Misconceptions on Critical Race Theory

‘The largest source of public confusion is the mistaken belief that CRT embraces the principle of color blindness.’

In a recent study, “A House Divided? What Americans Really Think About Controversial Topics in Schools,” researchers at the University of Southern California concluded that “despite the noisy debate around [critical race theory] . . . we found broad agreement on certain racial beliefs, especially that our goal as a society should be that all people should be treated the same without regard to the color of their skin.”

The USC survey revealed even more. Most Americans know little about the tenets of CRT. The largest source of public confusion is the mistaken belief that CRT embraces the principle of color blindness. Nine out of ten Americans told the USC survey team that they favor treating all Americans equally without regard to race, yet 84 percent also mistakenly said that CRT proponents embrace this same color-blind ethos.

“Despite the explicit opposition of CRT to colorblindness,” the authors noted, “more than 80% of [Americans] who claimed to have heard of CRT either did not know that colorblindness is not aligned to CRT or were wrong and thought that it was.” What’s more, “this was the only [survey question] for which most respondents confidently answered but were incorrect.”

An even more intriguing finding lay buried in the survey. The researchers asked Americans whether they supported teaching CRT in K–12 schools and whether parents should be able to opt their children out of lessons containing content that they disagree with. Except for political party, the biggest factor shaping respondents’ answers to those questions was whether they falsely believed that CRT embraced principles of color blindness.

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