Woke 101: What you need to know about Critical Race Theory, Systemic Racism and Whiteness
Some basic definitions and context for the Woke 101 Series
This article is a part of the Woke 101 series, which will get you up to speed on the basics that they don't teach you when you become a soldier in the culture war.
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When you first wake up and start realizing that a cult-like ideology has taken over the world, it can be a bit confusing.
Yes, everything you thought was true is probably wrong.
Yes, everyone on the TV that you ever trusted has been lying to you.
And yes, all those conspiracy theorists that you thought were crazy probably have more right than they do wrong.
(Ok, some of the conspiracy theorists really are crazy…but some of the people you thought were conspiracy theorists were just telling the truth and the media convinced you otherwise.)
You will hear from a lot of different voices as you’re researching trying to understand things…and a lot of those voices will lie to you about what the ideology is and what it wants. Most of the time, they’re not lying maliciously - it’s because they themselves learned what the “woke” ideology is from people who didn’t understand it or were trying to sell them a narrative.
So how do you know you can trust me when I give you definitions of things?
Well, you don’t! If you are new to my work, and especially if you haven’t read my book or followed my YouTube channel, I can absolutely understand why you might question my perspective.
So, let me tell you how I learned about the woke ideology: I learned entirely from their primary source documents and videos in the real world and my immersing myself among them in the real world.
I’m an industrial/organizational psychologist by training. I spent years working in organizations to help them be more functional. I was a corporate trainer, and remember when DEI started to rise in the human resources space because I was a featured speaker at some of the largest conferences in the industry.
That’s why I focused on watching their trainings when I started learning: I wanted to see what they were teaching real people in the real world and corporate training was the world I came from.
For the last three and a half years, I’ve watched thousands of hours of their trainings, more than almost anyone on the planet. I’m definitely in the top five.
I’ve watched the professional development ones they teach in organizations and schools, listened to their podcasts and interviews, studied their college lectures, read their books…I’ve even infiltrated their private trainings that they do behind a password when they think only their friends are listening. I do this for at least a dozen hours a week, oftentimes more. The rest of the time, I’m spending teaching you what I know.
Everything I teach you will come from the real world, and it will be something that has shown up several times in different trainings.
Oftentimes, my research will lead to exposing things that end up in the news. You can find my specific bona fides here.
If you’re looking for the philosophy and the intellectual development of the woke ideology, James Lindsay is your man and New Discoures is your bible.
I agree with James 90% of the time. When we have differences, it’s because he’s seeing something in the philosophy that I haven’t seen show up in their real-world training, at least not yet. I think both perspectives are important - we need to know where the philosophy is going and we need to know what is happening in the real world right now, in a nuanced way.
I give you this background not only to (hopefully) provide you some comfort that you’re getting your information from a reliable source, but also to make sure you understand the perspective I use when I’m teaching.
With that long preamble, there are a few foundational definitions that you need to learn at the beginning of your journey into the woke ideology: Critical Race Theory, Systemic Racism, and Whiteness.
For our purposes, we want to think of these concepts as inter-related - you cannot have one without the other.
That means that if your kid’s school is teaching about “whiteness,” they are teaching Critical Race Theory, regardless of if they say they are or not. Schools lie about this all the time. Whiteness cannot exist without Critical Race Theory.
If your kid’s school is teaching about Systemic Racism, they are also teaching Critical Race Theory.
There is no reality in which one of these concepts exists without the others also being present, because they are connected.
Think of them like this:
Whiteness is their greatest poison.
Systemic racism is the symptom.
Critical Race Theory is the antedote.
HOWEVER…and this is a big HOWEVER…
None of these things have to do with skin color.
You read that correctly. These things have NOTHING to do with skin color.
I understand why you might believe it does, but I promise you that if you believe that, you are only looking at the very surface level of what the woke left is teaching your kids in school.
I promise you that it’s worse than you think it is.
If you don’t understand how it’s possible that these concepts have nothing to do with skin color, hear me out:
The greatest weapon the woke left uses against us is the language.
They change the meaning of words and phrases that are commonly understood to mean one thing, and then they speak in code only they understand to introduce new meanings to society.
They do this over the course of years, teaching it in college, then in high school, then starting in elementary school, until their new definitions are adopted by their Westernized versions of Mao’s Red Guard (students who had the power to enforce the approved cultural standards of the regime).
If you can wrap your head around the idea that none of these three terms have anything to do with skin color, that it is coded language designed to trick you, then you will understand how the language game is played.
Whiteness has nothing to do with skin color. It has to do with capitalism.
Systemic racism has nothing to do with skin color. It’s designed to turn the public against the ideals of individualism and meritocracy and towards collectivism.
This is how societal values are shifted to embrace equity (or equality of outcome) rather than equality (equality of opportunity). When outcomes are normalized, systemic racism will be “solved.”
Critical Race Theory has nothing to do with skin color. It’s a subset of Critical Theory, or Critical Consciousness, that utilizes race to create divisions that will fundamentally destabilize society.
In the minds of the woke left, whiteness caused systemic racism and their solution is using Critical Race Theory to tear down the system and rebuild anew.
What will they rebuild once they’ve “solved” the problem?
A world in the image of Marx, of course.
So, you have the foundation you need to understand.
In the remainder of this premium article, I will provide you with more information about the definitions that will help you to understand what these terms really mean on an advanced level.
That way, when you encounter them in the real world, you’ll be able to identify what’s happening.
Here’s what you’ll find behind the paywall:
Learn how whiteness was “invented” and see irrefutable proof it’s the same thing as capitalism.
Understand how system racism was created, what purpose it serves.
Get a definition of Critical Race Theory that you need to memorize.
Show you the direct connection between all of these concepts and Marxism, so you won’t sound crazy when you tell your friends that we’re in a Marxist cultural revolution.
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