Activist Bob Woodson: 'Lethal' critical race theory judges skin color rather than character

Critical race theory is "lethal" to society because it defines people by their race rather than the content of their character, according to African-American conservative activist Bob Woodson.

Critical race theory holds that American society is pervaded by institutional racism rooted in "white privilege" and "white supremacy" that marginalizes people of color, whether consciously or not.

"Well, it's the new racism, and it's more lethal than the old racism,” Wodson told "Just the News AM program" on Wednesday. "In other words, there used to be an exotic discussion among academics on campuses. Now that has leaked into the mainstream society, and it's being now the defining issue, that we should look at each other not by the content of our character, but the color [of our] skin or our gender."

Such an idea "used to be called stereotyping," said Woodson, who founded the Woodson Center to combat social ills like poverty, homelessness and drug addiction. "But now," he said, "it's called 'critical race theory.' It’s the same thing as stereotyping. It's the assumption that ... if you are black that you are defined by your race not the content of the character."

Employing this racial lens "is having a devastating effect on low-income people of all races," said Woodson.

Woodson earlier this year founded the 1776 Unites group to counter arguments by The New York Times' 1619 Project, a much-publicized collection of essays purporting to date America's true founding not to 1776, but instead to 1619, when the first known slave boats reached American shores.

Woodson condemned academics who allowed the concepts of critical race theory to percolate through on-campus debates but are now banning dissenters who reject the theory's central tenets. 

"I really think they're moral cowards," Woodson said. "They're more concerned about their innocence and proving to America that they are innocent of being racist, and therefore they're willing to sacrifice their principles in order to demonstrate to people that they're not racist."

Recent events like the death of George Floyd have "spawned a real racial racketeering" in which "race grievance consultants are getting millions of dollars to come into corporations, to schools and do racial audits," Woodson said. "And it's just having a devastating effect on free speech. It is worse than it was in segregation, because at least segregation, and racism, was external. Critical race theory is really undermining the standards upon which blacks were able to achieve, particularly as a result of the assault on the bourgeois values of family, faith and work."

A recent lawsuit alleged the Oregon Legislature Emergency Board acted unconstitutionally when it declared that $62 million of a $200 million government fund to help small businesses hit by COVID-19 could only go to black-owned businesses or black families.

"It's a throwback — we're almost retreating back to the pre-civil rights period, where we were compartmentalized, we were segregated," Woodson said of the race-based earmark. "Segregation is wrong, regardless of who's sponsoring it."