ABSTRACT
Critical race theory (CRT) first emerged as a counterlegal scholarship to the positivist and liberal legal discourse of civil rights. This scholarly tradition argues against the slow pace of racial reform in the United States. Critical race theory begins with the notion that racism is normal in American society. Most people in the USA first learned of CRT when Lani Guinier, a University of Pennsylvania Law Professor, became a political casualty of the Clinton administration. Her legal writings were the focus of much scrutiny in the media. Unschooled and unsophisticated about the nature of legal academic writing, the media vilified Guinier and accused her of advocating “un-American” ideas. The primary focus of the scorn shown Guinier was her argument for proportional representation. One of the places to begin understanding CRT is to examine how conceptions of citizenship and race interact.
