Critical race theory has a role to play in business communications and PR

Five state Republican-led legislatures recently passed bans on teaching critical race theory (CRT) or related topics in classrooms. Coinciding with these bans and with more likely to come, Nneka Logan, Ph.D., associate professor at Virginia Tech University, recently published a foundational article for our field in the “Journal of Public Relations Research,” outlining a new theoretical foundation influenced by CRT—the “Corporate Responsibility to Race Theory” or CRR.

Before diving into Logan’s theory, we should further examine CRT. Originating in the legal field in the 1970s, CRT rapidly expanded to other disciplines, according to Richard Delgado, one of the theory’s founders, and his colleagues. CRT posits that racism is embedded throughout social systems, and those who have most benefited by these systems have little incentive for change. It goes on to argue that these structures need to be acknowledged and studied.