Four Lessons Learned From Reading Critical Race Theory: An Introduction
What Critical Race Theory Teaches Us All
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a movement in which activists and scholars study to transform the relationship between race, racism and power. It began in the 1970s when lawyers and activists sought new ways of combating racism.
The influential persons and writers involved in the process were Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman and Richard Delgado. Other principal figures in the movement were Alan Freeman, Kimberle Crenshaw, Angela Harris, Cheryl Harris, Charles Lawrence, Mari Matsdua and Patricia Williams.
CRT came about as these prominent people held conferences and meetings to discuss and clarify on central issues such as why the advances of the civil rights era of the 1960s had stalled and what could be done to solve the issues of race and racism in America.
The critical race theorists brought to light key questions such as that of the liberal order, equality theory, legal reasoning, enlightenment rationalism and the neutral principles of constitutional law.
In the third edition of “Critical Race Theory: An Introduction,” the writers discuss what critical race theory entails. How race affects our society and the issues and challenges surrounding race. Here are my top four lessons from the book.
1: Critical Race Theory & It’s Main Features
Critical race theory is said to have four features. One is that racism is difficult to address because it is not always acknowledged.
“Color-blind, or formal conceptions of equality expressed in rules that insist only treatment that is the same across the board, can thus remedy only the most blatant forms of discrimination, such as mortgage redlining or an immigration dragnet in a food-processing plant that targets Latino workers or the refusal to hire a black Ph.D rather than a white college dropout, which stand out and attract our attention” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.8).
For society to better understand race and racism, we must acknowledge that racism exists and that there are different forms of discrimination.
The second feature of CRT is interest convergence or material determinism.
The text reads “Because racism advances the interests of both white elites (materially) and working-class whites (psychically), large segments of society have little incentive to eradicate it” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.9).
The third feature of critical race theory is that race is a product of social thought and relations. We form our ideas of race and racism out of how we perceive certain races to be.
“Race and races are products of social thought and relations. Not objective, inherent or fixed, they correspond to no biological or genetic reality; rather, races are categories that society invents, manipulates or retires when convenient. People with common origins share certain physical traits, of course, such as skin color, physique and hair texture. But these constitute only an extremely small portion of their genetic endowment, are dwarfed by what we have in common, and have little or nothing to do with distinctly human, higher-order traits such as personality, intelligence and moral behaviors. That society frequently chooses to ignore these scientific truths creates races and endows them with pseudo-permanent characteristics is of great interest to critical race theory” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.9).
CRT theorists believe that racism is a social construct. That society attributes certain traits and characteristics to race. What this means is that what we associate as being black is not because it’s scientific-based or due to biology or genetics. Rather, it is how society has construed certain characteristics, personalities and behaviors to a race.
The fourth component of the critical race theory states that there is a unique voice for people of color and they should share their experiences of racism.
We read that “coexisting in somewhat uneasy tension with anti-essentialism, the voice-of-color thesis holds that because of their different histories and experiences with oppression, black, American Indian, Asian, and Latino writers and thinkers may be able to communicate to their white counterparts matters that the whites are unlikely to know” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.11).
People of color have different experiences of the world than white people and as a result, it is important that we are able to share what we know and discuss experiences of racism for better understanding amongst races.
2: Interest Convergence, Material Determinism and Racial Realism
Derrick Bell states that civil rights advances benefited the self-interest of white elites.
We read that the NAACP Legal Defense Fund had been litigating school desegregation for years and losing victories. However, in 1954, the Supreme Court granted them what they wanted. He says that it is due to many factors.
“By 1954 the country had ended the Korean War; the Second World War was not long past. In both wars, African American soldiers had performed valiantly in the service of democracy. Many of them returned to the United States having experienced for the first time in their lives a setting in which cooperation and survival took precedence over racism” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.23).
We read further that “it would ill serve the U.S. interest if the world press continued to carry stories of lynchings, Klan violence, and racist sheriffs. It was time for the United States to soften its stance toward domestic minorities. The interests of whites and blacks for a brief moment converged” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.23).
Bell states that at the time, the United States was going through a Cold War for the loyalties of uncommitted emerging nations, most of which were black, brown or Asian. He argues that it would have therefore been in the U.S. interest if it was not violent nor discriminatory towards minority groups.
For revisionism, it states that “revisionism is often materialist in thrust, holding that to understand the zigs and zags of Black, Latino and Asian fortunes, one must look to matters like profit, labor supply, international relations and the interest of elite whites. For the realists, attitudes follow, explain and rationalize what is taking place in the material sector” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.25).
For the materialists, we need to change the physical circumstances of minorities lives for racism to end. For the idealist, changes in “campus speech codes, tort remedies for racist speech, media stereotypes, diversity seminars, healing circles, Academy Awards and increasing the representation of Black, Brown and Asian actors on television shows will be high on one’s list of priorities” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.25).
3. The Significance of Legal Storytelling and Narrative Analysis
Stories are a way to preserve history so that people can better understand the past and how it affects the present moment. Other cultures such as the American Indians use history and stories to preserve their culture.
“Legal storytellers such as Derrick Bell and Patricia Williams draw on a long history with roots going back to the slave narratives, tales written by black captives to describe their condition and unmask the gentility that white plantation society pretended to. American Indians of course were great storytellers who used history and myth to preserve culture, to bind the group together and to remind it of its common destiny. In Latino society, picaresque novelists made sly fun of social convention, puffed-up nobility, and illegitimate authority” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.45).
Another significant reason why stories matter is because it’s a way of speaking out and not remaining silent.
We read that “Stories also serve a powerful additional function for minority communities. Many victims of racial discrimination suffer in silence or blame themselves for their predicament. Others pretend that it didn’t happen or that they “just let it roll off my back. All three groups are more silent than they need to be. Stories can give them a voice and reveal that other people have similar experiences. Stories can name a type of discrimination (e.g. microaggressions, unconscious discrimination, or structural racism); once named, it can be combated” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.50).
Stories can lead to change because they raise awareness about injustice or discrimination. When people remain silent, they don’t acknowledge what occurs in society. However, through narratives, it is a form of awareness about racism and discrimination that can lead to actions to end it.
4: Race, Intersectionality, Essentialism and Nationalism
When it comes to matters of race, we have to look to factors that affect race such as intersectionality.
“Intersectionality means the examination of race, sex, class, national origin, and sexual orientation and how their combination plays out in various settings. These categories and still others can be separate disadvantaging factors” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.58).
For black women, their intersectionality is as a result of the discrimination due to their race and gender and we read that black women who might want to join the feminist movement face specific challenges.
“But she is likely to find that this white-dominated movement embraces an agenda and a set of concerns that arise out of the white female experience, for example, the glass ceiling, abortion rights, and the election of a female president of the United States. She is more interested in day-care reform and Head Start programs for her young children. She may also be interested in protection from domestic abuse at the hands of black men. The feminist movement welcomes her with open arms, for she is one more soldier to add to the ranks. But will its agenda ever get around to addressing her concerns” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.60).
When it comes to understanding the specific challenges that black women face, we should acknowledge the fact that the concerns that black women face has to do with the different ways in which they experience the world.
“A related critical tool that has proven useful in this respect is the notion of multiple consciousness which holds that most of us experience the world in different ways on different occasions because of who we are. The hope is that if we pay attention to the multiplicity of social life, perhaps our institutions and arrangements will better address the problems that plague us” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.63).
For essentialism, it’s about understanding oppression and how groups can strategize to fight for social change.
“When we think of the term essentializing, we think of pairing something down until the heart of the matter stands alone. Essentialism has a political dimension. As mentioned in the previous section, the goals of a unified group may not reflect exactly those of certain factions within it, yet the larger groups benefits from their participation because of the increased numbers they bring. We saw this in the case of the single black mother who sought to identify with a social movement but was thwarted on finding that the priorities of the two groups most likely to welcome her did not correspond to her life experience” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.63).
As it pertains to nationalism, their belief is that change should occur within minority groups and not integration.
We read that “Derrick Bell, for example, urged his fellow African Americans to foreswear the struggle for school integration and aim for building the best possible black schools” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.68).
The further states that “Nationalists are apt to describe themselves as a nation within a nation and to hold that their loyalty and identification of black people, for example, should lie with that community and only secondarily with the United States” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.69).
In Conclusion
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction is a must-read to better understand race and the social structures that surround it in society. That’s our past, present and future.
As the authors look to the Critical Race Agenda for the New Century, they see efforts such as : “economic boycotts, aimed at increasing minority representation in the media as well as countering publishers, writers, cartoonists and movie producers who continue to distribute demeaning caricatures of minorities” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p. 155).
The further states that other efforts would be aimed at “rectifying racism in policing and the criminal justice system so that young minority men have a better chance of going to college than to jail. They will include as well sentencing reform and attention to postconviction consequences such as felony disenfranchisement that otherwise will haunt an offender for the rest of his or her life. The needed efforts will include assuring that minority viewpoints and interests are taken into account, as though by second nature, in every major policy decision the nation makes” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p.155).
CRT Theorists envision a better future right now.
Reference
Delgado, R & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. New York University Press
