Joe Zivak’s Reviews > On Critical Race Theory: Why It Matters & Why You Should Care > Status Update

Prior to the civil rights movement, discrimination was open, legal, and routine. Following the civil rights movement, discrimination is covert, illegal (but rarely enforced), and routine. The mainstream narrative of racial progress also downplays the violent resistance civil rights activists faced, and that resistance to integration and equal opportunity had never really ended.

Cultural excuses for racial inequality aren’t applied evenly, as extremely violent white movies and music are held to lower standards, rarely invoked as explanations for white violence. And cultural explanations ignore the fact that civil rights martyrs like Dr. King weren’t saved by dressing well.