Reclaiming Our Intergenerational Path Forward: Critical Race Theory in Education’s Past, Present, and Possibility

• In Event: Confronting the Assault on Critical Race Theory: Lessons Across Generations

Abstract

Since the mid 90s, education scholars have consciously drawn on CRT scholarship to study the crucial ways racism shapes schooling and (re)produces injustice. Their work is foundational to moving us toward possibility (Warren, 2021; ). This paper analyzes data from five trailblazing scholars who contributed to developing CRT in education fields—Laurence Parker, Tara Yosso, David Gilborn, William Smith, and David Stovall. The data reflect pushback, ranging from bemusement and anger from Marxist and gender scholars, to complete silence in rooms packed full of education scholars unable—or unwilling—to talk frankly and directly about racism. These early CRT scholars were accused of being “too extreme” and labeled “troublemakers.” They felt the weight of white liberals determined to only discuss racism as disconnected acts of individual bigotry. They were initially excluded from flagship education conferences like AERA and ASHE, left to organize informal and unofficial spaces on the margins of broader conference structures. They almost weren’t hired or promoted due to misconceptions of CRT scholarship, or concerns their work would become a problem for the institution. They knew others who experienced similar challenges; too many of their equally brilliant peers had been pushed out of the tenure process and academia. When there was a critical mass of CRT scholars in a department, legal attacks followed, like current litigation initiated by the Pacific Legal Foundation to halt race-based programs at the University of Utah. Education scholars drawing on CRT were held to a different set of standards when it came to rigor and productivity. Especially in traditional academic departments, CRT was belittled and treated as a political threat. These scholars worked tirelessly to discount misguided distractions, and instead demonstrate CRT was an important scholarly framework. Drawing from these data and stories of mobilization, strategizing, resistance, and building spaces for thriving, we can move through the latest iteration of attacks against CRT.

I also share my own coming into CRT moments and the legacy I am proud to carry forward. These data and lessons they convey support us today in honoring the liberatory impact of CRT, speaking its intergenerational stories, and learning its lessons about our past, present and future: to name racism; to be in collective struggle; to create spaces of support, freedom, and possibility.

Author

• Uma Mazyck Jayakumar, University of California - Riverside