Troubling Care: A BlackCrit Analysis of Culturally Relevant Care

• In Event: School Climate Considerations Related to Bullying, School-level, and Racial Differences

Abstract

Grounded in a conceptual framework that integrates CRC (Culturally Relevant Caring) and Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit), this qualitative study analyzes care practices through interviews with four high school educators. Preliminary findings reveal that while participants emphasized trust-building, their broader care practices often lacked critical engagement with structural and metaphysical dimensions of anti-Blackness. This study argues that without such engagement, even well- intentioned care risks reproducing harm. Findings raise questions about the limits of school-based care and invite reimagined practices that anticipate or exist in refusal of anti-Black institutions rather than reform within them.

Author

• Travis E. Dumas, Rutgers University