This article replies to Mike Cole's article, in this issue of the journal, on critical race theory (CRT) in general and my application of the approach in particular. The article briefly outlines the central tenets of CRT and then reflects on the character of some of the exchanges between critical race theorists and Marxists on either side of the Atlantic. Although Marxism is a broad and varied perspective, there is a strand of reductionist Marxist analysis that has generated critiques of CRT characterised by over-simplification, misunderstandings and misrepresentations of the approach.