Toward a Critical Race Genealogy: (Re)Claiming Critical Race Method(ologies) in a "Post-Truth" Era

• In Event: "Countering the Violence of Abstraction": Advancing the Tools of Critical Race Studies for Educational Research

Abstract

Objectives & Research Question
This conceptual paper examines the urgency of undertaking critical race work through a multidisciplinary and Foucauldian-inspired “historico-critical genealogical approach” (Garland, 2014, p. 371). Since its inception Critical Race Theory has met intense scrutiny, which has only intensified today. Criticisms include claiming CRT as imprecise, biased, and overly pessimistic. A Critical Race Genealogical approach anchors all critical race analyses through a historical, power-conscious and chronological frame that honors the interdisciplinary roots that gave rise and continue to shape Critical Race scholars and scholarship. At the core of a Critical Race Genealogical approach is the question of “how do we disrupt the siloed one-dimensional applications (and explanations) of Critical Race Theory?”

Theory & Methods
A Critical Race Genealogical framework situates critical race analyses within a precise historical, contextual, and interdisciplinary backdrop attuned to raced and power differentials.
Such an approach draws and builds upon CRT’s own roots, which incorporate “intellectual traditions and scholarly perspectives from law, sociology, history, ethnic studies, and women's studies to advance and give voice to the ongoing quest for racial justice” (Harper, Patton, & Wooden, 2009, p. 390). A Critical Race Genealogical approach also leans upon and interlaces existing critical lenses, such as power-consciousness (Linder, 2019), critical chronology, and a critical discourse analysis to trace the evolution of academic and legal doctrine (Anaïs 2013) as related to opportunity. However at its center, per Foucault, a Critical Race Genealogical approach is “motivated not by historical concern to understand the past—though any historical claims it makes must be valid, verifiable ones—but instead by critical concern to understand the present” (Garland 2014, p. 373). Such an approach is also well suited to challenge the ahistorical treatment that most commonly accompanies challenges to undermine Critical Race methods and Critical Race work. Equally as important, a historically grounded application of Critical Race Theory uncovers how white supremacy drives anti-CRT rhetoric and attacks, be they in the academic realm or in popular culture.

Finding & Significance
In today’s current “post-truth” era, where ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’ (Oxford Dictionary as cited in Peters, 2017) coupled with the resurgence of overt large-scaled white nationalism, there is an urgent need for Foucault’s historico-critical genealogical approaches, so as to unabashedly (re)claim critical race historical narratives in all arenas, including in the application of Critical Race methods and methodologies. Such a measure may seem redundant given CRT’s core tenet renouncing ahistoricism. However, the rise of virulent attacks against CRT in the public realm underscore the necessity for a Critical Race Genealogical approach that both supports the implementation and defense of CRT method(ologies), while simultaneously pushing back on siloed and one-dimensional applications and perceptions that aim to weaken CRT.

Author

• María C. Ledesma, San Jose State University