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Moses Seenarine, Ed.D.
Moses Seenarine, Ed.D.
Ph.D. Student, New Mexico State University
Ph.D. Student, New Mexico State University
During the 2020 political cycle, the President and conservative leaders expressed strong opposition to diversity training and attempts to address America’s racist past. They argued that advocates of Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Bell 1995; Crenshaw 1989) are radicals who are pushing their views upon unwilling educators and parents, and turning American schools in "indoctrination factories" (Eden 2020). For many critics, focusing on the experiences of marginalized groups is tantamount to promoting hate against European Americans. One critic even argued CRT hurts African Americans since it "discounts responsibility and agency" (Skurk 2020).
On September 22, 2020, the President issued an executive order "to combat offensive and anti American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating" by banning federal contractors from conducting training that teach “divisive concepts” defined in ten vague areas, such as, "any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex" (Trump 2020). This order places severe restrictions on diversity training to address inequality conducted by federal agencies and contractors.
Contrary to the claims made by the President, the goals of CRT and diversity training are equality and inclusion, not division. And while conservatives are quick to ban "divisive concepts" like systemic racism, they are mostly silent on the separatism and growing threat of right-wing European American militias. CRT’s framework does not include armed resistance, but five simple concepts: counter storytelling; the permanence of racism; 'Whiteness' as property; interest conversion; and the critique of liberalism. These concepts are not false, but part of the everyday reality of African Americans who have faced many forms of inequalities for hundreds of years, from employment and housing discrimination, to homelessness and police brutality.
Adopting a post-racial, color-blind approach to problems like inter-generational poverty, while ignoring European American racism, the negative stereotyping of African Americans, and the daily inequalities faced by vast numbers of socially marginalized Americans, is far from being fair and neutral. As Kathleen Osta of the National Equity Project argued, "Systems of oppression are reinforced by harmful narratives and stereotypical depictions of people of color that go unchallenged in our homes, schools and classrooms, by the narrow history that we most often teach, and by the textbooks we choose and from whose perspective stories are told" (Osta 2019).
References
Bell, Derrick A, Jr. 1995. "Who's Afraid of Critical Race Theory?" University of Illinois Law Review. 1995 (4): 893ff.
Cineas, Fabiola. 2020. "Critical race theory, and Trump’s war on it, explained." Vox, Sep 24.
Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1989. "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics," University of Chicago Legal Forum, Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8.
Du Bois, W. E. B. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.
Eden, Max. 2020. "Critical Race Theory in American Classrooms." Manhattan Institute's City Journal. September 18.
Osta. Kathleen. 2019. There is No Neutral on Racism and Hate: Back to School for White Educators." The National Equity Project, September 16.
Skurk, Krystina. 2020. "Critical Race Theory in K-12 Education." Real Clear Public Affairs, July 21.
Trump, D. 2020. "Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping." The White House, September 22.
Using a non-dominant framework to explore the subjectivity of marginalized groups is not radical or new. CRT is similar to standpoint theory, and have been in use for centuries. For example, the German philosopher, Hegel, examined the different standpoints between enslavers and the enslaved in 1807. And, in the early 20th century, sociologists like W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963), Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), and Karl Mannheim (1893-1947) explored the perspectives of oppressed groups. From the 1960s onward, standpoint theory was developed further by feminists, including Dorothy Smith, Nancy Hartsock, Sandra Harding and Patricia Hill Collins.
In his famous study, The Soul of Black Folk (1903), Du Bois argues that African Americans have a particular insight into society that allows them to see certain truths about the unjust social system that escape others, especially European Americans. Standpoint theorists suggest that the dominant culture is not experienced in the same way by all persons or groups in a society. The experiences, opinions and lifestyles of socially powerful groups are validated much more than the views and cultures of socially marginalized groups.
Oppressed individuals have to be bicultural and learn to "pass" in dominant cultures in order to work and survive, even though these social patterns may be difficult and offensive to them. Due to their marginality, Du Bois argues that African Americans can help to enact social change, writing, "This then, is the end of his striving: to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and use his best powers and his latent genius" (Du Bois 1903:102).
In the classroom, teachers could use standpoint theory as the background to exploring CRT and intersectionality. As part of anti-racist curriculum, educators could also use global perspectives on standpoint theory like orientalism, subaltern studies and dependency theory.
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