Kissing Cousins: Critical Race Theory's Racial Realism and Afro-Pessimism's Social Death

• In Event: The Future Is Black: Afro-Pessimism, Fugitivity, and Radical Hope in Education

Abstract

Critical Race Theory entered the field of education in 1995 with the pioneering scholarship of Gloria Ladson-Billings and William F. Tate. Attempting to chart and disrupt the choreographies of oppression that animate the lives of People of Color in the United States, CRT has charged the field with confronting the hydra of white supremacy and racial dominance that intersects with and is multiplied by other forms of oppression. In his review of CRT, William Tate argues that education research and legal structures in the U.S. share a “paradigmatic kinship” in that they both contribute to legitimating and reproducing existing racialized inequities. In this chapter we borrow Tate’s notion of “paradigmatic kinship,” reading “invertedly” to discuss the “paradigmatic kinship” between Derrick Bell’s racial realism and Afro-Pessimism’s social death.

Authors

• Shameka Nija Powell, Tufts University

• Kevin Lawrence Henry, University of Arizona