Friday, Feb.
6, 2015
Introduction to Critical Race
Theory
Sidenote on History of Cultural
Studies
Pioneered by working-class scholars
in the UK after WWII (1950s and
1960s)
Reaction to highbrow, elite idea of
culture (i.e., the only real culture is
Shakespeare, ballet, opera
everything else junk)
Asserted that current popular/mass
culture contained knowledges worth
studying
Origins of Critical Race
Theory
Offshoot of Critical Legal Studies (law
schools)
1970s and 80s: students and
scholars frustrated with the Civil
Rights Movement too slow, not
enough being done (reliance on
changing the law to produce
equality)
Began to question how the law may
actually be producing and sustaining
What is Critical Race Theory?
Note use of the word critical
What is Critical Race Theory?
Note use of the word critical
Other forms of race theory:
phrenology, eugenics, biological
determinism [all science-based],
racial hygiene [purity]
What is Critical Race Theory?
Note use of the word critical
Other forms of race theory:
phrenology, eugenics, biological
determinism [all science-based],
racial hygiene [purity]
Critical Race Theory takes from
Cultural Studies in that it asks, How
do we know what we know?
Keywords for Critical Race
Theory
Race, racism, racialized, racialization,
racial formation, white, whiteness, white
privilege, white supremacy, black,
blackness, Latino/a, Asian, Asian
American, Native American, indigenous,
First Peoples, Arab, Muslim, mestizo,
hapa, mixed-race, people of color,
structure, liberalism, capitalism, capital,
identity, embodiment, material, the body,
minoritized, minoritization
Key Questions for CRT
What is race? How race is constituted
legally, culturally, socially,
economically, etc?
Key Questions for CRT
What is race? How race is constituted
legally, culturally, socially,
economically, etc?
What are the origins and implications
of the way we think about race?
Key Questions for CRT
What is race? How race is constituted
legally, culturally, socially,
economically, etc?
What are the origins and implications
of the way we think about race?
How does race mean different
things in different contexts, times,
and places?
Key Questions for CRT
What is race? How race is constituted
legally, culturally, socially,
economically, etc?
What are the origins and implications of
the way we think about race?
How does race mean different things
in different contexts, times, and places?
How does race interact with other
forms of identity and embodiment?
Key Questions for CRT
What is race? How race is constituted
legally, culturally, socially, economically,
etc?
What are the origins and implications of the
way we think about race?
How does race mean different things in
different contexts, times, and places?
How does race interact with other forms of
identity and embodiment?
What creates the conditions for inequality?
Axioms (starting points)
Racism is not an event (or a feeling),
its a structure.
Axioms (starting points)
Racism is not an event (or a feeling),
its a structure.
Race is not biological; it is socially
constructed, yet it is real (race is a
fiction with material consequences).
Axioms (starting points)
Racism is not an event (or a feeling),
its a structure.
Race is not biological; it is socially
constructed, yet it is real (race is a
fiction with material consequences).
Example: housing redlining
Axioms (starting points)
Racism is not an event (or a feeling),
its a structure.
Race is not biological; it is socially
constructed, yet it is real (race is a
fiction with material consequences).
Example: housing redlining
Whiteness as a form of property
Axioms (starting points)
Racism is not an event (or a feeling),
its a structure.
Race is not biological; it is socially
constructed, yet it is real (race is a
fiction with material consequences).
Example: housing redlining
Whiteness as a form of property
Intersectionality
Axioms (starting points)
Racism is not an event (or a feeling), its a
structure.
Race is not biological; it is socially
constructed, yet it is real (race is a fiction
with material consequences).
Example: housing redlining
Whiteness as a form of property
Intersectionality
Ignoring the role of race in society will not
make racism go away.
Why ask these qs? Whats at stake?
Social justice. Outcomes for health,
wealth, academic achievement,
upward mobility, all indexed by race
(and class, too).
Why ask these qs? Whats at stake?
Social justice. Outcomes for health,
wealth, academic achievement, upward
mobility, all indexed by race (and class,
too).
Ruth Wilson Gilmore defines racism as
the state-sanctioned or extra-legal
production and exploitation of group-
differentiated vulnerability to premature
death (Golden Gulag 28). [race is the
production of differential outcomes]
Case Study: the United
States
Citizenship tied to race; race tied to
citizenship
Case Study: the United
States
Citizenship tied to race; race tied to
citizenship
Naturalization Act of 1790 (jus soli or
jus sanguinis) free whites (men)
Case Study: the United
States
Citizenship tied to race; race tied to
citizenship
Naturalization Act of 1790 (jus soli or
jus sanguinis) free whites (men)
1870 persons of African nativity or
descent
Case Study: the United
States
Citizenship tied to race; race tied to
citizenship
Naturalization Act of 1790 (jus soli or
jus sanguinis) free whites (men)
1870 persons of African nativity or
descent
Petition to be white (why not black?)
Case Study: the United
States
Citizenship tied to race; race tied to
citizenship
Naturalization Act of 1790 (jus soli or
jus sanguinis) free whites (men)
1870 persons of African nativity or
descent
Petition to be white (why not black?)
Rationale: legal precedent, scientific
evidence, or common sense
Racial Prerequisite Cases
List of cases: http
://[Link]/race/01race
/White05.
htm
For more, see Ian Haney Lopezs book
White By Law: The Legal Construction
of Race
Readings
What did you not know before that
you know now?
Did any of the articles cause you to
reconsider an already-held stance?
What did you find difficult or
troubling?
Please refer to specific examples from
the text
For Further Discussion
Last class we asked, why study media? Now were asking, why
study race?
How do you define race? Why do people have different
understandings of the term?
What, in your understanding, is the difference between race and
ethnicity? What does it mean when someone claims ethnicity
instead of race (i.e., identifying as Irish instead of white)?
How do you define racism?
How does the media usually talk about race and racism, in your
experience? How does the media frame what is considered
racist/not racist? How does it suggest we should combat racism?
