Critical Race Theory
Critical Race Theory is a framework that examines how race and racism intersect with social, legal, and political structures. It challenges the idea of colorblindness and emphasizes the importance of understanding how systemic racism operates. It also seeks to uncover and address the ways in which racial power dynamics shape society and impact individuals' experiences.
8 Key excerpts on "Critical Race Theory"
eBook - ePubRace Is...Race Isn't
Critical Race Theory And Qualitative Studies In Education
- Laurence Parker(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Introduction to Critical Race Theory in Educational Research and Praxis DARIA ROITHMAYR Critical Race Theory (CRT) is an exciting, revolutionary intellectual movement that puts race at the center of critical analysis. Although no set of doctrines or methodologies defines Critical Race Theory, scholars who write within the parameters of this intellectual movement share two very broad commitments. First, as a critical intervention into traditional civil rights scholarship, Critical Race Theory describes the relationship between ostensibly race-neutral ideals, like “the rule of law,” “merit,” and “equal protection,” and the structure of white supremacy and racism. Second, as a race-conscious and quasi-modernist intervention into critical legal scholarship, Critical Race Theory proposes ways to use “the vexed bond between law and racial power” (Crenshaw, Gotanda, Feller, and Thomas, 1995, p. xiii) to transform that social structure and to advance the political commitment of racial emancipation. Critical Race Theory inherits much from critical legal scholarship and conventional legal principles generated during the civil rights movement, but it also represents a significant departure from these two movements. Like most of critical legal scholarship, Critical Race Theory manifests a deep dissatisfaction with liberal legal ideology generally, and with contemporary civil rights thinking about race and racism in particular. When Critical Race Theory emerged in the late 1980s, national conversations about race and racism were still very much tied to a conventional liberal model of law and society...
eBook - ePubPower and Privilege in the Learning Sciences
Critical and Sociocultural Theories of Learning
- Indigo Esmonde, Angela N. Booker, Indigo Esmonde, Angela N. Booker(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...3 Interfaces between Critical Race Theory and Sociocultural Perspectives Eileen R. Carlton Parsons Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a framework that centralizes race, racism, and power in the examination of phenomena. The focus of the phenomena can be as localized as interactions among individuals (Chapman, 2007) or as expansive as education policy (Gillborn, 2013). As stated by Ladson-Billings (2013), who introduced CRT to education in 1995, Critical Race Theory violates the “race, class, and gender triumvirate” that is prevalent in social science theorizing, and instead makes “race the axis of understanding inequity and injustice in the US” (p. 34). CRT considers issues addressed by ethnic studies, multiculturalism, and civil rights, but from a more comprehensive, and some argue, critical vantage point (Ladson-Billings, 2013). That is, it places them [issues] in a broader perspective that includes economics, history, context, group- and self-interest, and even feelings and the unconscious. Unlike traditional civil rights, which stresses incrementalism and step-by-step progress, Critical Race Theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law. (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012, p. 3) The primary goal of the chapter is to entertain how CRT can speak to sociocultural perspectives on learning and development. For more detailed accounts of CRT, interested readers can consult published works that describe the origin of CRT (Brown & Jackson, 2013; Dalton, 1987; Delgado & Stefancic, 2012), its development over time (Crenshaw, 2011), and its introduction and re-appropriation in education (Dixson & Rousseau, 2005; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995)...
eBook - ePub- Kylie A. Peppler(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Ted Hall Ted Hall Hall, Ted Critical Race Theory Critical Race Theory 167 169 Critical Race Theory The academic tradition of Critical Race Theory (CRT) presents a unique theoretical position that challenges color-blind epistemological and theoretical frameworks within social science scholarship. CRT scholars in legal studies advanced the idea that racism is a permanent feature of American society. Herein lies the major theoretical and rhetorical successes of CRT within educational research. By helping educators better understand the complexity of race, CRT can prove helpful in the design and study of out-of-school learning experiences for students of color. This entry further defines CRT and discusses its development and application to scholarship in education, including out-of-school learning. In theory and practice, CRT represents a radical departure from mainstream educational theories in several ways. First, it makes explicit the permanence of racial structures that maintain the status quo and racial domination. As such, CRT implicates the curriculum, pedagogy, and context in normalizing Whiteness as universal, thus making invisible the cultural experiences of non-White populations. Educational theorists for almost a century viewed non-White communities, particularly African American and Latina/o, as problem groups. During this period, educational theorists commonly viewed African American and Latina/o home culture through a deficit lens. The logic suggested that an adoption of White culture would lead to increased opportunities to learn within educational contexts. Second, CRT suggests that counterstorytelling is an important pedagogical tool. Counterstorytelling serves as an important way to invite into the learning experiences the cultural experiences of students from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, counterstorytelling challenges dominant knowledge claims and rhetorical processes, making visible the experiences of students of color...
eBook - ePubBeyond Critique
Exploring Critical Social Theories and Education
- Bradley A. Levinson, Jacob P. K. Gross, Christopher Hanks, Julia Heimer Dadds, Kafi Kumasi, Joseph Link(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The third section traces the development of CRT with its origins as a counterlegal discourse that took root in the United States during the civil rights era; it offers a brief discussion of the multicultural intellectual genealogy of CRT. The fourth section contains definitions of key CRT concepts that have been highlighted throughout the chapter in italics. The fifth and final section provides a brief introduction to CRT in education, followed by a close examination of two articles that exemplify how educational scholars are using CRT to address contemporary issues, particularly as they relate to research and teaching. Contextualizing Race and Education It is fashionable nowadays to downplay and even dismiss race as a factor shaping the quality of life in the United States and instead to favor class-based and gender-based approaches to understanding social oppression. —Garrett Duncan, Critical Race Theory and Method Over the last twenty years or so, one can discern a disturbing trend in mainstream educational discourses regarding how school inequities are explained. The tendency is to attribute the disparities that exist between inner-city and suburban school resources and between achievement among white and non-white youth to issues of class, while dismissing or minimizing the influence of racism. There is a sense that racism has been eradicated in the post–civil rights era and that racially subordinated peoples rely too much on “racial victimology” (McWhorter 2000) to explain their own social conditions. Author and cultural critic Shelby Steele has also written extensively about the notion of racial victimology in his book White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era (2006)...
eBook - ePubOrganizational Theory for Equity and Diversity
Leading Integrated, Socially Just Education
- Colleen A. Capper(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Solórzano (1997, 1998) relies on Matsuda (1991) to define Critical Race Theory as: the work of progressive legal scholars of color who are attempting to develop a jurisprudence that accounts for the role of racism in American law and that works toward the elimination of racism as part of a larger goal of eliminating all forms of subordination. (Solórzano,1998, p. 1331) López (2003) further explains: “CRT’s premise is to critically interrogate how the law reproduces, reifies, and normalizes racism in society in particular for individuals of lower social classes and persons of color” (p. 83). From this CRT history in law, the applications of CRT to education and educational leadership may be aligned with six primary, interrelated CRT tenets as identified in the education and educational leadership literature (Horsford, 2010a; Ladson-Billings, 2013; López, 2003). I briefly define these six tenets in Table 7.1. CRT scholars in education moved the research on race in education (Tate, 1997) and educational leadership (López, 2003) from a racial deficit perspective to unearthing the prevalence and persistence of racism within society and reproduced in education and schools (race is endemic to society). CRT from law described how whiteness is property (Harris, 1993), and CRT education scholars identified how the white curriculum is defended as white property (Ladson-Billings, 1998) and, as a result, leaders can expect white resistance when seeking to address race in the curriculum (Pollack & Zirkel, 2013). CRT in legal studies identified the critical importance of experience and minoritized voices which paved the way for mining counter-stories in education (Solórzano & Yosso, 2001) and in educational leadership (Horsford, 2009, 2010a, 2010b), and how these counter-narratives push back against majoritarian stories...
eBook - ePub- Kalwant Bhopal, John Preston, Kalwant Bhopal, John Preston(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Furthermore, another member of the audience told me that Marxist-inspired critiques, such as mine, missed the point of CRT. To address this criticism, this chapter is designed to do three things: 1) to open up a debate about what CRT is conceptually comprised of; 2) outline a critical interpretation of CRT, which can then be used contribute to debates about the efficacy of it outside of the US; 3) use this critical interpretation to gage the potential for using CRT in combination with Marxism. I begin by firstly introducing CRT and its major conceptual propositions. I will then outline some of the analytical positions of CRT and offer a review of the opportunities and limitations of CRT. I conclude with some thoughts on why intersectionality is important for emancipatory action. Section 1: A Brief Introduction to Critical Race Theory For a number of years CRT has been offering insight into struggles and conflicts of a racial nature in the US, especially for those who reject the Marxist tradition of critiquing political economy. CRT has its roots in Critical Legal Studies (henceforth CLS). CLS was a broad movement of predominantly Black scholars in Legal Studies that set about challenging the pattern of inequity that Black Americans faced in the US legal system. CLS scholars claimed that since the gains from the civil rights movement, ‘people of colour’ were being treated with less fairness because of a colour-blind liberalist approach to civil justice (Ladson-Billings 1998; Delgado and Stefancic 2000). Also, scholars such as Derek Bell (1987) claimed that CLS placed too much emphasis on social class to explain inequities, and the law and other civic institutions did not recognise the deep-seated racist undercurrents of society and therefore ‘race’ as a tool of oppression was missing at the expense of social class. So the issue for Bell and others was about the juxtaposition of structural racism versus structural classism...
eBook - ePub- Namita Chakrabarty, Lorna Roberts, John Preston, Namita Chakrabarty, Lorna Roberts, John Preston(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Talk the talk, walk the walk: defining Critical Race Theory in research Kevin Hylton Over the last decade there has been a noticeable growth in published works citing Critical Race Theory (CRT). This has led to a growth in interest in the UK of practical research projects utilising CRT as their framework. It is clear that research on ‘race’ is an emerging topic of study. What is less visible is a debate on how CRT is positioned in relation to methodic practice, substantive theory and epistemological underpinnings. The efficacy of categories of data gathering tools, both traditional and non-traditional is a discussion point here to explore the complexities underpinning decisions to advocate a CRT framework. Notwithstanding intersectional issues, a CRT methodology is recognisable by how philosophical, political and ethical questions are established and maintained in relation to racialised problematics. This paper examines these tensions in establishing CRT methodologies and explores some of the essential criteria for researchers to consider in utilising a CRT framework. Introduction This article focuses on what constitutes a Critical Race Theory (CRT) methodology. Over the last decade there has been a noticeable growth in published works citing CRT in the UK. This has led to an increase in practical research projects utilising CRT as their framework. It is clear that research on ‘race’ is an emerging topic of study recently encapsulated by the work of Seidman (2004), Bulmer and Solomos (2004), Gunaratnam (2003), Denzin and Giardina (2006a, 2006b, 2007), Tuhiwai Smith (2006), and Denzin, Lincoln, and Tuhiwai Smith (2008). What is less visible is a debate on how CRT is positioned in relation to the ‘nexus of methodic practice, substantive theory and epistemological underpinnings that is a methodology (Harvey 1990, 1)...
eBook - ePubThe Racialized Social System
Critical Race Theory as Social Theory
- Ali Meghji(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Polity(Publisher)
...The various articulations of CRT show that multiple scholars have found it a convincing way to think about a series of racialized phenomena and relations far beyond the conceptual, empirical, historical and geographical confines of the ‘first wave’ critical race theorists’ scope. However, despite the flexibility of CRT there also needs to be some kind of agreement on what separates CRT from ‘RT’ (race theory) more broadly. By now it should be clear that when I am writing about CRT I am not simply writing about ‘critical research on race’, but instead about a distinctive – albeit malleable – theoretical model built for the empirical study of structural racism. The most explicit way that CRT does this is through the racialized social systems approach, where we have a set of concepts – from ideology through to interests, emotions, interaction orders and organizations – that allow us to study the workings and interrelations of racism across the micro, meso and macro levels. To merely conflate CRT with a host of other theories – even theories studying structural racism – is therefore to ignore the overall conceptual repertoire of the racialized social system approach. This is why in this book, for instance, I have highlighted how CRT is different from state-centred approaches such as those in racial formation theory, and how it differs from theories such as systemic racism theory which centre the actions of elite whites. We know, therefore, that CRT is more than just ‘critical theorizing about race/ism’; both racial formation and systemic racism theories critically theorize, and yet CRT remains distinct from them (among many other critical approaches). Why, therefore, do we call Critical Race Theory critical, and what does calling it critical do? An approach I would like to follow comes from Patricia Hill Collins’ (2019) work, where she explores CRT as a critical knowledge project...
