Racial progress is cyclical and occurs only within white elite self-interest

Evidence

We believe that racism has been an integral part of the American legal system since its founding, rather than an aberrational spot on the pristine white body politic. Racial progress is not necessarily inevitable, but may be cyclical. Gains often occur only if they are within white power elite self-interest (Bell, 1980). We thus reject the notion that the legal system has ever been color-blind, and specifically embrace color-consciousness and identity politics as the way to rectify today’s racist legal legacies (Gotanda, 1991). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1153

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures the interest-convergence and cyclical-progress premises distinguishing CRT from liberal civil-rights assumptions.
• XREF: The cyclical-progress and interest-convergence claims qualify optimistic readings of civil-rights progress found elsewhere in the vault.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1153