In this audio dug up by Verum Serum, Prof. Derrick Bell explaining some core tenants of Critical Race Theory.  As Verum puts it: “But I thought according to Soledad O’Brien, Critical Race Theory was just about the intersection of race and politics and stuff?”

Verum also found writings of Bell’s that shed a bit of light on the origins of President Obama’s emphasis on “empathy” in his judicial nominations.  

“The empathethic perspective also comes from the Critical Race Theory tradition, which suggests that a diverse judiciary greatly shapes judicial decision making, legal analysis, and, by extension, the law itself. Specifically, judges who hail from different social or cultural backgrounds may provide a more nuanced understanding of facts, evidence, and credibility determinations than judges who lack such experience.”