Criminalizing Culture: A Critical Race Theory Analysis of Prosecuting Creativity, Community, and Nonconformity

• In Event: Democracy and Education: Authoritarianism, Resistance, and Racial Justice

Abstract

This paper explores how legal and cultural institutions have historically collaborated to marginalize racially and politically subversive expression, with contemporary resonance for education and academic freedom. Drawing on critical race theory, the analysis examines how executive and legislative attacks on institutions such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture reflect broader strategies to suppress diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts through legal and administrative means.
The paper situates these efforts within a longer lineage of criminalizing cultural dissent—from McCarthy-era targeting of artists to Nazi Germany’s legal repression of “degenerate art.” These strategies reframe institutions of learning and memory as ideological instruments of the state. For educators, particularly those in cultural, legal, and higher education spaces, the paper reveals how legal mechanisms are used to silence marginalized communities and reshape educational spaces in anti-democratic ways. The discussion contributes to understanding how cultural and educational institutions are governed through law, and how they might resist state-sanctioned efforts to erase critical narratives.

Author

• Darrell D. Jackson, University of Wyoming