Baltimore Confronted Its Crime Problem by Abandoning Social Justice Platitudes

Idealism may come easier to academics, but reality-based strategies benefit the communities in need.

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A Baltimore Police officer hangs police tape at the site of a mass shooting in the Brooklyn Homes neighborhood of Baltimore, Md., July 2, 2023. At least two people were killed and 28 others were wounded during the shooting.

Nathan Howard/Getty Images

In a 2003 essay titled โ€œCrossroads and Blind Alleys,โ€ legal scholar Richard Delgado offered a scathing critique of critical race theorists, who, he argued, valued performative โ€œactivismโ€ over strategies that could make real, material differences in the lives of minority groups.

This criticism is nothing new. Delgado, however, is a critical race theorist himself. In fact, he is one of the founding fathers of CRT and has been a prominent name in the field since its inception in the 1970s.

ES

About the Author

Erec Smith

Erec Smith is a research fellow at the Cato Institute.

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