An Introduction to Critical Race Theory MURAL's Tu Lucha Es Mi Lucha, Your Fight Is My Fight is a campaign geared towards standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. For the next following weeks, we will be following along to the syllabus provided by Adrienne Keene, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University. She has made her class on Critical Race Theory free and accessible for everyone. Her site includes PowerPoints, academic readings, and more, and is linked both above and at the end of this blog. Please keep in mind that this blog series will be pulling information from both Keene's PowerPoints and the sources she provides, and there is no contribution on our part to adding into the resources. All credits go to Professor Keene. With that being said, let's jump right in. What is Critical Race Theory? It recognizes that racism is endemic to American life, meaning it is original and belonging to the American life. CRT expresses skepticism towards dominant legal claims of legality, neutrality, colorblindness and meritocracy. What does that even mean? It means the system is not neutral, and it is not color blind; it puts Black people at a disadvantage. CRT challenges a lack of concern for history, tradition, and historical development. Instead, CRT insists on contextual analysis of history; you need the whole story to know the truth. This theory states that racism has contributed to all contemporary manifestations of group advantage and disadvantage, and it insists on recognition of experiential learning of Black people and our communities of origin in analyzing law and society. It is interdisciplinary, and works to eliminate racial oppression as part of a broader goal of eliminating all oppression (Matsuda 1933). Why is CRT important, and why is it useful? CRT gives us a lens from which to understand policy, media, politics, interactions, and more. It acts as a toolkit to use when navigating institutions, and creates space to normalize racism and talk about lived realities. It is both important and useful because it provides an academic framework for talking about racism. In the first introduction week, Professor Keene recommends people read Derrick Bell's, "Who's Afraid of Critical Race Theory", provided in a link below. We took a look at an interview of Bell led by host David R. Jones, President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York, where they discuss racism in 1922. Derrick Bell was one of the founder of CRT, and had been dismissed from teaching at Harvard after protesting their lack of diversity and their purposeful ignorance on racism at their institution. Bell starts off by talking about how there are repeating fluctuations of periods of times where the activism and protests that fight oppression and racism rise, and then fall again. "The Constitution technically gives Black people rights" but now that they legally exist, the rest is up to them. So we are led to consider, who is going to enforce the laws? And if those who enforce the law are oppressors themselves, then who is going to hold them accountable? Bell picks apart a common racist argument that stands against affirmative action, where those that defend it fall back on false science. They claim that some races are placed as "smarter, higher IQ, stronger, healthier, etc." and others are placed below them. Bell argues that you could essentially switch their argument around; instead of saying Black people have lower IQ's, you could say they have higher IQ's and therefore do not need help from affirmative action. This in itself proves their "science" wrong, and shows the intentions behind it, which is anti-Black. On a similar note, Chinese Exclusion used to be backed by science, by professors from our very own Yale University in Connecticut. They claimed that bumps on the heads of Chinese immigrants proved they were more violent and more likely to engage in sexual assault. Derrick Bell on "Making a Change" "In any catastrophe, there is opportunity" - Bell Bell states that to make a change, you have to start at the individual level. He explains that when someone stands up to racism and oppression, in spite of everyone else's silence, they will be met with retaliation and negative effects from people in power who oppose them. Regardless, it is still very important to stand up as an individual. Bell states, "you cannot wait for other leaders to step up and lead the way", you have to take action in whatever way you can.
Keep in mind that this interview happened in 1992. Jones and Bell lead the discussion to that of the future, where it is predicted that the minority will overcome the majority, (then it was projected to happen around 2020, it is now projected to happen around 2050 according to PEW). But Bell states that this will not matter if we have other minority communities arriving and living in the States, thinking that they are above Black people. This is why solidarity is important. Bell ends the interview by pondering what the big hurdles will be, and states that getting White communities to face the problems that their predecessors have refused to acknowledge will be one of the biggest. Written By: Paula Norato If you want to learn more about the resources we have used for this blog, please check the links below. Follow along as we study Critical Race Theory with Professor Keene from Brown University! Introduction to Critical Race Theory, 2017, Brown University Adrienne Keene, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University "On Racism" Host, David R. Jones, President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York with Derrick Bell, a founder of Critical Race Theory PEW Research Center, "A Milestone En Route to a Majority Minority Nation"
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