Critical Race Parenting in a Time of Racial Extermination

• In Event: Assault in the Academy: Teacher Educators and the Struggle for Social Justice

Abstract

The second paper is titled Critical Race Parenting (CRP) in a Time of Racial Extermination. This reflective paper focuses on the experiences of two academics, who are also parents of children of color, to illustrate how white patriarchal supremacist violence affects children, the emotional struggles we face as parents and race scholars, and what is at risk when we give up on the fight for racial justice. The paper draws from the tradition of critical race theory (CRT) by using two counternarratives to illustrate the pain of dealing with racism with their own children. In addition, from these experiences, the paper introduces components to critical race parenting (CRP) (Matias & Montoya, 2015). For many advocates of racial justice, being well adjusted to injustice is hyper-compounded when we decide to add children to our families. For in this decision we must decide how to communicate such lasting and persistent atrocities. It is a delicate and deadly path we navigate regarding the upbringing of our children. For many parents of color and parents of children of color, it is a painful onslaught upon the soul and psyche to negotiate and articulate to our children how and why the historic and systemic elimination of young people color in U.S. is not only tolerated but also rationalized. For is not in a parent’s nature to attempt to keep our children out of harms way? By any means necessary? But for parents of children of color in the U.S. this instinct is rife with contradiction, pain, and negotiation (Vittrup & Holden, 2011). We must make a decision between brutal honesty and willful ignorance when conveying to our children how they will be treated by a white, heterosexual, male dominated society that far too often sees them as “big game” to be hunted. This reflective piece will employ Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS), which seeks to expose and deconstruct white supremacy in sociopolitical systems and discourse (Allen, 2004; Leonardo, 2013). The paper will also draw on Critical Race Theory (CRT), to further the discussion of Critical Race Parenting (CRP) (Matias & Montoya, 2015), which holds the principles of CRT (e.g., the permanence of racism, interest convergence, and counterstorytelling) (Bell, 1992) and applies them to family discussions and education around race and racism. CWS and CRP will be used to explicate the counternarratives of two critical academics to illustrate the pain of dealing with racism with their own children. The significance of this piece lies not only in the use analysis of the parent/child conversations via CRP but also by providing a clear example of parent/child conversations on race and racism that can serve to inform other anti-racist parents seeking to have these discussions with their own children. These conversations are crucial necessities that prepare children of color for the deadly racial terrain that they must navigate and refutes the argument that young children should not engage in race dialogue.

Authors

• Cheryl E. Matias, University of Colorado - Denver

• Roberto Montoya, University of Colorado - Denver