Christopher F. Rufo  ⚔️

There are indeed some differences between critical race theory and the new racial orthodoxy. But the main premises of that orthodoxy—all racial disparities are illegitimate, unconscious bias is everywhere, racist speech is violence—all stem from critical race theory.

CRT is essentially a synthesis of Kendi and DiAngelo. Though neither figure is a critical race theorist, each has helped to popularize CRT's underlying worldview, one in which structural and subconscious racism are intimately intertwined.

Critical race theorists did not develop this synthesis through Marxist theory, but through a revisionist reading of landmark civil rights cases, which they argued had been interpreted too conservatively.

Excellent summary, but Marxism, or more specifically neo-Marxism, looms large in the intellectual background of CRT. The original scholars self-identified as Marxists and even derived the discipline's name from neo-Marxism, aka critical theory.

Even Kendi says straightforwardly that you can't achieve antiracism without achieving anticapitalism.

Yes, this is true. Which makes its demonstrated compatibility with neoliberalism that much more ironic.