scholarly journals Editors' Introduction

Lateral ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Carley ◽  
Stefanie A Jones ◽  
Eero Laine ◽  
Chris Alen Sula
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Current Issue ◽  
Special Section ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Cultural Constructions

This issue marks the tenth year of publishing Lateral. We reflect here on this milestone and highlight work in the current issue, including a new forum on Cultural Constructions of Race and Racism in the Middle East and North Africa / Southwest Asia and North Africa (MENA/SWANA) and a special section on Cripistemologies of Crisis: Emergent Knowledges for the Present. We discuss several of these pieces in relationship to ongoing violence in Israel and attacks in the United States against “critical race theory” and conclude with calls for open access scholarship.

Barack Obama’s Faustian Bargain and the Fight for America’s Racial Soul

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Metzler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Racial Discourse ◽  
Black President ◽  
Sociohistorical Context ◽  
The Devil

This article provides the theoretical and conceptual grounding for understanding how critical race theory (CRT), as a discourse of liberation, can be used as a methodological and epistemological tool to expose the ways that race and racism affect the lives of Blacks in the United States, post-Obama. To that extent, the goal is threefold. First, CRT is adequately defined by situating it within a specific sociohistorical context. Further, an argument is presented for why there is a need for CRT in current racial discourse. In doing so, a discussion is presented of why the term postracial is meaningless as a critique. Finally, the current racial discourse in the Obama presidency is examined, including his attempt to discuss race in a nuanced way that placates Whites and panders to Blacks, some of whom are so caught up in the symbolism of his presidency that they are willing to collude with many Whites who do not want a Black president but a president who happens to be Black. But the devil is in the details. As such, the case is made that Obama’s racial bargaining—as in the metaphorical Faustian bargain—is dangerous and tantamount to a deal with the devil.

“I’m Not going to the f***ing White House”: Twitter Users React to Donald Trump and Megan Rapinoe

2020 ◽  
pp. 216747952095077
Author(s):  
Evan L. Frederick ◽  
Ann Pegoraro ◽  
Samuel Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Black People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
White House ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Inductive Analysis

When asked if she would go to the White House if invited, Megan Rapinoe stated, “I’m not going to the fucking White House.” The next morning, President Donald Trump posted a series of tweets in which he criticized Rapinoe’s statements. In his tweets, Trump introduced issues around race in the United States and brought forth his own notion of nationalism. The purpose of this study was to conduct an analysis of users’ tweets to determine how individuals employed Twitter to craft a narrative and discuss the ongoing Rapinoe and Trump feud within and outside the bounds of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and nationalism. An inductive analysis of 16,137 users’ tweets revealed three primary themes: a) Refuse, Refute, & Redirect Racist Rhetoric b) Stand Up vs. Know your Rights, and c) #ShutUpAndBeALeader. Based on the findings of this study, it appears that the dialogue regarding racism in the United States is quickly evolving. Instead of reciting the same refrain (i.e., racism no longer exists and systematic racism is constructed by Black people) seen in previous works, individuals in the current dataset refuted those talking points and clearly labeled the President as a racist. Additionally, though discussions of nationalism were evident in this dataset, the Stand Up vs. Know Your Rights theme was on the periphery in comparison to discussions of race. Perhaps, this indicates that some have grown tired of Trump utilizing nationalism as a means to stoke racism.

scholarly journals Color Crit: Critical Race Theory and the History and Future of Colorism in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Reece
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Skin Tone ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
American Society

Critical race theory teaches that racism and racial inequality are constants in American society that stand outside of the prejudices of individuals. It argues that structures and institutions are primarily responsible for the maintenance of racial inequality. However, critical race theorists have neglected to formally examine and theorize colorism, a primary offshoot of racial domination. Although studies of colorism have become increasingly common, they lack a unifying theoretical framework, opting to lean on ideas about prejudice and preference to explain the advantages lighter skinned, Black Americans are afforded relative to darker skinned Black Americans. In this study, I deploy a critical race framework to push back against preference as the only, or primary, mechanism facilitating skin tone stratification. Instead, I use historical Census data and regression analysis to explore the historical role of color-based marriage selection on concentrating economic advantage among lighter skinned Black Americans. I then discuss the policy and legal implications of developing a structural view of colorism and skin tone stratification in the United States and the broader implications for how we conceptualize race in this country.

Teaching While Black and Male and Preparing Students for Urban Social Work Practice Matters

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Samuel R. Aymer
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Racial Oppression ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Racial Injustice

This article unpacks the pedagogical reflections of a Black male professor, bringing attention to issues associated with teaching while Black and preparing students for urban social work practice. The article asserts that contemporary forms of injustice cannot be understood without grasping critical historical analyses of race and racism in the United States. Ideas related to critical race theory, racial oppression, and social identities are explored. Finally, the article explicates the importance for students to become comfortable talking about racism and racial injustice in the context of working with clients.

scholarly journals Introduction: Cultural Constructions of Race and Racism in the Middle East and North Africa / Southwest Asia and North Africa

Lateral ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayya El Zein
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Migrant Laborers ◽  
Cultural Constructions

In recent years, scholars in the fields of cultural studies, American studies, history, ethnic studies, and Middle East area studies have approached questions of race and racism in this geographic region with renewed critical vigor. Recent work deconstructing anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia in the Americas and Europe has put these patterns of discrimination into intersectional conversation with anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism. New historical efforts have drawn attention to the legacies of slavery in the Ottoman, Persian, and Arab Empires, working to understand how forms of racialization and racial hierarchization predated and were exacerbated by the arrival of European imperial forces. At the same time, activists in the region draw attention to prevailing racism against migrant laborers, marginalized indigenous populations, and others as the afterlives of colonialism, war, austerity, and revolution carry on. Together, this academic and activist work asks for attention by leaders, community members, and scholars of this region to the particularities of racecraft in the region: How are “Blackness” and “whiteness” constructed in the Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish speaking worlds? What are the obstacles to discussing and identifying race particular to the histories of this region, its peoples, and its histories? This forum uses close readings of popular culture and political discourse across the Middle East and North Africa / Southwest Asia and North Africa (MENA/SWANA) in pursuit of these questions and others.

scholarly journals Disability, Race, and the Black Satyr of the United States of America: The Case of Grover Underwood from Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief and its Film Adaptation by Chris Columbus

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-146
Author(s):  
Anna Mik
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Motion Picture ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Film Adaptation ◽  
Reception Studies ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
The Usa

This article aims to present the book-to-film metamorphosis of Grover Underwood from Rick Riordan’s novel The Lightning Thief (2005), adapted in 2010 by Chris Columbus for the screen. This character in both works is presented as an excluded member of the society: in the empirical world, as a disabled person, in the mythological one, as a satyr. What is more, in the motion picture, Grover, played by a Black actor, poses as an even more marginalised character, as a representative of a community discriminated in the USA. Therefore, the images of this character reflect the various levels of exclusion and show the ideological significance of a contemporary adaptation for the young audience. The comparative analysis is performed with the use of reception studies and critical race theory perspectives.  

scholarly journals Sunera Thobani: A Very Public Intellectual

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
William K. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities

<p>Sunera Thobani is a formidable activist and scholar. Through decades of activism and scholarship, spanning the globe from East Africa to Canada, via England and the United States, she has developed and applied a critical race feminist and anti-imperialist analysis of world capitalism and colonialism. As an activist, she is probably best known as the former President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Woman, Canada&rsquo;s then largest feminist organization. During her tenure she sought to make anti-racism central to feminist struggles. In her academic work, she has developed critical race theory to cast new light on the dynamics around globalization, violence against women, reproductive technologies, social programmes, immigration and nation-building, and colonialism and war. In her research and teaching, she consistently combines her scholarship with community activism, including through her work at the Centre for Race, Autobiography, Gender and Age (RAGA), which she directs and which features active collaboration among community activists and university scholars and students. She is a founding member of the Canada-wide alliance, Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equity.</p><p>Sunera Thobani was educated at universities in England, the United States and received her PhD from Simon Fraser University in Canada. She is the author of numerous articles, both scholarly and for a more general public. Arguably her most well-known intervention is &ldquo;War Frenzy,&rdquo; a 2001 speech calling on women across Canada to oppose the Canadian support of the American-led invasion into Afghanistan. This intervention is now reproduced in a book of Great Canadian Speeches (2004). A frequently invited speaker in both her academic and activist capacities, she has addressed audiences across Canada, as well as in Austria, China, Denmark, England, India, Malaysia, Mexico, the Palestine Occupied Territories, the Philippines, and the United States. Sunera Thobani has co-edited several books on critical race theory and feminism and is the author of the widely-read Exalted Subjects: Studies in the Making of Race and Nation in Canada (2007). Her forthcoming Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) supported book is tentatively titled <em>Media Representations of Gender and the War on Terror</em>.</p><p><br />This interview was conducted by William K. Carroll in Vancouver, British Columbia in February 2012.</p>

Applying Disability Critical Race Theory (DISCRIT) in the Practice of Teacher Education in the United States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Migliarini ◽  
Subini Annamma
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Behavioral Management ◽  
Race Theory

Strategies for behavioral management have been traditionally derived from an individualistic, psychological orientation. As such, behavioral management is about correcting and preventing disruption caused by the “difficult” students and about reinforcing positive comportment of the “good” ones. However, increased classroom diversity and inclusive and multicultural education reform efforts, in the United States and in most Western societies, warrant attention to the ways preservice teachers develop beliefs and attitudes toward behavior management that (re)produce systemic inequities along lines of race, disability, and intersecting identities. Early-21st-century legislation requiring free and equitable education in the least restrictive environment mandates that school professionals serve the needs of all students, especially those located at the interstices of multiple differences in inclusive settings. These combined commitments create tensions in teacher education, demanding that educators rethink relationships with students so that they are not simply recreating the trends of mass incarceration within schools. Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) shifts the questions that are asked from “How can we fix students who disobey rules?” to “How can preservice teacher education and existing behavioral management courses be transformed so that they are not steeped in color evasion and silent on interlocking systems of oppression?” DisCrit provides an opportunity to (re)organize classrooms, moving away from “fixing” the individual—be it the student or the teacher—and shifting toward justice. As such, it is important to pay attention not only to the characteristics, dispositions, attitudes, and students’ and teachers’ behaviors but also to the structural features of the situation in which they operate. By cultivating relationships rooted in solidarity, in which teachers understand the ways students are systemically oppressed, how those oppressions are (re)produced in classrooms, and what they can do to resist those oppressions in terms of pedagogy, curriculum, and relationship, repositions students and families are regarded as valuable members. Consequently, DisCrit has the potential to prepare future teachers to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interactions and active engagement in learning focused on creating solidarity in the classroom instead of managing. This results in curriculum, pedagogy, and relationships that are rooted in expansive notions of justice. DisCrit can help preservice teachers in addressing issues of diversity in the curriculum and in contemplating how discipline may be used as a tool of punishment, and of exclusion, or as a tool for learning. Ultimately, DisCrit as an intersectional and interdisciplinary framework can enrich existing preservice teachers’ beliefs about relationships in the classroom and connect these relationships to larger projects of dismantling inequities faced by multiply marginalized students.

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