Confronting the Assault on Critical Race Theory: Lessons Across Generations

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Conservative politicians and pundits have launched an aggressive campaign against Critical Race Theory (CRT), falsely labeling it as divisive, racially regressive, and inherently racist (Pettit, 2021). This deliberate mischaracterization (Hatzipanagos, 2021; Miller et al., 2023) aligns with race-evasive ideology (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). Such discourse reflects racial gaslighting, which is “the political, social, economic and cultural processes that perpetuates and normalizes a white supremacist reality through pathologizing those who resist” (Davis & Ernst, 2017, p.3). This study expands on the connection between gaslighting and CRT bans (e.g., Miller et al., 2023; Ward, 2022), focusing specifically on racial gaslighting within the policy discussions surrounding these bans. Beyond that, this study attends to countering discourses to inform possible countering gaslighting strategies.

Employing Critical Race Discourse analysis (Briscoe & Khalifa, 2015), the study examines how the discourses surrounding CRT bans reveal racist gaslighting and explores strategies to counteract it. The analysis of four states that have implemented CRT bans demonstrates that the narratives promoting racial gaslighting aim to restore the reputation and status of white individuals. These bans seek to reestablish a white property interests in education curriculum where they are afforded the power to ignore race in education. The study also highlights how opponents of CRT bans have responded to racial gaslighting by challenging dominant discourses and employing liberatory approaches. Given that resistance can be easily co-opted (Davis & Ernst, 2017), approaches that upset the cultural logics that enable gaslighting to begin must be refused.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 2: Differences and Intersectionalities

Chair

• Walter R. Allen, University of California - Los Angeles

Papers

• Racial Gaslighting and Countering Racial Gaslighting Strategies in an Education Policy Context: A Critical Race Discourse Analysis - Rican Vue, University of California - Riverside; Katrya Txay Ly, University of California - Riverside

• White Backlash and Power Preservation in Bell’s Interest Convergence Dilemma - María C. Ledesma, San José State University

• Rupturing the Black-White Binary - Chezare A. Warren, Vanderbilt University; De'Ja Wood, Vanderbilt University

• Reclaiming Our Intergenerational Path Forward: Critical Race Theory in Education’s Past, Present, and Possibility - Uma Mazyck Jayakumar, University of California - Riverside

Discussant

• Daniel Gilbert Solorzano, University of California - Los Angeles