Replies

In Robin DiAngelo’s book (who according to her website is a Critical Race and Social Justice Educator) “Is Everyone Really Equal?”, DiAngelo posited:

1.) ”All knowledge is taught from a particular perspective; the power of dominant knowledge depends in large part on its presentation as neutral and universal (Kincheloe, 2008)...all knowledge understood by humans is framed by the ideologies, language, beliefs, and and customs of human societies. Even the field of science is subjective” (p. 15).

2.) “Our analysis of social justice is based on a school of thought know as Critical Theory. Critical Theory refers to a body of scholarship that examines how society works, and is a tradition that emerged in the early part of the 20th century from a group of scholars at the *Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany”* (p. 25)

3.) “One of the key contributions of critical theorists concerns the production of knowledge…. These scholars argue that a key element of social injustice involves the claim that particular knowledge is objective, neutral, and universal. An approach based on critical theory calls into question the idea that objectivity is desirable or even possible. The term used to describe this way of thinking about knowledge is that knowledge is socially constructed.” (p. 29).

Rebuttal:

A.) The foundation for Critical Race Theory, Critical Gender Theory, etc, is Critical Theory from the Frankfurt School primarily, but not limited to it. The central idea posited by Critical Theory is that everything is ideological in nature. Even science (math, chemistry, etc), according to CT, has been affected by human interests. To CRT, science is also not independent and objectively unaffected from those interests, and there is essentially no objective knowledge or truth. But CT, CRT, CGT proponents don’t possess all knowledge” to make the claim that all knowledge is ideological and has been affected by human interests; It is a Sweeping Generalization they proffer.

B.) The destroyer of that central tenet is if even science (math, chemistry, etc) is subjective and affected, then Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory, Critical Gender Theory, etc, must surely also be affected, has also been shaped by human interests, and does not stand objectively independent from those interests.

C.) Thus the conclusions from, and what is posited by, Critical Theory are erroneous. They cannot say that all objectivity or knowledge is equal but that some is more equal than others (or something else along those lines) as even that idea would be subject to the conditions in B and they don’t know “all” or possess “all knowledge” to make those claims.

D.) Thus in order for CT, CRT, CGT, etc, to bolster their contentions in A, they must transcend the confines of A and B and thus prove that A is true.* Given what they assert, as contained in A (and 1-3), *the burden of proof is upon them.

E.) If objectivity doesn’t exist, then objectively no one is racist.

F.) If objectivity doesn’t exist, then we shouldn’t believe anything DiAngelo, CT, or CRT say or demand that we believe.