Add federal courts to the list of American institutions now caught up in the ever-growing discussion around critical race theory (CRT).
Authorities in Charlottesville, Virginia, are currently working through the trial of two dozen white nationalists and neo-Nazis tied to the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in the quiet college town.
One of the defendants in the case is self-described white nationalist and podcaster Christopher Cantwell, who is also known as the “Crying Nazi” for a weepy video he recorded following his participation in the rally.
Mr Cantwell is representing himself in court, and used Thursday’s proceedings to ask extremism scholar Pete Simi, who offered his expert testimony to the court on behalf of the plaintiffs, about the increasingly controversial academic concept, which seeks to understand the role racism plays in influencing American social institutions.
The right-wing defendant asked Mr Simi whether he’s familiar with the anti-racist writings of scholars like Ibram X Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, and whether they should be considered critical race theorists.
"Would it be fair to say that an understanding of critical race theory is important to understanding white supremacy?" Mr Cantwell asked, before continuing to argue there are a variety of definitions of white supremacy which don’t all involve violence.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case, a group of nine who were physically injured and emotionally traumatised during the rally, eventually objected to the relevancy of the line of questioning, and US District Judge Norman Moon declared, "We’re not gonna go down the road with critical race theory.”
Throughout the trial, which seeks to implicate a number of high-profile right-wing figures like Richard Spencer, Mr Cantwell has opted for headline-grabbing theatrics, telling a podcast that he considers his actions in the courtroom “a spoken-word performance, and I take this kind of thing seriously, especially once I found out people were going to be able to listen in...I thought this was a tremendous opportunity both because of the cause at hand, and because I knew the world was listening.”
During his open statement, Mr Cantwell, who was sentenced in February to 41 months in prison for threatening and attempting to extort a fellow neo-Nazi and previously pled guilty to an assault during the Charlottesville rally, name-dropped Hitler’s Mein Kampf and promoted his radio show.
The civil lawsuit, brought with the help of the group Integrity First America under the 1871 Klu Klux Klan Act, seeks to prove the neo-Nazis conspired ahead of time to cause racist violence at the event, which ended up killing demonstrator Heather Heyer and injuring many others.
“That there will be accountability, that there will be justice, after these violent, racist, anti-Semitic, horrific events, is incredibily important, not just for this community but for our country,” Amy Spitalnick, the group’s executive director, told Vice News ahead of the trial, saying the case could have “very real financial, operational, legal impacts on the ability of these grups and their leaders to operate.”
The defendants, meanwhile, argue they were engaging in protected political speech during the rally.
