Critical Race Theory Ontology

Ontology regards how the philosophy defines the nature and form of reality (i.e., what can be known). Each philosophy, paradigm, approach, etc., defines reality differently. In critical race theory, the nature of reality is interpreted as something that has been shaped over time and history by a series of "social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender factors and then crystallized into a series of structures that are now inappropriately taken as 'real'". For critical race theorists, the historical development and "context must be understood in searching for deeper meanings that underlie contemporary social problems").