right there with you on the CRT article; it's had me thinking a lot about the idea of revisionist history as a form of activism (a personal favorite of mine). I loved the story about Dudziak using historical records to confirm Bell's Interest Convergence Theory. She went into archives and found evidence that was always there, but had been ignored or suppressed until then because it didn't fit the imperial narrative. Building a more complete picture of our history is something I've found personally important to my education, and I believe it's an important part of breaking down those dominant narratives.
The counter message that stuck with me is how racism isn't aberrational; it's the usual way of society. In other words, if racism is embedded in how our institutions normally operate, simply educating people or passing anti-discrimination laws won't be enough. That being said, maybe it isn't a "one right answer" situation. A community problem needs community-oriented solutions. CRT calls for deeper structural changes, which to me means a good mix between the materialist (physical: unions, immigration, prison-industrial complex) and idealist (speech codes, media representation, diversity education) approaches to combating systemic racism. It's rooted in every part of our daily life, and as such it will take all kind of kinds of experts to both identify and fight for meaningful change.
Maybe we don't each have to pick one singular side, or one singular theory that's right. To borrow from a social work idea, we need to be regularly reminding ourselves to zoom out so we can better see both the macro and the micro impacts of our work. The whole point shouldn't be pigeonholing ourselves into a niche subject, it should be broadening our idea of what we think we know about history. We just each need to do our part, whatever that may look like on the individual level, to move the needle in the right direction. Just like these presentations teach us, everyone has overlapping identities and loyalties. If the one thing we could all just agree on is to be more curious about one another's experiences, I think that'd be a great place to start. We can course correct as we go. A bit idealistic for sure, but I think we could all use a little more hope in humanity lately, and I have a little to spare today.