Legal scholars of color (one of which is Derrick A. Bell, Jr.) designed Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an analytical tool to confront racial oppression and social justice in the United States. They did so because they saw the Civil Rights Movement stalling and not moving forward quickly enough. I consider it somewhat Freirian in the sense that it works toward eliminating not only racism, but in the elimination of all oppression of the oppressed. One of forefathers of CRT was W. E. B. Du Bois who coined the phrase “double consciousness” which refers to “the awareness of belonging to two conflicting cultures: the African culture, which grew from African roots and was transformed by its own unique history on American soil, and the European culture imposed by white America” (Tyson, 2006, p. 362). Most scholars believe that only people of color can write about discrimination practiced by Whites because they have experienced it through double consciousness. From a writing perspective Mari Matsuda claims that African American authors need to develop a voice through the lens of CRT and double consciousness (Prendergast, 1998). They need to avoid the oral tradition and dialect and adopt a legal discipline in order to be heard by the dominant culture. In this way, the African American author writes of an “outsider” as an “insider.” This helps to establish legitimacy and bring attention to unconscious racism. One White, Peggy McIntosh, seeks to expose White privilege through her list of White privileges in “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Admittedly, she cannot write from the African American perspective, rather from the perspective of a privileged White. She, like the authors of double consciousness are seeking to make the “invisible visible.”
I'm glad you've read about CRT, Kathy, certainly the premiere way of looking at race-based issues in education over the past few years.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all this great information, Kathy! I think you raised an important point when you said: "I consider it somewhat Freirian in the sense that it works toward eliminating not only racism, but in the elimination of all oppression of the oppressed". I've been thinking a lot lately about how we formulate perceptions of these critical theories based on the experiences we have with them. I came at my chapter on Marxism with a rather narrow or...old fashioned perception of the theory. These theories are bodies of thought that evolve overtime, and it is so important of us to see contemporary views of them to update ourselves so to speak.
ReplyDeleteI never really thought about white privilege until I read McIntosh's article. I never considered myself of privilege, especially considering that my father spent alot of my childhood being laid off from his journeyman's job. This allowed me and my sister to learn the value of his hard earned dollar, but certainly we did not consider ourselves as privileged.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't until I read this article and had a class discussion on it that I really became in tune with what white privilege meant. During the discussion, an African American student asked the class if any of us had ever been shopping in a store and followed around by an employee. Most of us replied that in fact we had not. He on the other hand, stated that he had many times and really felt it had something to do with his skin color.
This class discussion made the invisible clearly visible for me and really made me think twice!