What is Critical Race Theory? When Derrick Bell was asked to define CRT, he had a few things to say:Definition 1: Critical race theory . Storytelling—as a critical method—has the power to make those perspectives heard so dominant classes can no longer avoid the responsibility of listening. This excerpt, adapted from The Origins of Critical Race Theory: The People and Ideas That Created a Movement by Aja Y. Martinez and Robert O. Smith (NYU Press, 2025), appears by permission of the publisher. ShareAja Y. Martinez is associate professor of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and author of the award-winning Counterstory: The Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory.