The Encyclopaedia Britannica distinguishes itself from the more Internet-popular Wikipedia by challenging the latter’s knowledge-base and open-editing format. The kerfuffle (which is such a fun, old Scottish word) Soledad O’Brien got into last week illustrates this point precisely. CNN’s O’Brien argued with Joel Pollak of Breitbart.com that Critical Race Theory has nothing to do with white supremacy, apparently getting her information from a line or two in a Wikipedia article. Now, due to a series of edits and reverts on that article attempting to validate O’Brien’s misread, top Wikipedia editors have frozen the article.

I would tell you what the Britannica says about it, but can only find that Derrick Bell, “American legal scholar and educator who strove uncompromisingly to reveal and confront the pernicious racism that he found ingrained in American legal and social structures,” is known for developing the theory.