On Critical Race Theory

What exactly is critical race theory? This concise and accessible exploration demystifies a crucial framework for understanding and fighting racial injustice in the United States. “A clear-eyed, expert field guide.”—Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Thick From renowned scholar Dr. Victor Ray, On Critical Race Theory explains the centrality of race in American history and politics, and how the often mischaracterized intellectual movement became a political necessity. Ray draws upon the radical thinking of giants such as Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to clearly trace the foundations of critical race theory in the Black intellectual traditions of emancipation and the civil rights movement. From these foundations, Ray explores the many facets of our society that critical race theory interrogates, from deeply embedded structural racism to the historical connection between whiteness and property, ownership, and more. In succinct, thoughtful essays, Ray presents, analyzes, and breaks down the scholarship and concepts that constitute this often misconstrued term. He explores how the conversation on critical race theory has expanded into the contemporary popular conscience, showing why critical race theory matters and why we should all care.

In the past few years, a new generation of progressive intellectuals has dramatically transformed how law, race, and racial power are understood and discussed in America. Questioning the old assumptions of both liberals and conservatives with respect to the goals and the means of traditional civil rights reform, critical race theorists have presented new paradigms for understanding racial injustice and new ways of seeing the links between race, gender, sexual orientation, and class. This reader, edited by the principal founders and leading theoreticians of the critical race theory movement, gathers together for the first time the movement's most important essays.

Considering the role of race in litigation and developing critical race litigation strategies to address the issue, this study documents a growing body of work designed to move beyond theory and into practical application.

This Element explores Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its potential application to the field of public administration. It proposes specific areas within the field where a CRT framework would help to uncover and rectify structural and institutional racism. This is paramount given the high priority that the field places on social equity, the third pillar of public administration. If there is a desire to achieve social equity and justice, systematic, structural racism needs to be addressed and confronted directly. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is one example of the urgency and significance of applying theories from a variety of disciplines to the study of racism in public administration.

Brings together several scholars from both law and education to provide some clarity on the status and future directions of Critical Race Theory, answering key questions regarding the ''what' and ''how'' of the application of CRT to education.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is an international movement of scholars working across multiple disciplines; some of the most dynamic and challenging CRT takes place in Education. This collection brings together some of the most exciting and influential CRT in Education. CRT scholars examine the race-specific patterns of privilege and exclusion that go largely unremarked in mainstream debates. The contributions in this book cover the roots of the movement, the early battles that shaped CRT, and key ideas and controversies, such as: the problem of color-blindness, racial microaggressions, the necessity for activism, how particular cultures are rejected in the mainstream, and how racism shapes the day-to-day routines of schooling and politics. Of interest to academics, students and policymakers, this collection shows how racism operates in numerous hidden ways and demonstrates how CRT challenges the taken-for-granted assumptions that shape educational policy and practice. The chapters in this book were originally published in the following journals: International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education; Race Ethnicity and Education; Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education; Critical Studies in Education.

In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe. She provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde. The result is a superbly crafted book that provides the first synthetic overview of Black feminist thought.

This important volume brings together key writings from one of the most influential education scholars of our time. In this collection of her seminal essays on critical race theory (CRT), Gloria Ladson-Billings seeks to clear up some of the confusion and misconceptions that education researchers have around race and inequality. Beginning with her groundbreaking work with William Tate in the mid-1990s up to the present day, this book discloses both a personal and intellectual history of CRT in education. The essays are divided into three areas: Critical Race Theory, Issues of Inequality, and Epistemology and Methodologies. Ladson-Billings ends with an afterword that looks back at her journey and considers what is on the horizon for other scholars of education. Having these widely cited essays in one volume will be invaluable to everyone interested in understanding how inequality operates in our society and how race affects educational outcomes. Featured Essays: Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education with William F. Tate IVCritical Race Theory: What It Is Not!From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Inequality in U.S. SchoolsThrough a Glass Darkly: The Persistence of Race in Education Research and ScholarshipNew Directions in Multicultural Education: Complexities, Boundaries, and Critical Race TheoryLanding on the Wrong Note: The Price We Paid for BrownRacialized Discourses and Ethnic EpistemologiesCritical Race Theory and the Post-Racial Imaginary with Jamel K. Donner