Randall Kennedy on Racism in America

I don't want to make light at all of the depth, the intensity of racism in American life, and we are seeing it. But we also ought not underestimate countercurrents. We have to take into account the the abolitionist uh crusade. We have to take into account the Second Reconstruction. We have to ask ourselves, well,

How have things changed in America? And well, have things changed in America? Yes, things have changed in America. I I mean in in my life every day I see change in America. And now the good fight with Yasha Monk.

One of the things that I found really irritating in the debate about critical race theory a few years ago was the claim made by many defenders of these ideas that this ideology really was not particularly controversial, that all it entailed was, as the name might suggest, thinking critically about the role that race plays in American history and society. And the reasons why I found that frustrating is that it both seems to me that CRT is actually quite radical and quite interesting. Legal theory, and that even though I have some serious concerns about that tradition, I do of course think that we should think critically about the role that race plays in American history and society and the law.

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