James W. Pfister
Mon, May 23, 2022

Last week I addressed the historical 1619 Project, the first coming of the Black slaves to what would become the United States of America. Many results occurred from that introduction, one being that about 13% of the population of the United States is Black.

There has developed what is known as critical race theory (herein CRT). My goal here is to describe CRT and discuss how it fits with the national interest as we collectively move to the future of complex international relations.

Through Supreme Court decisions beginning in the 1950s and the federal Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, and by state civil rights laws as well, legal equality between the races has been achieved. CRT theory holds that legal equality and a “colorblind” society are not enough. The absence of “intent” to discriminate is not enough. “Scholars argued that a focus on colorblindness and intentional discrimination obscured a broader view of systemic racial inequalities in labor, wealth, housing, health care and other material distributions.” (Daria Roithmayr, syllabus, Critical Race Theory, University of Southern California).

Thus, law is not the issue; it is socioeconomic structure. We are in the area of social psychology in a theoretical conceptualization of property as part of social interaction. CRT theorists see whiteness of the white person as a form of “property.” They say: “But more pernicious and long lasting than the victimization of people of color is the construction of whiteness as the ultimate property.” (Gloria Ladson-Billings and William F. Tate IV, “Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education,” Teachers College, Columbia University, Fall 1995).

White norms in dress, speech patterns, academic honors programs, and Advanced Placement classes, etc., are seen as attributes of white culture conceptualized as property, like college credits are personal property. Collectively, this is what is called “white privilege,” I think. To me, as real estate attorney and Realtor, it is confusing to be so abstract and theoretical as to call this property. We all know what real and personal property are, and this isn’t it.

To me, it is white culture as shared values and beliefs. These can be experienced by all in America with sufficient hard work and achievement, if there are structures of achievement available. It should be an individual, not a group, thing. (Gutfeld, Fox, May 19, 2022).

It is here where real differences in real and personal property make real differences in education and, therefore, differences in real structures of achievement. One of the most significant Supreme Court opinions in recent history regarding the Equal Protection Clause was San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973), majority opinion by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. It held that public education did not merit the “strict scrutiny” test because under our Constitution education was not a fundamental right. Thus, unequal educational districts could stand.

Students of the Black population (already suffering from dysfunctional single-parent homes) are high in school disciplinary expulsions, dropout rates, and low in standardized test scores. More equalized schools would, it seems, be in the national interest by increasing the structures of achievement for lower-income students of all races, by lessening areas of crime, discovering talented students, and preparing students for more financially and personally rewarding careers. Education can create an excitement in a career. Real and personal property can be part of the reward.

A thriving heterogeneous society melding the best of all the cultures, under the rule of law and democracy, is in the national interest as we move into the unknown future. In the competition to come, we must continue to be a society of hard work and achievement as individuals.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina recently wrote an opinion in The Washington Post (May 17) about rising from a family of a single Black mother in poverty to be a United States senator: “If we want to have hard conversations about what will improve outcomes for our nation’s poorest communities, I welcome those conversations because I believe that America is the solution — not the problem.” He stated: “The American Dream is one of hope and opportunity.” I believe CRT is inimical to the national interest.

James W. Pfister, J.D. University of Toledo, Ph.D. University of Michigan (political science), retired after 46 years in the Political Science Department at Eastern Michigan University. He lives at Devils Lake and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: James Pfister: Critical race theory and the national interest

https://www.yahoo.com/news/critical-race-theory-national-interest-080012106.html