In the wake of the police protests that erupted in the Spring of 2020 following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others\u2014possibly the largest protests in American history\u2014the rightwing took aim at the intellectual foundations, ideas, and concepts that underpinned the protest movements. The political struggle entered a new phase: a phase of ideological warfare, or what Gramsci called a \u201cwar of position,\u201d against antiracist thought. In the introductory essay<\/a> to Revolution 6\/13, I describe this new phase of cultural warfare and the target of the attack, Critical Race Theory. In this post, I recount in greater detail how this maneuver unfolded.<\/p>\n As Adam Harris details in an essay in The Atlantic<\/em><\/a> titled \u201cThe GOP\u2019s \u2018Critical Race Theory\u2019 Obsession,\u201d the current attack on Critical Race Theory traces back to an article published by Christopher Rufo of the Manhattan Institute on July 18, 2020.[1]<\/a>Rufo opens his article with the following line: \u201cCritical race theory\u2014the academic discourse centered on the concepts of ‘whiteness,’ ‘white fragility,’ and ‘white privilege’\u2014is spreading rapidly through the federal government.\u201d[2]<\/a> In the piece, Rufo defines \u201cantiracism\u201d as \u201ca concept that, in their [diversity consultants\u2019] vision, does not signify colorblindness but rather an aggressive new racialist ideology.\u201d[3]<\/a> Rufo associates antiracism with \u201cthe toxic principles of critical race theory, race essentialism, and neo-segregationism.\u201d[4]<\/a> And he warns that \u201cthe ultimate vision of critical race theorists\u201d is: \u201cthe creation of a new, radical political consciousness.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n Rufo had been writing a month earlier on cases of what he considered to be excesses in antiracism training. He was receiving an increasing number of what he called \u201cwhistleblower\u201d tips. In his writings, he did not use the term \u201cCritical Race Theory\u201d until that short article on July 18, 2020. But that term, it seems, is what caught people\u2019s attention. In part also, what drew attention was the claim of apparent corruption among some diversity consultants. Rufo documented one, in particular, who had billed the GAO $3 million in consulting fees in 2011.<\/p>\n Following the publication of his article, Rufo was invited on Tucker Carlson\u2019s show on Fox News\u2014not once, but twice. First<\/a>, in mid-August 2020, Rufo revealed his \u201cinvestigative findings\u201d and described \u201cthe danger and destruction that [critical race theory] can wreak.\u201d One week later, on September 2, 2020, Rufo returned<\/a> to discuss the topic of CRT training in the US military. On both occasions, Rufo repeatedly harped on the term \u201cCritical Race Theory.\u201d It\u2019s clear, listening to the interviews, that the real thorn was precisely that term, “CRT.” Carlson refers to it as a poison. In a tweet on August 20, Rufo declared: \u201cMy goal is simple: to persuade the President of the United States to issue an executive order abolishing critical race theory in the federal government.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n Donald Trump had been watching Fox News and the next day, the White House contacted Rufo. Swiftly, Trump ordered the Office of Management and Budget to investigate. As Michelle Goldberg reports:<\/p>\n In September [2020], Donald Trump\u2019s Office of Management and Budget\u00a0ordered<\/a>\u00a0federal agencies to \u201cbegin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on \u2018critical race theory,\u2019\u201d which it described as \u201cun-American propaganda.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n That same month, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting the kind of antiracism training that Rufo had described. Rufo\u2019s fingerprints are all over the executive order. On page 2, the order lists Rufo\u2019s \u201cfindings\u201d and examples.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s order did not mention the term \u201ccritical race theory.\u201d But Trump certainly did, on many occasions. \u201cCritical race theory is being forced into our children\u2019s schools, it\u2019s being imposed into workplace trainings, and it\u2019s being deployed to rip apart friends, neighbors, and families,\u201d Trump said. \u201cTeaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse in the truest sense of those words.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n In terms of how the offensive ideology was described \u2013 other than \u201cpernicious,\u201d \u201cfalse,\u201d \u201cdestructive,\u201d and \u201cmalign\u201d\u2014the order defines it as any \u201cdivisive\u201d thought that includes, for example, the claim that:<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s order defines \u201cdivisive concepts\u201d and gives illustrations including the belief that:<\/p>\n In effect, after Rufo goes on the Tucker Carlson show to talk about CRT, Trump signs an executive order that effectively tries to eradicate practices and discourse that take a critical position on race relations in America.<\/p>\n What makes the term Critical Race Theory such a powerful tool for the Right is that it contains both the term \u201ccritical theory\u201d and \u201crace\u201d\u2014so it unites both the threat of race war and class struggle. It conjoins, in one convenient package, the specter of race and Marxism.<\/p>\n Ellie Krasne, former manager of public programs at the Heritage Foundation\u2014one of the most vocal conservative think tanks\u2014draws the connection to Marxism in her description of the Rufo interviews on Fox News. Krasne writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n Critical race theory is a theoretical framework, rooted in Marxism, that posits individuals as oppressed or oppressor based on their skin color.<\/p>\n Beginning in the 1960s, higher education became permeated with critical theory. Critical theory, also rooted in Marxism, says that we must understand our beliefs\u2014including on religion and politics\u2014vis-a-vis the \u201cmeans of production\u201d; namely, businesses and industries. In this view, it\u2019s in the business owners\u2019 interest to create laws, social norms, and ideas that keep them in power.<\/p>\n Later on, this concept was applied to race, gender, and other identities. Critical race theorists see these identities as social constructs that support systems of oppression.[8.5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rufo also accentuates the Marxist threat in his accounts. \u201cTo explain critical race theory, it helps to begin with a brief history of Marxism,\u201d he begins.[9]<\/a> The goal of CRT, Rufo emphasizes, is \u201cthe overthrow of capitalism, since, according to [Ibram X.] Kendi, \u2018In order to truly be antiracist, you also have to truly be anti-capitalist.\u2019 In other words, identity is the means; Marxism is the end.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n So, for Rufo, the Manhattan Institute, the Heritage Foundation, etc., a leading dimension of CRT\u2019s evil nature is its anti-capitalism. This reflects the revolutionary nature of CRT, Rufo explains. \u201cHistorically, the accusation of \u201canti-Americanism\u201d has been overused,\u201d Rufo writes. \u201cBut in this case, it\u2019s not a matter of interpretation: critical race theory prescribes a revolutionary program that would overturn the principles of the Declaration and destroy the remaining structure of the Constitution.\u201d[11]<\/a><\/p>\n On January 20, 2021, the day of his inauguration, Joe Biden voided Trump\u2019s Executive Order; but following that, state legislatures have introduced legislation that would ban the teaching of critical race theory and limit antiracism training.[12]<\/a><\/p>\n Biden\u2019s executive order<\/a>, which he signed on the very day of his inauguration, not only revoked Trump\u2019s order, it also takes position in the controversy. It affirms certain positions that were the Right\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n \u201cEquity\u201d is an important term in these debates\u2014and one of the targets of the Right, which constantly criticizes the Left for speaking about \u201cequity\u201d rather than \u201cequality.\u201d Equality is the constitutional requirement, they argue; \u201cequity\u201d instead is a loose term that allows for inequality. The editors of The American Mind<\/em> emphasize, in their salvo against CRT:<\/p>\n A system based on \u201cequity\u201d, in which equity means rejecting equality under the law and distributing goods and services on the basis of race alone is neither equitable nor just.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rufo explains that \u201cequity\u201d is a euphemism for critical race theory. Critical theorists, Rufo argues, deploy \u201ca series of euphemisms to describe critical race theory, including \u2018equity,\u2019 \u2018social justice,\u2019 \u2018diversity and inclusion,\u2019 and \u2018culturally responsive teaching.\u2019\u201d[13]<\/a> Rufo goes on:<\/p>\n Critical race theorists, masters of language construction, realize that \u201cneo-Marxism\u201d would be a hard sell. Equity, on the other hand, sounds non-threatening and is easily confused with the American principle of equality. But the distinction is vast and important. Indeed, critical race theorists explicitly reject equality\u2014the principle proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, defended in the Civil War, and codified into law with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. To them, equality represents \u201cmere nondiscrimination\u201d and provides \u201ccamouflage\u201d for white supremacy, patriarchy, and oppression.<\/p>\n In contrast to equality, equity as defined and promoted by critical race theorists is little more than reformulated Marxism.[14]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Biden\u2019s order takes this on, going so far as to define equity in the first paragraph of the definitions. The order reads<\/a> in Section 2:<\/p>\n (a)\u00a0 The term \u201cequity\u201d means the consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Biden\u2019s actions seem to have emboldened the Right. Republicans have recently introduced over a dozen bills in state legislatures and in the U.S. House of Representatives seeking to ban antiracism training in employment or educational settings. In New Hampshire, the proposed legislation targets \u201cdivisive concepts,\u201d \u201crace or sex scapegoating,\u201d or the idea that the country or state is \u201cfundamentally racist.\u201d[15]<\/a> In Arkansas, it forbids training programs that encourage \u201cdivision between, resentment of, or social justice for\u201d marginalized groups.[16]<\/a> Idaho and Louisiana have introduced similar types of legislation. A series of bills are passing through other state legislatures.[17]<\/a><\/p>\n Simultaneously, in April and May 2021\u2014especially for some reason around April 21-22, 2021\u2014there was a real crescendo of conservative vitriol aimed at CRT.[18]<\/a> Rufo is calling for truth-telling and, through his new organization, legal warfare:<\/p>\n Above all, we must have courage, the fundamental virtue required in our time: courage to stand and speak the truth, courage to withstand epithets, courage to face the mob, and courage to shrug off the scorn of elites. When enough of us overcome the fear that currently prevents so many from speaking out, the hold of critical race theory will begin to slip. And courage begets courage. It\u2019s easy to stop a lone dissenter; it\u2019s much harder to stop 10, 20, 100, 1,000, 1 million, or more who stand up together for the principles of America. Truth and justice are on our side. If we can muster the courage, we will win.[19]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rufo now spearheads the Stop Critical Race Theory<\/a> project. The objective is \u201cfighting against critical race theory through investigative reporting, grassroots organizing, and legal warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the assault on Critical Race Theory has gone global in a kind of contagious moral panic. The French counterpart to Rufo is Pierre Andr\u00e9 Taguieff, who gave a three-part interview<\/a> with Marianne<\/em> in which he targets not just \u201cIslamo-gauchisme\u201d\u2014a term he coined for a made-up pro-Jihad leftism\u2014but also that American import, \u201cCritical Race Theory.\u201d And if in the U.S. there are state legislative efforts to ban CRT from governmental training programs and public education, in France, the Minister of Higher Education has initiated a probe into \u201cIslamo-gauchiste\u201d influences on research conducted in institutes of higher education.[20]<\/a><\/p>\n The attack on \u201cIslamo-gauchisme\u201d in France is directly linked to a criticism of U.S. critical theory on race. It\u2019s race-consciousness that is the problem\u2014a form of race acknowledgement and perceived separatism that threatens the republican values of the Fifth Republic. Norimitsu Onishi, in the New York Times<\/a><\/em>, traces the assault on U.S. ideas in an important piece published February 9, 2021. He asks: \u201cWill American Ideas Tear France Apart?\u201d and, rightly, answers: \u201cSome of Its Leaders Think So.\u201d[21]<\/a><\/p>\n In England as well there is a swell against CRT. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times<\/em> reports that in October 2020<\/p>\n the conservative government in Britain declared some uses of critical race theory in education illegal. \u201cWe do not want teachers to teach their white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt,\u201d\u00a0said the Tory equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch<\/a>. \u201cAny school which teaches these elements of critical race theory, or which promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law.\u201d[22]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are, abroad, similar semantic slips<\/a> as in the United States. In France, for instance, \u201cIslamo-gauchisme\u201d and CRT are elided so that, as an AOC<\/em><\/a> article explains, they can both encompass everything that the opponents would like to undermine. CRT, it is argued, is itself racist itself, anti-capitalist, dangerously Marxist, anti-democratic, anti-liberal, and fundamentally divisive; \u201cIslamo-gauchisme\u201d is likewise associated with all sorts of dangerous anti-capitalist politics and, worse, terrorism.<\/p>\n While the trends in the U.S. and France are fueled by similar sentiments and desires\u2014the wish to quell discussion around racial injustice\u2014there are some important differences between the two. First, while the French backlash is primarily against leftist postcolonial and race studies scholarship within the French academy, part of the backlash is against what they see as the infiltration of American scholarship into the French academy. Second, because of the secular (\u201cla\u00efcit\u00e9<\/em>\u201d) and \u201crace-blind\u201d ideals associated with French republicanism, the conversation encompasses both religion and race in France, whereas in the U.S., it is primarily around questions of race. Third, while CRT is a real category of academic study (although it has both been vastly broadened since its inception and is widely misunderstood by the Right), \u201cIslamo-gauchisme\u201d is a made-up label with no genuine affiliation. Fourth, the controversy in the U.S. is about CRT in both schools and public institutions, whereas in France, it concerns primarily more rarefied discourse in higher education. But the parallels nevertheless remain striking.<\/p>\n Let me emphasize a few final points\u2014three in particular. First, the turn to ideological warfare is by no means new. As I discuss in earlier writings, words and language\u2014and more broadly, cultural warfare\u2014have mattered to the Right for years now.[23]<\/a> In fact, many of the key New Right texts, especially from the European New Right, consist, at their core, of dictionaries<\/em> that redefine, recast, and infuse with political meaning ordinary language terms.[24]<\/a><\/p>\n Second, there were attacks on CRT before the Summer 2020 protests and the failed coup at the Capitol. Decades before, when President Bill Clinton nominated Lani Guiner to head the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ, her nomination was shot down in part because she was viewed as having championed critical race theory.[25]<\/a> Fox News also attacked President Obama for allegedly consorting with Derrick Bell, a founder of critical race theory, already in 2012; and mentioned Critical Race Theory once in 2014 and twice in 2019.[26]<\/a> But the real crescendo began right after the 2020 protests erupted in Spring 2020 and has continued to grow. \u201cSince June 5, 2020, the phrase has been invoked during 150 broadcasts\u201d on Fox News\u2014as of early May 2021.[27]<\/a><\/p>\n Third, it is not only the Right that has attacked Critical Race Theory and race consciousness. In some cases, liberals have also taken part. Rufo actually advocates for a coalition of \u201cconservatives and non-woke liberals.\u201d In a \u201csalvo\u201d published on April 21, 2021, titled \u201cStanding Against Critical Race Theory\u201d in The American Mind<\/em>, Rufo in fact subtitles his manifesto: \u201cConservatives and non-woke liberals must draw a line in the sand against racialized indoctrination.\u201d[28]<\/a> The ideological warfare, then, is not just from the Right\u2014progressives and centrists as well take positions. It may be fair to say: the Right leads the ideological struggles, but it enlists the middle and even some progressive through a scare tactic. They deploy a fear technique: the centrists start to believe that they need to be careful and avert any danger of backlash. It\u2019s a bit like when former President Barack Obama says that the \u201cdefund\u201d campaign is too radical and counterproductive because it scares people away: \u201cYou lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you\u2019re actually going to get the changes you want done,\u201d Obama said on a political talk show.[29]<\/a> Many progressives agree with this sentiment and fear that blatantly antiracist or abolitionist talk will backfire and push the country away from the Democratic party. A good example is the attack on the 1619 Project by liberal historians\u2014including Victoria Bynum, James McPherson, James Oakes, Sean Wilentz, and Gordon Wood\u2014published in the December 29, 2019 issue of The New York Times Magazine<\/em>. (For an excellent rebuttal to that letter, see Jake Silverstein\u2019s article in the New York Times Magazine<\/em><\/a> of Nov. 9, 2021).[30]<\/a><\/p>\n In the end, neither the culture wars nor the race wars are themselves new. But what is new is that, with the 2020 protest movements, the attack on CRT has become a fulcrum of the American Counterrevolution<\/a>. The main battle front right now is words, language, ideas. And the efforts to ban what is being called \u201crace and sex stereotyping\u201d or \u201cdivisive concepts\u201d are overtaking state legislatures and school boards around the U.S.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Critical Race Theory has been completely distorted in the public imagination. To get a better sense of Critical Race Theory, it is best to go back to some of the original texts and syntheses. Here is a very short sample of some important texts to read:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Adam Harris, \u201cThe GOP\u2019s \u2018Critical Race Theory\u2019 Obsession: How Conservative Politicians and Pundits Became Fixated on an Academic Approach,\u201d The Atlantic<\/em>, May 7, 2021.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Christopher F. Rufo, \u201c\u2019White Fragility\u2019 Comes to Washington: Profiteering Race Theorists Expand Their Footprint in the Federal Bureaucracy,\u201d City Journal<\/em>, July 18, 2020, available at https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/white-fragility-comes-to-washington<\/a>.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Rufo, \u201c\u2019White Fragility\u2019 Comes to Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Rufo, \u201c\u2019White Fragility\u2019 Comes to Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Rufo, \u201c\u2019White Fragility\u2019 Comes to Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Fabiola Cineas, \u201cCritical Race Theory, and Trump\u2019s War on It, Explained,\u201d Vox, <\/em>Sept. 24, 2020, available here: https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/9\/24\/21451220\/critical-race-theory-diversity-training-trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Michelle Goldberg, \u201cThe Campaign to Cancel Wokeness,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, February 26, 2021, https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/26\/opinion\/speech-racism-academia.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Cineas, \u201cCritical Race Theory, and Trump\u2019s war on it, explained.\u201d<\/p>\n [8.5]<\/a>\u00a0Ellie Krasne, “How Leftists’ Critical Race Theory Poisons Our Discussion of Racism,” The Heritage Foundation,\u00a0<\/em>June 29, 2020, https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/civil-society\/commentary\/how-leftists-critical-race-theory-poisons-our-discussion-racism<\/a>.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Rufo, \u201cThe Courage of Our Convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> Rufo, \u201cThe Courage of Our Convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Rufo, \u201cThe Courage of Our Convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n [12]<\/a> Cineas, \u201cCritical race theory, and Trump\u2019s war on it, explained\u201d; David Theo Goldberg, \u201cThe War on Critical Race Theory,\u201d Boston Review<\/em>, May 7, 2021, https:\/\/bostonreview.net\/race-politics\/david-theo-goldberg-war-critical-race-theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n [13]<\/a> Rufo, \u201cThe Courage of Our Convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n [14]<\/a> Rufo, \u201cThe Courage of Our Convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n [15]<\/a> Harris, \u201cThe GOP\u2019s \u2018Critical Race Theory\u2019 Obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n [16]<\/a> Harris, \u201cThe GOP\u2019s \u2018Critical Race Theory\u2019 Obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n [17]<\/a> Emerson Sykes and Sarah Hinger, \u201cState Lawmakers Are Trying to Ban Talk About Race in Schools,\u201d ACLU<\/em>, May 14, 2021, https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/state-lawmakers-are-trying-to-ban-talk-about-race-in-schools\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n [18]<\/a> The Editors, \u201cA Statement Regarding \u2018Critical Race Theory,\u201d American Mind<\/em>, April 21, 2021, https:\/\/americanmind.org\/salvo\/a-statement-regarding-critical-race-theory\/<\/a>; Christopher Rufo, \u201cConservatives and non-woke liberals must draw a line in the sand against racialized indoctrination,\u201d American Mind<\/em>, April 21, 2021, https:\/\/americanmind.org\/salvo\/standing-against-critical-race-theory\/<\/a>; Jonathan Butcher and Mike Gonzalez, \u201cKeep Racist Critical Race Theory Ideology Out of K-12 Classrooms,\u201d The Heritage Foundation<\/em>, April 22, 2021, https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/education\/commentary\/keep-racist-critical-race-theory-ideology-out-k-12-classrooms<\/a>; Mike Gonzalez and Jonathan Butcher, \u201cPurging Whiteness To Purge Capitalism,\u201d Heritage Foundation<\/em>, May 5, 2021, https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/progressivism\/commentary\/purging-whiteness-purge-capitalism<\/a>; Ellie Krasne, \u201cHow Leftists\u2019 Critical Race Theory Poisons Our Discussion of Racism,\u201d The Heritage Foundation<\/em>, June 29, 2020, https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/civil-society\/commentary\/how-leftists-critical-race-theory-poisons-our-discussion-racism<\/a>.<\/p>\n [19]<\/a> Rufo, \u201cThe Courage of Our Convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n [20]<\/a> On \u201cIslamo-gauchisme,\u201d see Sonya Faure et Frantz Durupt, \u201cIslamo-gauchisme, aux origins d\u2019une expression m\u00e9diatique,\u201d Lib\u00e9ration<\/em>, April 14, 2016, https:\/\/www.liberation.fr\/debats\/2016\/04\/14\/islamo-gauchisme-aux-origines-d-une-expression-mediatique_1445857\/<\/a>; See also Corinne Torrekens, \u201cIslamo-gauchisme, histoire d\u2019un glissement s\u00e9mantique,\u201d AOC<\/em>, February 22, 2021, https:\/\/aoc.media\/analyse\/2021\/02\/21\/islamo-gauchisme-histoire-dun-glissement-semantique\/?loggedin=true<\/a>.<\/p>\n [21]<\/a> Norimitsu Onishi, \u201cWill American Ideas Tear France Apart? Some of Its Leaders Think So,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, February 9, 2021, https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/09\/world\/europe\/france-threat-american-universities.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n [22]<\/a> Goldberg, \u201cThe Campaign to Cancel Wokeness.\u201d<\/p>\n [23]<\/a> See generally<\/em> \u201cCritique & the Alt-Right,\u201d available here https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/4-13\/<\/a>; read introduction here: https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/bernard-e-harcourt-introduction-to-critique-the-alt-right\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n [24]<\/a> They consist principally of what the New Right ideologues refer to as \u201cMetapolitical Dictionaries.\u201d Guillaume Faye\u2019s Why We Fight:<\/em> Manifesto of the European Resistance<\/em> (Arktos, 2001), a key text of the European New Right, is essentially an alphabetized glossary \u2013 from pages 72 to 262, practically 200 pages of the 271-page book is definitional. Daniel Friberg too has a lengthy metapolitical dictionary in his The Real Right Returns: A Handbook for the True Opposition<\/em> (2015), a key text of the Swedish New Right.<\/em><\/p>\n [25]<\/a> Harris, \u201cThe GOP\u2019s \u2018Critical Race Theory\u2019 Obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n [26]<\/a> Harris, \u201cThe GOP\u2019s \u2018Critical Race Theory\u2019 Obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n [27]<\/a> Harris, \u201cThe GOP\u2019s \u2018Critical Race Theory\u2019 Obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n [28]<\/a> Christopher Rufo, \u201cStanding Against Critical Race Theory,\u201d The American Mind<\/em>, April 21, 2021.<\/p>\n [29]<\/a> See <\/em>Sara Fischer, \u201cObama: Broad Slogans Like \u2018Defund the Police\u2019 Lose People,\u201d Axios<\/em>, Dec. 1, 2020, https:\/\/www.axios.com\/obama-slogan-defund-police-snapchat-interview-b8cddece-d76b-4243-948f-5dfccb2a3ec1.html<\/a>; for an analysis of who agreed and disagreed with President Obama, see<\/em> Rachel Ramirez, \u201cObama Said \u2018Defund the Police\u2019 Is A Bad Slogan. This Shouldn\u2019t Come As A Surprise,\u201d Vox<\/em>, Dec. 3, 2020, https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/12\/3\/22150452\/obama-defund-the-police-snappy-slogan<\/a>.<\/p>\n [30]<\/a> The most damning passage in that article<\/a> is the reference to Gordon Wood\u2019s book review of Alan Taylor\u2019s 2016 book, \u201cAmerican Revolutions,\u201d in which Wood does not substantively object to an interpretation shared with the 1619 project, but asks pregnantly: \u201cThe question raised by Taylor\u2019s book is this: Can a revolution conceived mainly as sordid, racist and divisive be the inspiration for a nation?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Bernard E. Harcourt In the wake of the police protests that erupted in the Spring of 2020 following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others\u2014possibly the largest protests in American history\u2014the rightwing took aim at… Continue Reading How Critical Race Theory Became the Boogeyman<\/h1>\n
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Critical Race Theory and Marxism<\/h1>\n
Subsequent Developments: President Joe Biden<\/h1>\n
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The New Battlefield: State Legislatures<\/h1>\n
Global Tendencies<\/h1>\n
A Few More Points<\/h1>\n
Conclusion<\/h1>\n
APPENDIX:<\/h1>\n
Readings on Critical Race Theory<\/h1>\n
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Notes<\/h1>\n