Social Justice Usage
Source: King, M. (2021, July 7). Could a School-Board Fight Over Critical Race Theory Help Turn Virginia Red? Retrieved July 9, 2021 from https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/07/07/could-a-school-board-fight-over-critical-race-theory-help-turn-virginia-red-498453
The politics of this one school district have big implications for political control of Virginia. And Republicans hope to leverage this issue to wrest away Democrats’ control of all three branches of state government. Last week, GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin even held a campaign rally in front of the Loudoun County school board building to decry critical race theory—even as the school board repeatedly denies teaching it. (Nor is it taught in school districts around the country where conservatives are attempting to ban it.)
Yet commonwealth Democrats have largely dismissed their efforts. In an early June press gaggle, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe dismissed the conservative uproar over critical race theory as a “right-wing conspiracy.”
New Discourses Commentary
Generally speaking, a “conspiracy theory” is an explanation for a phenomenon that attributes the cause of that phenomenon to a conspiracy of powerful (usually political) operatives with malevolent intentions when other explanations are more likely. In the Theory of Critical Social Justice, “conspiracy theory” is generally used in this way but applied to essentially anything that might discredit it, its operation, or its intellectual and activist precursors. The objective in calling or linking anything opposing Critical Social Justice a “conspiracy theory” is to discredit all opposition by making it look like something only a crazy, unrealistic person could believe. In turn, advocates of Critical Social Justice aim to make their position and worldview appear to be the only sane explanation for phenomena in the world.
For example, the Wikipedia entry for “Cultural Marxism” was entirely replaced with an entry titled “Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory” to hide the fact that Cultural Marxism really was an attempt by an organized political think tank (the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School of Critical Theory) to undermine Western civilization and liberal democratic republics in favor of something like communism (see also, socialism, liberationism, and equity). Obviously, having people understand Cultural Marxism (i.e., Gramscian thought), neo-Marxism, or Critical Theory as central to the academic, intellectual, and activist roots of Critical Social Justice (i.e., “Woke”) ideology would be damaging to its attempt to insinuate itself into Western society, which is generally resistant to Marxism specifically and other strains of Marxian thought more generally.
Another example is that all public opposition to Critical Race Theory is (at the time of this writing) being framed as a conspiracy theory maintained by conservatives who allegedly do not want the teaching of “honest history” (see also, revisionism), preferring a “whitewashed” version that doesn’t incorporate Critical Race Theory (which, paradoxically, the same people say isn’t being taught in schools anyway). The claim is that, although Critical Race Theory (and other Critical Pedagogy) are claimed to be necessary elements in our schools, it is a conspiracy theory by conservatives that they’re being pushed into the schools to advance the neo-Marxist agenda they explicitly embrace (see, for example, Alison Bailey on this, p. 6). The objective of this blatantly dishonest rhetorical maneuver (see also, pseudo-reality) is to discredit opposition to Critical Race Theory and Critical Pedagogy in the schools by making it into the sort of stuff only kooks and cranks could believe. A significant media push even emerged alleging that such pushback against Critical Race Theory is part of the “Q-Anon” conspiracy theory, which is grotesquely misrepresentative of reality.
Interestingly, Critical Theory itself in general—and particularly Critical Race Theory—is a conspiracy theory, according to the generally accepted definition. According to Critical Theory, the powerful interests in society effectively brainwash the entire population into accepting their own misery and servitude without even realizing it (see also, false consciousness, internalized domination, and internalized oppression). In Woke Critical Theory (the Theory of Critical Social Justice, or critical constructivism, or applied postmodernism), which has adopted certain elements of postmodern social constructivism, this conspiracy theory is deepened by their beliefs in the relationship between language, knowledge, and power and by postmodern theories of power, such that now people are, without their realization, socialized into accepting the status quo by the very machinations of society itself in all of its operations (“the system”) and they seek to maintain a kind of willful ignorance of this fact so that the existing order might be maintained. This is set by and for those who enjoy privilege in the systemic power dynamics that are said to order society (see also, superstructure). In this situation, all power dynamics in society work like a giant conspiracy theory in which everyone is a conspirator, usually unwittingly, unless they have been awakened to a critical consciousness (i.e., become a Critical Theorist).
In Critical Race Theory, this is taken even further, particularly through three beliefs, two of which are core to the Theory and a third which is adopted from the so-called “Critical Philosophy of Race” (which Critical Race Theory purists insist has little or nothing to do with Critical Race Theory). The first of these is the belief that racism is the ordinary state of affairs in society, i.e., that systemic racism is the fundamental organizing principle of society and that everyone is effectively socialized into maintaining and reproducing this racial order until they awaken to a racial critical consciousness. Indeed, whiteness, under this doctrine, is posited to contain anti-Blackness as a key element.
The second is Derrick Bell’s “Interest-Convergence Thesis,” which is often treated as a core assumption and tenet of Critical Race Theory by almost all proponents. This doctrine insists that white people (as the racially privileged group) only take action to expand opportunities for people of color, especially blacks (see also, BIPOC), when it is in their own self-interest to do so, and in which case the result is usually the further entrenchment of racism that is harder to detect and fight. Under interest convergence, every action taken that might ameliorate or lessen racism (see also, antiracism) not only maintains racism, but does so because it was organized in the interests of white people who sought to maintain their power, privilege, and advantage through the intervention. According to Bell, this gives racism “permanence,” and according to Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, “Because racism advances the interests of both white elites (materially) and working-class people (psychically), large segments of society have little incentive to eradicate it” (Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, p. 7).
The third is Charles Mills’s idea of the racial contract (The Racial Contract, 1997), which describes the socialization of white people by other white people in an allegedly “white supremacist” society into upholding their own privilege and advantage, even though none of them ever openly speak about this racist social contract. The whiteness studies educator Barbara Applebaum elaborates upon this idea with her book-length treatment of “white complicity” in Being White, Being Good (2010), wherein she explains that by virtue of being white, white people gain benefits (privilege) that they cannot renounce and, unless critically conscious of this, are therefore complicit in the creation and maintenance of “white supremacy.” All of these features of Critical Race Theory are blatantly an explanation for a phenomenon (disparate racial outcomes on average) that attributes the cause of that phenomenon to a conspiracy of powerful (usually political) operatives with malevolent intentions when other explanations are more likely, i.e., a conspiracy theory.
Indeed, Critical whiteness studies (itself usually included as a subdivision of Critical Race Theory, except when it is inconvenient to the Critical Race Theory narrative to admit it) features a wide array of blatantly conspiratorial (and racist) concepts surrounding whiteness. For example, part of white privilege is said to be the “white ignorance” of race and thus of one’s own whiteness and white privilege (see also, white innocence, white silence, and white solidarity). This confers “white comfort,” which white people instinctively act to preserve and maintain, alongside the state of stability in power that it confers to them, called “white equilibrium.” All of this occurs behind a wall of intentional ignorance (see also, willful ignorance, active ignorance, and pernicious ignorance). Even disagreement and emotional reactions, such as being upset and crying when (usually falsely) accused of (complicity in) racism is taken to be a political power play within this scope of this wide-ranging conspiracy theory (see also, white fragility, white rage, and white women’s tears). This complicity is extended to “brown” races as well under doctrines like brown complicity (in white supremacy) and brown fragility, which are believed to be part of a vast anti-Black conspiracy that pervades all of society. Proximity to “whiteness” (white adjacency) within “brown” people is ascribed to the success of some people of color (usually Asians and Jews—see also, model minority), as meritocracy and individualism are explicitly condemned as false and part of the conspiracy used to hold other races down, and black subscription to the allegedly “white” culture is named race treason or acting white (which is believed to be foisted upon them by white people and the anti-Black conspiracy whiteness creates in society).
The list of these concepts runs quite long and even includes ideas like that language and knowledge itself have been arranged in the service of maintaining a culture of white supremacy (see also, racial knowledge, linguistic justice, epistemic injustice, epistemic oppression, and epistemic violence). These are explicitly billed as components of the “master’s tools” that the racially privileged use to exclude other races from power and opportunity. Even subjects like mathematics and science are arranged as “white mathematics” (contra ethnomathematics and mathematx) and “white empiricism.” Of course, the more likely explanation is that different cultures produce different results, especially when there is a conflict of cultural contexts, but admitting this would deny the radical cultural relativism at the heart of much of the Critical Social Justice project.
Other branches of Theory, not just Critical Race Theory, are functionally possessed by conspiracy theories as well. For example, fat studies generally regards fatphobia—the systemic rejection of fat—in a conspiratorial way, believing that society is ordered around the thin and average-sized because it undervalues or even hopes to exclude or eradicate overweight people intentionally. It also sees a focus on health as intentionally anti-fat, referring to it as a problematic ideology known as “healthism,” and it accuses medical science of “medicalizing” obesity rather than embracing a body-positive “health at every size” frame, all as an intentional means of marginalizing overweight people (even calling them “overweight” is part of a “thinnormative” conspiracy that they believe values some weights over others). Disability studies views things similarly, believing that society actively disables the disabled by generally expecting that most people are able-bodied and making only imperfect accommodations for disabilities (this is called ableism and disableism—see also, social model of disability) and by medicalizing disability by trying to treat its issues medically. Queer Theory and gender studies believe similarly about sex, gender, and sexual minorities under doctrines like cisnormativity and heteronormativity, which function in the same way and are, ultimately, conspiracy theories. Feminism tends to do the same with sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny. Marxism does this with (bourgeois) capitalism, and neo-Marxism does it with capitalism, consumerism, fascism, and “the culture industry” (see also, Cultural Marxism). All of these are vast, interrelated conspiracy theories that, within intersectionality, get wrapped up into a master conspiracy called the “Matrix of Domination.”
In short, all systemic views of power are vast conspiracy theories, but these are also the heart of the Theory of Critical Social Justice and its specific sub-Theories. While advocates of Critical Social Justice will call critics of it “conspiracy theorists,” this seems to be an act of projection to hide the fact that their entire Theoretical edifice is exactly that: a conspiracy theory of the grandest proportions maintained specifically and intentionally against people like them.
In the end, advocates of Critical Social Justice call virtually every counternarrative to theirs a “conspiracy theory,” unless they just brand it as racist, sexist, fascist, etc., because it successfully discredits those opposing them. This follows because the very idea of a “conspiracy theory” has been framed out as being so ludicrous that only cranks, kooks, and crazy people could possibly believe them, and so polite, liberal society is very susceptible to the narrative that they might actually be taking up with a conspiracy theory. This provides a powerful level for advocates of Critical Social Justice to position themselves as being reasonable (despite explicitly believing that “reason” is part of the conspiracy theory maintained by the privileged against the oppressed) and to get reasonable, polite liberals to defend their ideas and their implementation (see also, praxis), and it is very effective.
Related Terms
Ableism; Acting white; Active ignorance; Anti-Blackness; Antiracism; Applied postmodernism; BIPOC; Body positivity; Bourgeoisie; Brown complicity; Brown fragility; Capitalism; Cisnormativity; Communism; Complicity; Conservative; Critical; Critical consciousness; Critical constructivism; Critical pedagogy; Critical Race Theory; Critical Theory; Cultural Marxism; Cultural relativism; Democracy; Disability studies; Disableism; Epistemic injustice; Epistemic oppression; Epistemic violence; Equity; Ethnomathematics; Exclusion; False consciousness; Fascism; Fat studies; Fatphobia; Feminism; Frankfurt School; Gender; Health at every size; Healthism; Heteronormativity; Honest history; Ideology; Individualism; Interest convergence; Internalized dominance; Internalized oppression; Intersectionality; Knowledge(s); Liberalism; Liberationism; Linguistic justice; Marginalization; Marxian; Marxism; Master’s tools; Mathematx; Matrix of Domination; Medicalize; Meritocracy; Minoritize; Model minority; Narrative; Neo-Marxism; People of color; Pernicious ignorance; Postmodern; Power (systemic); Praxis; Privilege; Problematic; Pseudo-reality; Queer Theory; Race; Race traitor; Racial contract; Racial knowledge; Racism (systemic); Radical; Reality; Revisionism; Sex; Sexism (systemic); Sexuality; Social constructivism; Social Justice; Social model of disability; Socialism; Socialization; Status quo; Superstructure; System, the; Theory; Thinnormativity; Western; White; White adjacent; White comfort; White complicity; White empiricism; White equilibrium; White fragility; White ignorance; White innocence; White mathematics; White rage; White silence; White solidarity; White supremacy; White women’s tears; Whiteness; Whiteness studies; Willful ignorance; Woke/Wokeness
Additional Example
Source: Applebaum, Barbara. Being White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Justice Pedagogy. Lexington Books, 2010, pp. 35–36.
The Racial Contract is an agreement to not know and an assurance that this will count as a true version of reality by those who benefit from the account. That such ignorance is socially sanctioned is of extreme significance. Mills refers to such lack of knowledge as an “inverted epistemology” and contends
it is an officially sanctioned reality (that) is divergent from actual reality. . . . one has an agreement to misinterpret the world. One has to learn to see the world wrongly, but with the assurance that this set of mistaken perceptions will be validated by white epistemic authority, whether religious or secular.
White ignorance, thus, will feel like knowledge to those who benefit from the system because it is supported by the social system as knowledge.
When I discussed Mills’ work with one of my white colleagues, he charged Mills’ arguments with promoting a type of “conspiracy theory.” Thus, it is important to emphasize that Mills is not implying that an actual racial contract has taken place. Rather, the racial contract is a sort of imaginary device that can explain how systematic white ignorance remains unchallenged.
Revision date: 7/9/21
3 comments
Actual leftists have a long history of this behavior. Going back to the 20s in the US, when Whittaker Chambers left the Communist Party and exposed their activities (or at least those he knew of), one of their tactics was to accuse him of being a drunk and having spent time in a mental institution.
All Woke ideas and tactics for spreading their ideas are, at bottom, just logical fallacies and bad-faith arguments.
Your work is useful in exposing this. However, we don’t need the layperson to understand every minute detail of their inversions of language to understand that their ideas are illogical and their arguments are meant to dominate, not seek consensus.
The central idea we need the average person to understand is that they use pathos as a mask for their will to power. They portray themselves as fragile, weak, pathetic little creatures in need of protecting, in order to get others to take pity on them, let down their guard, and lower their standards.
We need to train normal people to counter this tactic by *reframing* the Leftist’s frame. In other words, re-characterize their own characterization of themselves.
When they say: “I care about fairness.”
We respond: “No, you care about yourself.”
When they say: “I care about justice.”
We respond: “No, you support injustice.”
When they say: “I care about inclusion.”
We respond: “No, you are the most exclusionary person I’ve ever met.”
All you have to say in response to Leftists is: “No you don’t.”
It’s an amazingly effective response because their tactics are so effective that they rarely hear the word “No” and, as such, don’t know what to do with it.
Saying “No you don’t/aren’t” 1) Stuns them and blunts their momentum. 2) Forces them to prove that they are what they claim to be, which they can’t do. And 3) Gives us the space to reframe the debate, propose our own vision of morality, and launch more attacks on the character of the Leftist.
So anyways, long story short, if we’re going to scale up the individual resistance to Leftist moral hegemony, we should equip people with simple tools.
They should be called ‘Fantastical Theories’, not Critical. Later ‘Thinkers! ‘ having added layer upon layer of fantasy over Marx’s original thinking!
Marx didn’t work, he Thought! Perhaps if he had….. worked, he might have learned why Workers would never overthrow their Bosses. – Life was hard enough as it was, and anyway, who would pay their wages?
Marx would have saved on the cost of several quill pens and We! would have been spared the inane/insane ramblings that generations of fantasists have overlaid on the Marxist lexicon.
Marx by the way, survived by being subbed by his friend Engels from his wages from working in his father’s Cotton Factory. Marx therefore Profited from the Proceeds of Slavery – Woke Puritans note- People are being Cancelled for less these days……..a lot less!