How to End Racism Without Critical Race Theory | TPWR by TaraElla S9

Today, I want to talk about how we can effectively deal with racism, how we can effectively end racism, without drawing upon critical race theory. With the recent controversy surrounding critical race theory, those in support of that theory have often painted those of us who don't support it as not being serious about racism. However, as I have said multiple times in the past, CRT, as with critical theory in general, has multiple fundamental assumptions about the world, which may end up being counterproductive. Among these are the tendency to see power and oppression everywhere, a hostility towards traditional things, an emphasis on systemic racism over individual moral responsibility, and skepticism towards free speech. Later in the video I will go over why these are counterproductive tendencies. But let's start with how we can address racism without CRT.

The main problem with CRT, and much of critical theory thinking, is that it is not very evidence-based. Indeed, criticalism and postmodernism, the main influences behind CRT, have an inherent bias against the philosophy of empiricism, which has contributed greatly to the scientific method. Empiricism emphasizes obtaining knowledge about the world through observation, and it is essentially what keeps science evidence-based. Therefore, if we want a sound approach to tackling racism, we need one that is based in empiricism and evidence. I mean, you would expect that your doctor practice evidence-based medicine, right? In a similar way, I believe we should demand that anyone giving supposed solutions to treat societal problems be as evidence-based as possible.

If you study the history of critical theory, you will know that it is heavily influenced by the old-school psychoanalysis of Freud, and perhaps others like Lacan. That's why all forms of critical theory, including critical race theory, put so much emphasis on unconscious thoughts and beliefs. The problem with the Freudian influence is, old-school psychoanalysis was very much not evidence-based. It is therefore considered questionable in modern psychology.

Instead, we may want to draw on a more modern approach to psychology, one that has a much more empirical, evidence-based, and hence scientifically sound, approach. And from modern psychology, particularly from cognitive psychology and cognitive science, we know that our brains are prone to particular cognitive biases. That is, we are all prone to seeing things in biased ways, due to the ways our brains are programmed. This programming is actually often an evolutionarily adaptive mechanism to help us think faster, especially when living in the jungle, but in the context of modern human societies, it can lead to social biases and discrimination. Therefore, we should recognize what these biases are, and hopefully it will lead to everyone treating everyone in a fairer way. Note that there is no division of people into 'the oppressors' and 'the oppressed' here. Every human being suffers from cognitive bias, and it is our individual responsibility to prevent it from affecting our judgement about other people, regardless of race.

The cognitive biases I'm talking about are many, and they can often interact with each other too. I think some of the most important biases relevant to a discussion about racism include priming, substitution bias, the mere-exposure or familiarity effect, in-group favoritism, and the out-group homogeneity effect. These effects cause people to prefer the familiar over the less familiar, prefer people they perceive to be in-group over those out-group, and apply stereotypes to those they are less familiar with.

Indeed, the cognitive biases I'm talking about can be used to show that critical race theory itself is biased. CRT amplifies our inherent cognitive biases because it encourages us to see racism everywhere, and because it reinforces the idea that racism is everywhere. And from what we know about cognitive biases like congruence bias, confirmation bias, the framing effect, and the bizarreness effect, this can certainly lead us to seeing racism where there is none. And this is not helpful for anyone.

In conclusion, a cognitive based view of racism and discrimination in general demands an active approach towards ending racism, that requires equal commitment from everyone of us, regardless of race. It is much better than critical race theory, because it is evidence-based, it can improve things in a practical way without over-philosophizing the problem, and it can be practiced and applied regardless of anyone's race, which makes it much less divisive, and hence more acceptable to many people.