PERSPECTIVE: At conservative schools, anti-critical race theory still looms large

As college students have returned to campus, anti-critical race theory efforts are in high gear, asserting that the legal academic concept poses a "threat" to conservative Christian colleges and other higher learning institutions.

Fear-mongering surrounding critical race theory has been brewing in conservative and evangelical spaces for more than two years, especially since the unprecedented outpouring of support for Black life after the police murder of George Floyd.

The term critical race theory, coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, is a concept created by the late attorney and Harvard University Prof. Derrick Bell, who believed racial progress was only achievable when Black and white goals converged.