Critical Race Theory is a historical, yet progressive concept used in underpinning the impact of race in the America education system. In describing the current ideology of this evolutionary movement known as Critical Race Theory, Barlow states, “At the heart of Critical Race Theory lies the rejection of colorblind meritocracy. Formal equality overlooks structural disadvantages and requires mere non-discrimination or equal treatment. Instead, Critical Race Theory calls for aggressive, color conscious efforts to change the way things are. It contemplates, race-conscious decision making as a routine, non-deviant mode, a more or less permanent norm to be used in distributing positions of wealth, prestige, and power (Barlow (2016).” Although …show more content…
the premise of Critical Race Theory has been penetrating race in the areas of education, the roots of Critical Race Theory are planted within the field of Critical Legal Studies. Historically, the development of Critical Race Theory came about as an outgrowth of Critical Legal Studies and Radical Feminism in the 1970s (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). Critical Legal Studies comprised itself at addressing the futile and unsuccessful effects of race and racism in the United States Legal System following the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Hiraldo, 2010). Consequently, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was to end segregation of whites and blacks in public places in America; and it banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin (US Legislation). Nonetheless, African Americans continued to be marginalized in all areas of life. Critical Race Theory burgeoned as the landscape in America remained the same -- issues regarding race subordination, racial inequality, and white supremacist power persisted in the law after the civil rights movement and the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There was an acute observation made within the field of legal studies that the United States Legal System no longer regarded civil rights as a formidable piece of legislation. Additionally, there was this looming perception that the civil rights coalitions of the 1960s and 1970s were stagnant when it came to pressuring the legal system to address subtle, institutional, or color-blind forms of racism (Encyclopedia). In the late `1970’s, legal scholars Derrick Bell and Alan Freeman began to “formulate a discourse that focused on issues of race and racism in the law” (Hartlep, 2009, p. 5). Derrick Bell who is known as Critical Race Theory intellectual father figure, was the fore-runner in ground-breaking analysis on the “conflict of interest in civil rights litigation and of the role of white elite self-interest in explaining the twists and turns of blacks' racial fortunes” (Encyclopedia). Moreover, Bell argued that race is a social construct, intricately woven into the fabric of America, legally designed to uphold the social structure of white supremacy and superiority over other people (Nunn, 2011). In 1980, the term and theory, Interest Convergence Theory was coined by Derrick Bell in a Harvard Law Review article, in which Bell responds to a colleague’s legal criticism of the US Supreme Courts decision on Brown vs. Board of Education (Lee, 2007). In that article, Bell explains the idea behind the theory, as quoted by Lee (2007), “[t]he interests of blacks in achieving racial equality will be accommodated only when it converges with the interest of whites” (p. 921). Consequently, Bell’s Interest-Convergence Theory was the premier analytical tool used to assess the interplay of power and subordination in the Brown vs. Board of Education decisions (Lee, 2007 Lastly, since its inception, the Interest Convergence Theory has been used to explain a number of US Supreme Court Cases, Legislative Enactments and Lower State Court Cases that were related to race, education and workplace reform (Lee, 2007). In essence, Critical Race Theory sets out to dispel the myth that racism is normal. Society acting as though the races were equal, and not addressing issues surrounding race relations created a color blindness that needed to be discussed, especially in light of the interest in Black lives, and how they were falsely represented in the American legal system. Interest convergence details how affirmative actions and laws were created to further interest of whites, not Blacks (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012). Moreover, Critical Race Theory recognizes that skin color, physique and hair texture are relatively small issues, minimalized once a personality, intelligence or moral ideas are demonstrated (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012). About the same time of Derrick Bell’s ground-breaking work on Interest Convergence Theory, legal scholar Alan Freeman was examining racial discrimination and the impact of antidiscrimination laws in the Untied States, and how those laws may in fact perpetuate racial discrimination within the country (Freeman, 1978; Yanow, 2007). Freeman examined racial discrimination from two perspectives – that of the victim and that of the perpetrator. According to Freeman (1978): From the victim’s perspective, racial discrimination describes those conditions of actual social existence as a member of a perpetual underclass. This perspective includes both the objective conditions of life – lack of jobs, lack of money, lack of housing – and the consciousness associated with those objective conditions – lack of choice and lack of human individuality in being forever perceived as member of a group rather than as an individual. (p. 1053). Freeman (1978) goes on to describe the perpetrators perspective and states, “The perpetrator perspective sees racial discrimination not as conditions, but as actions, or series of actions, inflicted on the victim by the perpetrator. The focus is more on what particular perpetrators have done or are doing to some victims that it is on the overall life situation of the victim class” (p. 1053). Moreover, Freeman’s findings from the victim’s perspective on racial discrimination was linked to the condition of being a member of a socially constructed underclass, and from the perpetrators perspective, racial discrimination was viewed not as a condition but as an action, an action that was inflicted upon the victim by the perpetrator (Freeman, 1978; Yanow, 2007; McCoy & Rodricks, 2015). More importantly, that the construction of racism was the perpetrators perspective on how the underclass should be treated in the distribution of jobs, education, overall wealth and the law (Yanow, 2007; McCoy & Rodricks, 2015). Freeman concluded by finding that the United States jurisprudence system and the US Supreme Court actually legitimized racism, and that the perspective of the perpetrator is the only conceptualization of an infringement within antidiscrimination law, which in turn is racially infused (Freeman, 1978; McCoy & Rodricks, 2015).
Freeman’s research on the legitimization of racial discrimination through antidiscrimination law concluded that the purpose of anti-discrimination law was to not dismantle racism, but in fact to sustain the conditions in which the discrimination commenced (Freeman, 1978; MacDowell, 2008; McCoy & Rodricks, 2015). Freeman’s critique of anti-discrimination law was pivotal in the foundation of critical race theory. His method of examining anti-discrimination laws from the perspective of the victim and that of the perpetrator was a precedential model in assessing race in America.
In the summer of 1989, legal scholar Richard Delgado adopted Bell and Freeman’s ideology. In doing so, Delgado came together with a group of 30 scholars in Madison, Wisconsin to construct a new paradigm in law. It was at this conference that the name, Critical Race Theory was forged along with the paradigms premier focus, which included creating new radical approaches to race, racism and the American legal system. (Encyclopedia). By the mid 1990’s, Critical Race Theory movement was growing, and its influence was being adopted in the field of education (Decuir & Dixon,
2004). In 1995, scholars Gloria Ladson- Billings and William F. Tate began to adopt Critical Race Theory into the education field and in doing so, published a pioneering article in which Critical Race Theory was used as a unique method of analysis in education research Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Cooper, 2007). The article provided ways in which Critical Race Theory could be used as a conceptual framework in understanding education inequities that derive primarily from issues of race and racism; as well as the manner in which Critical Race Theory is foundational in promulgating education reform (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Cooper, 2007). Primarily, by employing Critical Race Theory methodological tools of storytelling and counter-storytelling by using personal narratives and telling stories of racial oppression to strengthen their margins (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Cooper, 2007). Since the burgeoning of Critical Race Theory in the 1970s to the blossoming of Critical Race Theory in Education today, the ideology and theory as a movement has evolved into a formidable analytical tool, assessing racial inequities in the legal system and education reform in the education field.
Discrimination in the United States came to an end 54 years ago, or did it? Most are aware of the ethnic and sexual discrimination that plagued the United States from its founding years until 1960. White males primarily were the people in charge of making all the government and business decisions impacting the country. Even though slavery ended in 1865 and females played a significant role in the home, blacks and females voices were not considered for important decision making events. In this paper I will outline Lisa Newton’s argument towards reverse discrimination, a professor of philosophy at Fairfield University; she argues that “reverse discrimination
Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. "Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs: Racism in America Today."International Socialist Review Online November-December.32 (2003): n. pag.ISReview.org. International Socialist Organization. Web. 07 Dec. 2013. .
“The New Jim Crow” is an article by Michelle Alexander, published by the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. Michelle is a professor at the Ohio State Moritz college of criminal law as well as a civil rights advocate. Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law is part of the world’s top education system, is accredited by the American Bar Association, and is a long-time member of the American Law association. The goal of “The New Jim Crow” is to inform the public about the issues of race in our country, especially our legal system. The article is written in plain English, so the common person can fully understand it, but it also remains very professional. Throughout the article, Alexander provides factual information about racial issues in our country. She relates them back to the Jim Crow era and explains how the large social problem affects individual lives of people of color all over the country. By doing this, Alexander appeals to the reader’s ethos, logos, and pathos, forming a persuasive essay that shifts the understanding and opinions of all readers.
Race-thinking: what is it? Isn’t the world past the issue of race? Do races even exist and if so, what does it mean to have a racial identity? Is colorblindness possible and how important is it? These are the questions Paul Taylor addresses in the book “Race: A Philosophical Introduction”. Paul Taylor is a self-proclaimed “radical constructionist” who will maintain that race is very real in our world and in the United States as a whole (p. 80). Taylor takes care to ensure he addresses the real needs concerning racial dynamics in the U.S., referencing historical events, prevailing policy affairs, and even pop culture to explain that everyone capable of forming opinions ought to have some sort of grasp of the concept of race-thinking. As Taylor will analyze, race and race-thinking “has shaped and continues to shape private interactions as well as the largest political choices” (p. 8). In other words, race-thinking encompasses everything we do and every interaction we have. In this paper I will attempt to interpret and expound Taylor’s views and definitions of race, concepts associated with race, and input my own interpretations as they are appropriate.
What began as a movement in the mid-1970s, is a theory that deals with the interconnectedness of racism and the legal system. Critical Race Theory is a concept created in law schools in the United States during a time when “heady advances of the civil rights era of the 1960s had stalled and, in many respects, were being rolled back” (Delgado et al. 4). The theory now encompasses its ideals into three main “features:”
What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than with the language we use to justify it. In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don’t. Rather than directly rely on race, we use the criminal justi...
Critical Race Theory (CRT) began in the field of law and has been used as a theoretical framework in educational research for over 15 years (Savas, 2014). Gloria-Ladson-Bilings and William F.Tate IV’s wrote an article, “Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education”, in 1995 and began the use of Critical Race Theory as a lens for future studies in education. The first tenet of CRT looks at race and racism through historical contexts. To explore this tenet, I will take a brief glance back to the beginning of our country and the beginning of white as a superior race.
What is the main argument of the article the Role of Critical Race Theory in Higher Education ?
It is a systematic attempt to uncover the meaning of lived experiences and to describe and interpret them with richness and depth. It is the search for what it means to be human. While simultaneously, Critical Race Theory (CRT) seeks to also determine the human experience but, explores deeper to determine if there are any differences in lived experience based on race. Phenomenology considers the sociocultural and historical traditions that have shaped our ways of being in the world. It takes into account what it means to live in the world as a man or woman (Van Manen, 1990). CRT compliments Phenomenology in that it also explores the worldview of men and women, but, also, goes into the distinct experiences of people of color whose professional and social lives based on skin color and/or race may differ. Phenomenology interfused with CRT is the proposed methodology because, it will allow me to look at what it means to be a man of color within the professoriate while considering sociocultural and historical traditions of predominately White
In the United States, racial discrimination has a lengthy history, dating back to the biblical period. Racial discrimination is a term used to characterize disruptive or discriminatory behaviors afflicted on a person because of his or her ethnic background. In other words, every t...
In relation to the Critical Race Theory, the idea of the “gap between law, politics, economics, and sociological reality of racialized lives” (Critical Race Theory slides). The critical race theory gives us a guide to analyze privileges and hardships that comes across different races and gender. For example, analyzing how and why a “black” or “indigenous” woman may experience more hardships versus not only a “white” man, but a “white”
In modern-day America the issue of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is controversial because there is substantial evidence confirming both individual and systemic biases. While there is reason to believe that there are discriminatory elements at every step of the judicial process, this treatment will investigate and attempt to elucidate such elements in two of the most critical judicial junctures, criminal apprehension and prosecution.
Although critical race theory was being recognized as a law movement it has spread to other disciplines. Critical race theory is define “as a paradigm used to generate insights into the contemporary racial predicament, exposing how racial stratification is more powerful or enduring than is initially apparent” (Brown, 2003, p. 294). Critical race theory explains how the United States uses race in their law and policies and rejects the belief that as long as everyone is able to get along it will automatically eliminate racism and the stratification of race (Brown, 2003). Furthermore, critical race theory talks about how power, oppression, limited accesses to resources for ethnic minorities has been camouflaged in our society by the white privilege class (Brown, 2003). Critical race theory will give a clear and broad understanding that racism is embedded in mental health care system, where it will allow social workers to better understand the misdiagnosis of ethnic
“Plessy v. Ferguson” to “Brown v. Board of Education” highlight a period of time when educational opportunities stand as a privilege only reserved to white folks. As we discussed in class, Plessy v. Ferguson described a time where the idea of “separate but equal” was prevalent. At that time, it seems obvious that educate the “white” man stood as the priority. Figure 1, titled Percent of 5- to 19-year-olds enrolled in school, by race: 1850 to 1991, shows that during the 1896, 35% of the educated population appear to be black and other races, compare the 55% who were white. It is obvious that the white man was more expected to obtain an amazing education to have the power and knowledge in order to lead and contribute in a more valuable way to their country.
middle of paper ... ... CRT scholars criticize the incapacity of legal discourse because it only addresses the most crude forms of racism and not the more complex forms of racism which are ingrained in nowadays’s society (Gillborn, 2008). This critique does not attempt to diminish the significance of civil rights, it criticizes traditional’s legal doctrine of inability to deal with subtle and invisible forms of racism (Gillborn, 2008). Moreover, civil rights crusade, is a long and slow process, which has not yet brought the desired social change and as CRT scholars argue the beneficiaries of this legislation was the Whites (Ladson-Billings, 2004).