What is Interest Convergence

This chapter employs critical discourse analysis to analyze the discursive representation of critical race theory across several editorials within the New York Post. The goal was to understand the discourses that inform a conservative stance on critical race theory, the ideological assumptions that undergird them, and the ways in which they contribute to sustaining existing power relations. Findings revealed that the Conservative Right sought a rebranding of critical race theory through an oppositional discourse of the theory as indoctrination, anti-American, divisive, poisonous, and abusive, among other things. This discourse was aimed at mobilizing Americans to wage war against critical race theory, which was textually represented as a threat to “American culture” and “American ideals.” Discourses of colorblindness and postracialism further reinscribed conservative notions that minimize the role of racism in society and in the everyday experiences of racially and ethnically diverse individuals.