Disguise the youngsters! Nonprofit hyperlinks vital race idea to identification, range, mainly the whole lot

By On Jun 30, 2021

Here’s the now-deleted tweet.

It should be no surprise that the Texas Public Policy Foundation tweeted such ignorance. The Texas Observer, a nonprofit news magazine, linked the nonprofit to Republican Rick Perry, Sen. Ted Cruz, and the Koch brothers. The foundation “bills itself as a ‘non-partisan research institute’ and brags that it ‘does not accept government funds or contributions to influence the outcomes of its research,’” Texas Observer writer Forrest Wilder said in his 2012 piece on the foundation.

“It’s easy for the organization to make that claim; as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, TPPF doesn’t have to disclose its funding sources,” Wilder added. “But a list of TPPF’s donors was inadvertently posted on Guidestar.org.”

The foundation’s key corporate donors, according to the list The Texas Observer referenced, included in 2012:

The Koch Brothers: Koch Industries Inc. ($159,834) & the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation ($69,788.61)
Verizon ($47,450)
State Farm Insurance ($25,000)
Texans for Lawsuit Reform ($30,000)
ExxonMobil ($10,000)
Altria ($20,000)
GEO Group, a private prison company ($15,000)
TimeWarner Cable ($10,000)
RJ Reynolds Tobacco ($5,000)
Texas Association of Manufacturers ($5,000)
ConocoPhillips ($5,000)
Farmers Insurance Group ($5,000)
Chevron ($5,000)
Boeing ($5,000)
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas ($5,000)
Devon Energy ($5,000)
AND MANY MORE!

The strategy here is transparent.

This is the right-wing game plan in a nutshell. Make Critical Race Theory the stand-in for all vocabularies of justice, critique, and liberation. At the same time, create a moral panic around CRT. Undermine our ability to properly assess or resist these moves. pic.twitter.com/3685ntccYE

— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) June 30, 2021

To set the record straight: Critical race theory is more like a fact that’s been realized by some and vehemently denied by others: that racism affects nearly every major system in this country, especially the legal system and the laws that govern our society. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a founder of the theory, defined it in an interview with CNN as a practice that rejects the stark division between past and present with regards to racism. “It’s an approach to grappling with a history of white supremacy that rejects the belief that what’s in the past is in the past, and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it,” she said.

Malaika Jabali, a public policy attorney and writer, broke down the theory in a brilliant Twitter thread on June 20. “Critical Race Theory is not ‘diversity & inclusion’ programs,” she said in one tweet. “It’s not even primarily about mandating an accurate reframing of history (though it can include that). Its founders are legal scholars who felt it necessary to apply a racial lens to understanding U.S. laws.”

But many CRT scholars felt analysis of race and the role of white supremacy in the development of US law & legal decisions was severely lacking.

— Malaika Jabali (@MalaikaJabali) June 20, 2021

“CRT came in to fill in a gap in legal scholarship to explain our legal system; not to be an overarching explanation of all the things in the world,” Jabali added. “Still, leading CRT scholars often examine the role of class, gender, and other social statuses & their relationship with the law.”

Studying case law & policy is hard AF (umm that’s why law schools exist) & that’s what CRT scholars focus on.

— Malaika Jabali (@MalaikaJabali) June 20, 2021

Jabali adds: “So if by CRT you just mean ‘history,’ just say that. But these are two separate fields.”

It’s not even about responding to the right at this point, it’s just good journalism, cuz too many damn people out here confused & it’s taken every ounce of my patience not to respond to every single person perpetuating falsehoods, from liberals, to right wingers, to “leftists.”

— Malaika Jabali (@MalaikaJabali) June 20, 2021

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