Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality

Words matter. Choose them carefully.

Author

Kat C.
July 06, 2025

Originally posted Jun. 1, 2020. Updated Jul. 6, 2025.

I’ll start with something I posted in 2021, back when MAGAs and the Republican Party were engaged in gaslighting the country about Critical Race Theory.

Following Christopher Rufo’s lead, Florida governor Ron DeSantis quickly made CRT his personal crusade. Calling it “crap,” he vowed to erase it from Florida schools and businesses. By 2023, he was crowing about his success in saving Florida’s children from white guilt, while frustrated experts continued to insist that they were never taught CRT in the first place.

More recently, new moral imperatives have taken over. Having conquered CRT, conservative thought leaders are now focused on expanding publicly-funded religion through school choice, replacing guidance counselors with chaplains, and forcing public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

There’s always a new cause, and somehow, it’s never about teaching math. Unless it’s woke math we’re talking about. Then they hop right on it.

I try not to pay much attention to Ron DeSantis these days. I live in Missouri, and we have our own MAGA problems here. But there’s no doubt in my mind that if DeSantis saw an opportunity to reignite the CRT “debate,” he’d do it in a heartbeat. Likewise, the rest of MAGA. If nothing else, they’re consistent. In the early ‘20s, CRT made the perfect excuse to grab their torches and pitchforks. At some point in the future, all other the outrages will fail them, and then they’ll circle back around to CRT.

If anything, CRT is the best kind of outrage fodder.

Because no one seems to know what it is.

So, with that in mind, I’ll say it again:

Critical race theory is post-graduate coursework. It's taught in law schools. It is NOT taught to children in elementary, middle, or high school, because they're not ready to deal with it.

This is true in Florida. It’s true in Missouri. It’s true across the country, north and south, east and west. Period.

This distinction — the difference between K-12 and post-graduate studies — is important. Reactionary conservatives use "critical race theory" as a bogeyman. They want to keep ill-informed parents stirred up and angry about the ways history is taught in our schools, and falsehoods about CRT are the perfect weapon.

It's all a distraction from the real need, which is to teach true and accurate American history, from our founding to the present day.

As we've seen on the news, the result has been increased rage on full display at school board meetings, the disruption of all dialogue on the issue of race education, and graphic threats of violence against educators and school officials.

These actions are fueled by:

  • people who don't know what "critical race theory" is, but they're sure as hell terrified by the way it sounds, and

  • people who willfully use the words "critical race theory" as another way to stir up the ill-informed in their attempt to shut down a truthful, accurate recounting of American history.

Our best weapon against disinformation is truth and accuracy.

So, if you're talking about history and social studies classes for elementary, middle and high school children, don't call it "critical race theory."

Because it's not.

And by calling it that, you're not helping.

You're contributing to the spread of misinformation.

You're making things worse.

Words matter.

Choose them carefully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That being said, here’s what CRT is — and what it isn’t.

CRT

Intersectionality

Because CRT addresses intersectionality, there will be some overlap between the "Critical Race Theory" section (above) and this one. However, I'm running across articles that specifically address intersectionality (as opposed to the truth about CRT and the debate surrounding it). For that reason, I'm giving this topic a space of its own.