Critical Race Theory (CRT) Off-Shoots: Building on the Foundations of CRT and Emphasizing the Nuances They Offer

• In Event: No Limit (CRT) Soldiers: Scholar Activists Breaking Through Raced Academic Boundaries Using Critical Race Theory

Abstract

Objectives and Purpose
Using the tenets from AsianCrit, DisCrit, Critical Race Feminism, LatCrit, QueerCrit, and TribalCrit, this paper, explores the following questions:
-What are the foundational concepts in the off-shoots that have their genesis in CRT?
-How does or can a critical race theory perspective inform or add complexity to the off-shoots? In other words, could they have stood on their own, or do they “need” CRT?
-What methodological, theoretical or analytical challenges or pushback arise in educational research when approaching it from the perspective of the off-shoots Why?
-What questions need to be explored from a CRT perspective rather than the off-shoot and vice versa?

Perspective and Theoretical Framework

Critical Race Theory (CRT) was developed out of Critical Legal Studies in the 1970s by legal scholars who were dissatisfied over the slow pace of racial reform in the United States (Delgado, 1995). Later Solórzano (1998), in addition to Ladson-Billings (1998) and Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995), provided the premise to develop a CRT in education. Solórzano argues that CRT in education analyzes race and racism in education within a historical and contemporary context. Further, he points to how CRT in education challenges educational scholarship by drawing on theories and methodologies from other fields of study, such as sociology and gender studies, providing an interdisciplinary perspective. CRT in education highlights how educational practices and discourse can marginalize racial and ethnic groups (Solórzano, 1998). Solórzano (1998) provided five tenets that form the basic perspectives, research methods, and pedagogy of critical race theory in education: (a) the centrality and intersectionality of race and racism; (b) the challenge to dominant ideology; (c) the commitment to social justice; (d) the centrality of experiential knowledge; and (e) the interdisciplinary perspective. Overall, CRT in education identifies and challenges racism as part of a larger goal of identifying and challenging all forms of subordination (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). Similarly, CRT expanded to include offshoots in LatCrit, FemCrit, AsianCrit, and WhiteCrit scholarship. These offshoots originated in the law and are now moving into fields outside of the law (Solorzano & Yosso, 2001). Today the CRT offshoots have expanded to critically analyze the experiences of systemically oppressed communities in the educational system and institutions, including but not limited to, Asian Americans (AsianCrit), students of color with disabilities (DisCrit), Women of Color (Critical Race Feminism), Latinxs (LatCrit), the LGBTQ community (QueerCrit), and Native Americans (TribalCrit).

Methods, Data Collection, & Results
Through an intimate analysis of the relationship of CRT and the off-shoots, the author argues that researchers, scholars, and scholar-practitioners may develop ways to complicate further and expand their methodological, theoretical, and analytical approach to conducting research with communities that have historically been underserved and better understand the impact of race and racism and the intersection with ability, citizenship status, class, gender, and national origin,
in these educational spaces. The author focuses on the future of the CRT off-shoots in education and ends by answering the following question, “Will CRTed just become a field of off-shoots? Or, are off-shoots just a nuance of CRT?

Author

• José Reyes Del Real Viramontes, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign