Toward a Critical Race Theory of State

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a broad theoretical framework created by synthesizing the main themes of scholars who have challenged dominant contemporary understandings of race and the law. Although a theory of state tacitly undergirds much critical race scholarship, no one has yet aggregated the literature’s disparate assertions into a unified theory of state. This article represents an initial contribution toward that effort. Through comparison with Omi and Winant’s (1994) Racial State Theory (RST), I identify six central tenets – racialization of the state; state as white institutional space; instrumentalism; interest-convergence; fluid boundaries; and permanent racist orientation – that characterize the CRT of State for the United States. I close by entertaining three questions Omi and Winant (2012) argue demonstrate the utility of RST and use them to illustrate where the CRT of State I outline achieves greater analytical purchase than RST.