of a belief system of the “oppressors” and to claim the only way to liberation was to demolish the institutions of the oppressors?
In other words, the designers and adherents of critical theory admitted their true intent. Not equality under the law. Not civil rights. Not freedom, liberty and justice for all. Not a better life for racial minorities. Critical theorists admit their intent is to use racial minorities as the vanguard for a Marxist revolution.
Now, Wheeler says, CRT is “creeping into every aspect of American life.” Unless and until the American people truly understand this ideology for what it is, we will continue to suffer because of it. She concludes, “It’s a tool with a dangerously clear purpose: to impose simple, unadulterated Marxism in the United States of America. We must overwhelmingly reject it in its entirety on the basis of what it really is.”