Shut Your Mouth When You're Talking to Me: Silencing the Idealist School of Critical Race Theory Through a Culturalogical Turn in Jurisprudence

Abstract

Critical Race Theory is currently caught between two conflicting ideologies; the realist and idealist traditions. The realist tradition, which was the tradition of the founders of CRT, has largely come under attack from individuals that have sought to incorporate Continental philosophy in the analysis of racism, the idealists. This idealist shift has forced Critical Race Theorists to abandon structural analyses of racism and focuses on how the philosophy of European thinkers allow for true self- realization without a racial or specific cultural identity. This autonomous self, through unclouded reason, can better arbitrate and determine values and the ideal construction of the social. Since it is only the un-raced self is not burdened by the historical weight of oppression, it is only the un-raced self that can see the truth, or the transcendental values of humanity. This view pretends that subjects can think or experience outside of their socio-cultural location. Drawing inspiration from Derrick Bell's Robesonian inclination, I propose a culturalogical system rooted in formative and transformative relationships African descended people have taken up with the world as an explanative theory of social construction.

Keywords: Critical Race Theory, Racial Realism, Idealism, Culturalogics, Critical Legal Studies, Subjectivity