The word theory signifies proposed
knowledge that is not merely subjective sentiment or belief that is being
prescribed or advocated as an ideology; the purpose of a theory is rather to explain.
Only in terms of better understanding is the implication that a better world
could result (i.e., from the enhanced understanding). Even though a theory does
not constitute established knowledge, that ideologues have seized on the label
as a way of legitimating their respective cherished ideologies should come as
no surprise because ideology sells better in the guise of knowledge even though
a theory has yet to gain sufficient support epistemologically to be recognized
as established knowledge. The epistemological subterfuge—a Trojan horse of
sorts—also hides the fact that the ideologue seeks to persuade or advocate
rather than primarily explain. Under the patina of a knowledge-claim lies quite
another instinctual urge. Nietzsche’s claim that the content of a
thought is none other than an instinctual urge of sufficient power to burst
into consciousness—a manifestation of the will to power—provides an explanation
for why the slight of hand is so easy for ideologues to make in sliding over to
present the veneer of knowledge-claims even though such claims do in fact
differ qualitatively from ideological claims. I contend that critical race “theory,”
as well as the related interactionist “theory,” is in its very substance
ideological in nature, rather than knowledge or even a theory.
The full essay is at "Critical Race Theory as Ideology."
