Critical race theory
From Freepedia
Critical Race Theory is the school of thought that holds that race lies at the very nexus of American life. It is an academic discipline that challenges its readers, whether proponents or dissenters, to consider the relationship that exists between race, the justice system, and society.
Contents |
Thought & Influence
"The founding absurdity of "race" as a principle of power, differentiation, and
classification must now remain persistently, obstinately, in view."
--Paul Gilroy, Against Race, p. 42
Critical Race Theory has its roots in the more established fields of anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy, and politics. The notions of social construction and reality of race and discrimination are ever-present in the writings of known contemporary critical race theorists, such as Derrick Bell, Mari Matsuda, Richard Delgado, Kimberlie Crenshaw, and William Tate, as well as pioneers in the field, including W.E.B. DuBois and Max Weber.
Critical Race Theory is linked as well to the development of African American thought in post civil rights era. CRT theorists and legal scholars such as Bell, Lawrence, Delgado and Crenshaw challenged the philosophical traditional position of liberal civil rights stance of colorblind approach to social justice.
This field has its roots firmly planted in American soils, mainly due to the racial makeup of the country. Therefore, most of the resources will contain only American-related entries, or may have some other American bias. Because the field is so young, particular attention was paid to more recent works, rather than general (and outdated) social science encyclopedias, such as The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences.
History & Origins
The historical origins of Critical Race Theory provides a contextual understanding to contemporary legal debates concerning the effectiveness of past civil rights strategies in current political climate. Earliest writings on Critical Race Theory can be traced to the works of Derrick Bell and Alan Freeman in the mid 1970s. According to Delgado both Bell and Freeman were deeply concerned with the ‘snail pace’ progress of racial reform in the United States. Concerned and dismayed that any gains made by civil right laws of the 1960s were quickly being eroded in the 1970s, Derrick Bell, a lawyer who served as the executive director of an NAACP branch began to fashion arguments that were designed to change existing laws.
Major Contributors
Bell is arguably the most influential source of thought critical of traditional civil rights discourse. Bell’s critique represented a challenge on the dominant liberal and conservative position on civil rights, race and the law. Derrick Bell employed three major arguments in his analyses of racial patterns in American law: Constitutional contradiction, the interest convergence principle, and the price of racial remedies.
For instance, in the Constitutional Contradiction Bell argued that the framers of the Constitution chose the rewards of property over justice. With regards to the interest convergence, he maintains that whites will promote racial advances for blacks only when they also promotes white self-interest. Finally, in the price of racial remedies Bell argues that whites will not support civil rights policies that may threaten white social status. Each of the arguments presented shed a different light to the traditional racial discourse.
Other Contributors
Other significant contributors to the Critical Race Theory discourse in the 1980s to the present are Delgado and Crenshaw. Delgado in defense of Bell’s story telling or narrative style argues that persons of color speak from an experience framed by racism. Delgado argues that the stories of persons of color come from a different frame of reference, and therefore give them a voice that is different from the dominant culture and deserves to be heard. Critical race theorists believe that in order to appreciate their perspective, the voice of a particular contributor must be understood.
Crenshaw argued that little difference existed between conservative and liberal discourse on race-related law and policy. Crenshaw identifies two distinct properties in anti-discrimination law: expansive and restrictive properties. The former stresses equality as outcome relying on the courts to eliminate effects of racism. The latter treats equality as a process. Its focus is to prevent any future wrongdoing. Crenshaw argues that both the expansive and restrictive properties coexist in the anti-discrimination law. The implication of Crenshaw argument is that the failure of the restrictive property to address or correct the racial injustices of the past simply perpetuates the status quo.
Off Shoot Fields
"This world is white no longer, and it will never be white again."
--James Baldwin, "Stranger in the Village"
No longer content with accepting whiteness as the norm, critical scholars have turned their attention to whiteness itself. In the field of Critical White Studies numerous thinkers, including Toni Morrison, Eric Foner, Peggy McIntosh, Andrew Hacker, Ruth Frankenberg, John Howard Griffin, David Roediger, Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Noel Ignatiev, Cherríe Moraga, and Reginald Horsman, attack such questions as:
- How was whiteness invented, and why?
- How has the category whiteness changed over time?
- Why did some immigrant groups, such as the Irish and Jews, start out as nonwhite and later become white?
- Can some individual people be both white and nonwhite at different times, and what does it mean to "pass for white"?
- At what point does pride in being white cross the line into white power or white supremacy?
- What can whites concerned over racial inequity or white privilege do about it?
Within Critical Race Theory, a distinctive position around the Latino/a experience is called LatCrit.
Conclusion
The significance of Critical Race Theory is its increasing application to scholarship in education in the 1990s. Tate employed Crenshaw’s expansive and restrictive view in evaluating certain educational policies. They concluded that the restrictive interpretation of anti discrimination laws inhibited African American students.
Bibliography
- Bell, D.A. (1993) Remembrance of Racism Past: The Civil Rights Decline. In Hill & J. E Jones (Eds.) Race in America: The Struggle for Equality (pp. 73-82). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
- Crenshaw, K.W. (1988) Race Reform, Retrenchment: Transformation and Legitimation in Anti-Discrimination Law. Harvard Law Review, 101. 1331-1387.
- Crenshaw, K.W. et al (1995). Introduction. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas (Eds.) Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement. New York: New Press
- Delgado, R (1995) Legal Storytelling: Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for Narrative. In R. Delgado (Ed.) Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
- Delgado, R (1995) The Imperial Scholar Revisited: How to Marginalize Outsider Writing, Ten Years Later. In R. Delgado (Ed.) Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
- Delgado, R (1995) Affirmative Action as a Majoritarian Device: Or, Do You Really Want to Be A Role Model? In R. Delgado (Ed.) Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
- Tate, W. F. (1996) Critical Race Theory: Review of Research in Education, 22, 201-247
