AERA Annual Meeting Social Justice Action Committee Session: Who Is Afraid of Critical Race Theory, White Supremacy, and the Continuing Fight for Black Existence and Black Ideas?

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In a 1995 lecture delivered by Derrick Bell titled: “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?” Professor Bell: Questioned the anti-Black auspices undergirding the creation of the best-selling book The Bell Curve by white supremacists Charles Murray and the late Richard Herrnstein. In addition to pointing out the Bell Curve’s authors are advancing ideas that have been empirically disproven by “virtually all experts in the field,” Bell presciently asked, “Why did these two well-known men produce a book filled with rejected theories?” “Surely they must have known that the book would provide pseudoscientific support for racial hostilities that always worsen during times of economic stress and anxiety?” In response, Professor Bell posited that the “all too easy answer is that Herrnstein & Murray saw a market opportunity and took it.”

Since the 2020 Presidential election, critical race theory has remained in the crosshairs of Republican politicians, political opportunists, and white supremacists-writ large. In this session, Distinguished Critical Race Scholars in education discuss their continuing experiences with systemic racism in academia in relations to the anti-CRT.

Sub Unit

• Social Justice Action Committee

Chair

• Jamel K. Donnor, College of William & Mary

Participants

• Thandeka K. Chapman, University of California - San Diego

• Adrienne D. Dixson, University of Kentucky

• Kevin Lawrence Henry, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Celia Rousseau Anderson, University of Memphis

• Erika C. Bullock, University of Wisconsin - Madison