The Clap Back: A Dangerous, Not-So-Nice, Critical Race Love Letter

• In Event: Ain’t You Tired: Critical Race Hermeneutics as Clap Back

Abstract

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has especially caught attention of conservatives in the past decade. During this time, there also has been surges in attacks against racial justice work. This is unsurprising, because engagement with CRT poses a threat to those who benefit from racism. As racial justice educators, we must know our work is perceived as dangerous, so receiving “whitelash” (Embrick et al., 2022) should be unsurprising. Racist responses are predictable and not based on any sound logics, but rather in white emotionalities (Matias, 2016). This objective reality, however, does not assuage the subjective traumas experienced. Experiencing the persistence of racism as racial justice educators can feel isolating.

As such, this paper is a critical race love letter to racial justice educators so as to say, “you are not alone.” In essence, this paper acts as remedy to repair racialized harm and seeks to renew through love. Because this paper is rooted in love as verb, intention, collective care, and praxis (Freire, 2000; Hannegan-Martinez, 2023; hooks, 2000), it will be perceived as “not nice” by those who weaponize “niceness” to protect white supremacy (Castagno, 2019). The not-so-niceness of this critical race love letter, then, is driven by a radical, decolonial, and humanizing love (Reyes, 2022) applied to a specific experience. This paper provides and analytical response to data collected from racist messages sent to me because of my published article, “A Love Letter to Educational Leaders of Color” (Reyes, 2022). As such, this critical race love letter is also a dangerous “clap back.”

This paper employs white emotionality (Matias, 2016) and whitelashing (Embrick et al., 2022) as analytics. White emotionality assists to understand that racist behaviors that result from both discussions about race and movement towards racial justice are only surface-level, emotional, defense mechanisms aimed to protect and keep values of whiteness hidden (Matias, 2023). Whitelashing acts as a complement by interrogating the “individual, institutional, and/or structural countermeasures against the dismantling of white supremacy” (Embrick et al., 2022, p. 258).

Critical Race Hermeneutics (CRH) (Allen, 2021) and Critical Race Methodology (CRM) (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) work together as method. Through CRH, I look for the specific presence of white supremacy, whiteness, antiblackness, and racism within the data collected. Through CRM, I produce a “clap back” poem that 1) incorporated direct quotes from the racist messages I received and 2) applied white emotionality and whitelashing analyses on those messages.

The concept of a “PRAXISioner” identity emerged as a purpose-driven approach in the struggle for community preservation. The PRAXISioner identity invokes a communal practice of repair and renewal with racialized communities towards their collective actualization. For this research, the specific PRAXISioner processes that emerged as methodology and practice were problematizing, visibilizing, reframing, and reimagining.

If we are to work “Toward Just Education Renewal,” our research must work on intimate, coalitional, and systemic levels. This scholarship then aims to contribute to the critical race discourse by offering praxis-directed methods against racial injustice that also nurture sacred healing, love, and collective preservation.

Author

• G.T. Reyes, California State University - East Bay