Critical race theory has expanded beyond academia into mainstream America, including Southwest Virginia. The theory holds that white people are innately racist â they are oppressors by nature, and black people and other races are the oppressed. It is hate speech â as derogatory to black people as to white. Moreover, teaching the theory to our children â attendance legally required â is really a hate crime, damaging all of them psychologically as well as socially. Even white promoters of the theory cannot escape its visceral-racist claim. Marxists believe that, if they criticize a country relentlessly, they can destabilize it sufficiently to propagate socialism.