This document provides an introduction to critical race theory. It outlines some of the key concepts, history, theorists, and themes of CRT. The document discusses how CRT developed out of the civil rights era to examine the relationship between law and racial power. It presents enduring understandings of CRT, such as the idea that racism is endemic in American society and legal neutrality is skeptical. The document also introduces several influential critical race theorists and their areas of expertise and research focusing on issues like intersectionality, counterstorytelling, and examining power dynamics around dialogue and narrative.

1. Critical Race Theory EDUC 800-01 Spring 2010 Dr. Shelley Wong March 16, 2010 Group Members: Leslie LaCroix Nicole Sealey Andrea Weiss

2. INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL RACE THEORY Understanding the Nature of Race and America Media Presentation can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB27vqknETk

3. CRT CONCEPTS: THE Foundation Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions

4. Critical Race Theory’sEnduring Understandings “A regime of white supremacy and its subordination of people of color […] have been created and maintained in America, and, in particular, […] to examine the relationship between that social structure and professed ideals such as “the rule of law” and “equal protection.” There exists a “bond between law and racial power” that needs to be changed. (Crenshaw, 1995)

5. Essential Questions for Critical Race Theory Where is ownership of dialogue? Whose narrative is of value? How can CRT effect education? How does CRT develop the discourse to reveal other ways of knowing?

6. CRT CONCEPTS: HISTORY & THEMES Background and Six Key Conceptual Themes

8. Derrick Bell accepts a position at the University of Oregon Law School as the first African American dean in 1980.

9. In 1981, Harvard students organized to have Bell’s position filled and asked for the continuation of the course Race, Racism and American Law.

11. Critical race theorists Contributors in the field

12. Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Born 1930 1952 A.B. Duquesne University 1959 LL.B. University of Pittsburg School of Law 1971 First Black Tenured professor at Harvard Law Positions held, Stanford, Dean of University of Oregon Law School. Currently at New York University after resigning from Harvard. Publications focus on the failures of Brown V Board to bring about racial equality continues to question whether black social progress can through legal findings. derrick.bell@nyu.edu “Even well-intentioned and carefully drawn standards might hinder rather than facilitate the always difficult task of achieving social change through legal action” (Bell, 1995).

13. Richard Delgado University Professor of Law Seattle University School of Law J.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1974 A.B., University of Washington (Mathematics, Philosophy) Leading commentator on race in the US. “He was the first to question free speech ideology; he and a few others invented critical race theory; and he is both a theorist and an exemplar of the importance of storytelling in the workings of the law” (Stanley Fish). rdelgado@seattleu.edu “Fundamental fairness requires… reallocation of power.” (Delgado, 1996).

14. Mari Matsuda Born 1956 B.A. Arizona State J.D. U of Hawaii, LL.M at Harvard Currently at the University of Hawaii at ManoaWillliams, Richardson School of Law Activist scholar Focuses on Race, Gender, and the role of Law in changing hidden discrimination. jsuenaga@hawaii.edu “There is […] a place called Justice, and it will take many voices to get there” (Matsuda, 1991).

15. Kimberlé Crenshaw Born in 1959 LL. M. University of Wisconsin-Madison Currently at Columbia and UCLA Law Schools She has framed the CRT discourse around the concept of intersectionality especially as it applies to race, gender and class. Co-founder of the African American Policy forum “Intersectionality is thus in my view a transitional concept that links current politics with postmodern insights. It can be replaced as our understanding of each category becomes more multidimensional.” (Crenshaw in Ladson-Billings, 2001 )

16. Gloria Ladson-Billings Born 1947 Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Stanford University, Ph.D. Curriculum & Teacher Education, 1984. Academic Areas of Interest: Educational anthropology, cultural studies, critical race theory applications to education. Culturally-relevant pedagogy --“committed to collective, not merely individual, empowerment” gjladson@wisc.edu “Adopting and adapting CRT as a framework for educational equity Means that we will have to expose racism in education and propose radical solutions for addressing it. We will have to take bold and sometimes unpopular positions” (Ladson-Billings, 1998).

17. Tara Yosso Ph.D in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles. Currently Associate Professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Research focuses on the role of race, gender, class, immigration status, language and accent play in creating equity in education. www.tarayosso.com “Counterstories teach us that construction of another world--a socially and racially just world--is possible” (from website).

18. Toni Morrison Born 1931 BA, Howard U, 1953 MA, Cornell, 1955 DL (honorary), Oxford University Former professor at Princeton, activist, scholar, Nobel & Pulitzer Prize winner Research focused on the examination of narrative ‘voice’ in literature and its effect on the the epistemology of co-cultural groups. http://www.tonimorrisonsociety.org “I am… struggling with and through a language that can powerfully evoke and enforce hidden signs of racial superiority, cultural hegemony, and dismissive "othering" of people and language which are by no means marginal” (Morrison, 1992, p. x).

19. Henry Louis Gates Born 1950 BA, Yale MA &PhD, Univ of Cambridge Professor at Harvard Univ, writer, filmmaker, literary critic Research focuses on ways that law reflected social and systemic forms of oppression towards PoCs using literary analysis. hgates@fas.harvard.edu “…we must understand how certain forms of difference and the languages we employ to define those supposed ‘differences’ not only reinforce each other, but tend to create and maintain each other” (Gates, 1984, p. 297).

20. Cornel West Born 1953 BA, Harvard, 1973 PhD, Princeton, 1980 Activist, Scholar, Writer Formerly professor at Harvard (1994-2001); Currently at Princeton Research focused on philosophy and scholarship in African-American Studies (cultural awareness and expression) www.cornelwest.com “…we must never lose sight of what some of the silences are in the work of [others] especially as those silences related to issues of class, gender, race and empire. Why? Because [these] are fundamental categories [we] must use in order to understand the predicament of [people of color]” (West in hooks, 1991).

21. bell hooks Born 1952 BA, Stanford, 1973 MA, UWM, 1976 DL, UC-SC, 1983 Professor, activist, scholar Research focused on feminist consciousness, cultural critiques and culture’s impact on identity, politics & community “"When... people [of color] come together to celebrate... we do not do so to exclude or to separate, but to participate more fully in a world community“ (hooks, 1991).

22. NgugiwaThiong'o Born 1938 BA, MakerereUniv College, 1963 Holds seven honorary doctorates Activist, writer Professor at NYU and UC-Irvine Research focused on language as culture. “Language has a dual character: it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture” (Thiong’o, 1981, p. 13).

23. Other Contributors to CRT Dialogue David Gillborn Expertise: Ethnographic research on race in classrooms Kendall Thomas Expertise: Feminist legal theory, law and sexuality Zeus Leonardo Expertise: Multicultural education, Redefining ‘whiteness’ based on ‘real’ experiences of race Charles R. Lawrence, III Expertise: Constitutional and education law, race and hate speech, civil rights LaniGuinier Expertise: The role of race and gender in the political process, equity in college admissions, and affirmative action.

24. CRT CONCEPTS: DIALOGUE, DOMINANCE & POWER

25. Racial Dominance & PowerWhose dialogue is it?

26. Intersectionality of Dominance & Power Non-Heterosexual

27. Ownership of Dialogue Who sets the agenda? Who decides who will be heard? Who’s narrative matters? Variety of ways that co-cultures experience oppression and are silenced in dialogue: Language Politics Capitalism/Economics Class Educational Curriculum Others?

28. Synthesis Activity: Concept Map Review Discussion Groups for Assigned Articles

29. Concept Map

30. EXTENDED ACTIVTY: UNPACKING PT I White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack