CRT’s Role in the Death of an Innocent Man
“I’ve been stabbed.”
“Don’t think you have, mate.”
This interaction can be heard on police bodycam footage captured in Southampton, England, between 18-year-old Henry Nowak and a police officer. According to Newsweek, “When police arrived at the scene, the attacker, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, claimed he was the victim—telling officers he had been targeted in a racial hate crime.” The police “initially accept[ed] this version of events,” and handcuffed Nowak behind his back even though he was pleading with the officers that he could not breathe and had been stabbed. Shortly after, the “officers removed the handcuffs and attempted emergency first aid—but he collapsed and died at the scene.” Newsweek goes on to state that a “jury later rejected Digwa’s claims of self-defense and racism as fabricated, finding he had stabbed Nowak several times, including a fatal wound to the chest, with a large knife he said he carried for religious reasons. Digwa is Sikh.”1
Seventy-five years prior to Nowak’s stabbing, C. S. Lewis explained this moment:
It is not at all surprising, of course, that those who stare at it too long should see patterns. We see pictures in the fire. The more indeterminate the object, the more it excites our mythopoeic or ‘esemplastic’ faculties. To the naked eye there is a face in the moon; it vanishes when you use a telescope.2
For the better part of the last few decades, many in the intelligentsia have demanded that society begin to “see” and understand that racism permeates every aspect of society. We must stare longer at the fire until we see racism. For example, professors Richard Delgado—self-described founder of critical race theory (CRT)—and Jean Stefancic outlined the first core tenet of CRT: “First, racism is ordinary, not aberrational—‘normal science,’ the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color in this country.”3 For best-selling antiracism evangelist Ibram X. Kendi, “Our world is suffering from metastatic cancer. Stage 4. Racism has spread to nearly every part of the body politic…”4 Fellow antiracism guru Robin DiAngelo has contended in her book, White Fragility, “your parents could not have been free of racism themselves. A racism-free upbringing is not possible, because racism is a social system embedded in the culture and its institutions.”5
After being repetitively told racism is “ordinary,” “common,” “has spread” everywhere, and is “embedded in the culture,” it is no wonder that the police believed Digwa’s claims of racism over Nowak’s claims of being stabbed. The question, then, is not, “Is racism evil?” Rather, the question is, “How has the intelligentsia taught us to stare at everything in society long enough until we see the picture of racism first?” I use this essay to briefly overview three ways this teaching has been done: First, by claiming racism is inescapable; second, by claiming racism always manifests; and third, by claiming that racism is a permanent feature of our world.
Racism is Inescapable
“The relevant point for now is that all white people are racist or complicit by virtue of benefiting from privileges that are not something they can voluntarily renounce.”6
As evidenced by the opening quote to this section, some intelligentsia explicitly and overtly say all whites are racist. They are not saying that some white people are racist, or some white people act in racist ways sometimes. They are saying all whites are racist. As another example, Delgado and Stefancic, in Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, under the heading Critical White Studies, state,
By contrast, many critical race theorists and social scientists hold that racism is pervasive, systemic, and deeply ingrained. If we take this perspective, then no white member of society seems quite so innocent.7
We must move away from saying, “No, no, no. They are not really saying all whites are racist.” Yes, they are. A concession can be made that some are not really saying all whites are racist if acknowledgment and then repudiation are given when they do say it.
Some may deflect and say, “We are not saying you are racist, per se, but you are complicit in racism.” Indeed, “all white people are racist or complicit,”8 “we are complicit in racism,”9 and “you have been complicit in a system.”10 Yet complicity means, “[G]uilt as an accomplice in a crime or offense.”11 “[H]elping to commit a crime or do wrong in some way.”12 “[C]hoosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act, especially with others; having complicity.”13 Thus, the deflection, “We are not saying you are racist, per se, but you are complicit in racism,” just means, “We are not saying you are racist, per se, but you are racist.”
Of course, non-whites will also be labeled as racist if they start disagreeing with these claims. In the documentary, Created Equal, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recounts a time when he wrote a letter to the editor of Playboy magazine because Thomas did not like Hodding Carter’s essay Reagan and the Revival of Racism. Carter wrote back, “As a Southerner, Mr. Thomas is surely familiar with those ‘chicken-eating preachers’ who gladly parroted the segregationists’ line in exchange for a few crumbs from the white man’s table. He’s one of the few left in captivity.”14 The lesson here is that all whites (and even non-whites) are racist by default. And if you do not see it, you have not looked long enough to see its picture in the fire.
Racism Always Manifests
“We must continue to ask how our racism manifests, not if.”15
The second lesson to learn is that racism always manifests. We can apply the above quote to the Henry Nowak situation: We must continually ask how Henry Nowak was racist, not if.
If one assumes racism is always manifesting from you, one cannot ask whether racism happened or did not happen. Alternatively, if one looks for evidence of whether racism happened or did not happen, one cannot assume racism is always manifesting from you.
This “how, not if” assumption of CRT and Antiracism is key to the theory’s survival because it assumes that racism is always happening, and thus, everything bad can be blamed on this never-ending, always-present issue. See a disparity between two groups of people? Well, racism must be the cause. Do not like a policy or an idea? Well, it must be grounded in racism. Someone defends themselves against the charge of racism? Well, the defense is always rooted in racism because racism is always present. See someone stabbed and the assailant claims they were the victim of racism? Well, the assailant must be correct. We have been taught that apparently, nothing else except racism explains disparities and non-disparities, good and bad policies, and good and bad ideas.
Without the central assumption that “Racism is always and everywhere and so it can explain anything and everything,” CRT falls apart. Recall from the beginning of this essay that Delgado and Stefancic say the first main tenet of CRT is that “racism is ordinary, not aberrational,” it is “normal,” it is “common,” and an “everyday experience.”16 If you believe racism is aberrational, that we should continue to ask for evidence of racism, and that group disparities, good and bad policies, and good and bad ideas are often explained (and expected) by other factors besides racism and antiracism, you will have no need for CRT and Antiracism.
By convincing you that you are always racist, or always complicit in racism, or always internalizing racism, or always racist unless you agree with the intellectual’s ideas and policies, CRT and Antiracism become an ideology of fear because it will drive you to paranoia. Some have called paranoia the “hallmark” of CRT:
Critical race Theory’s hallmark paranoid mind-set, which assumes racism is everywhere, always, just waiting to be found, is extremely unlikely to be helpful or healthy for those who adopt it. Always believing that one will be or is being discriminated against, and trying to find out how, is unlikely to improve the outcome of any situation.17
Racism is always present—in all your interactions, in your acts of goodwill, in everything you do.
Racism is everywhere; you are always racist, and there is no cure. As Voddie Baucham argues, “In case you’re wondering about its soteriology, there isn’t one. Antiracism offers no salvation—only perpetual penance in an effort to battle an incurable disease.”18 The best you can hope for is perpetual penance mixed with perpetual paranoia.
Racism is Permanent
“[R]acism is an integral, permanent, and indestructible component of this society.”19
This quote from the late professor Derrick Bell describes racism as an essential part of society. If racism is integral, then all policies, ideas, and outcomes can be explained through racism. If racism is permanent, then CRT and Antiracism intellectuals will always be called upon. If racism is indestructible, then perpetual penance will be demanded of you. In combination, only CRT and Antiracism intellectuals will get to determine right from wrong, and you will only get to determine what type of self-flagellation to engage in next.
As Voddie Baucham argues, “One of the biggest problems with antiracism is the fact that it is law-based. It condemns based on melanin, and although it constantly uses the words, it holds out no salvation, restoration, or reconciliation.”20 Robin DiAngelo goes so far as to say she, and by implication you, “will never be completely free of racism or finished with my learning.”21 You will never be free of racism. It is permanent.
Conclusion
In 2012, economist Thomas Sowell claimed, “Racism is not dead, but it is on life support—kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists.’”22 The intelligentsia decided to ignore Sowell and double down on their claims that racism is everywhere, always.
Thirteen years after Sowell’s statement, racism is still not believed to be dead, whereas Henry Nowak is indeed dead. Henry Nowak’s death is a symbolic reminder of the trade that was made between society and the intelligentsia: We promised to never take our eyes off the fire so that we could forever see the pictures of racism in it; we would look long enough to see racism’s face plastered all over society’s moon. And the cost of our steadfast stare would sometimes be the death of a Henry Nowak.
