@manhandler
A good analogy for Critical Race Theory is the film THX 1138.
Many films follow the format of good person versus bad person to establish their narratives. Most films that use this make the two sides easy to identify. If you've seen THX 1138, ask yourself who the "bad guy" in that film is. It's not an easy question to answer.
While the protagonist, THX 1138, can easily be seen as the good guy, it's more difficult to spot who the real enemy is in the film. Some might argue that SEN 5241 is the bad character -- and he certainly does do bad things -- but he is able to do those things because of the system.
Others might argue that the police androids are the enemy. But they are really just following orders from a system. The agents of that system make life impossible for THX, from the characters who mistakenly operate the mindblock scene that gets THX arrested, to the characters arguing in THX's trial scene. No one character is really the absolute enemy. The entire system is rigged to make THX 1138 an outsider through no fault of his own.
Established views of racism would hold SEN 5241 or the police androids or many other singular actors are the bad of a system that needs to be singularly addressed/punished/handled. But critical race theory says that these individual parts are not really the focus and that punishing them does not really correct anything. The system is to blame.
