Critical Race Theory: How It Works

Critical race theory is a subdiscipline of a broader and older intellectual project called “critical theory.” The former can’t be understood properly without some acquaintance with the latter.

Critical theory, though preceded by a whole host of philosophical antecedents and related ideas, was really pioneered by a group of German Marxist thinkers known as the Frankfurt School. Made up of philosophers, academics, and social scientists, this movement included Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, and Erich Fromm, among others. Horkheimer first defined “critical theory” in a 1937 essay contrasting it with what he called “traditional theory,” which, by his lights, sought simply to understand and explain a phenomenon. Critical theory, however, is first and foremost practical. A theory is critical to the extent that it tries “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them” and “to create a world which satisfies” their “needs and powers.”

About the Author

Cameron Hilditch

Cameron Hilditch was a 2020-2021 William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism at National Review Institute.

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Critical race theory is a subdiscipline of a broader and older intellectual project called “critical theory.” The former can’t be understood properly without some acquaintance with the latter.

Critical theory, though preceded by a whole host of philosophical antecedents and related ideas, was really pioneered by a group of German Marxist thinkers known as the Frankfurt School. Made up of philosophers, academics, and social scientists, this movement included Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, and Erich Fromm, among others. Horkheimer first defined “critical theory” in a 1937 essay contrasting it with what he called “traditional theory,” which, by his lights, sought simply to understand and explain a phenomenon. Critical theory, however, is first and foremost practical. A theory is critical to the extent that it tries “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them” and “to create a world which satisfies” their “needs and powers.”