Chapter 91: Critical Race Theory:

“Race” is a social construct; the characteristics that are usually taken to denote “racial” phenomena (especially physical markers such as skin tone) are assigned different meanings in particular historical and social contexts. Far from being a fixed and natural system of genetic difference, race is a system of socially constructed and enforced categories that are constantly recreated and modified through human interaction. In the United States, for example, any physical marker of African American ancestry is usually taken as sufficient to identify a person as “Black”—that same person, however, could board a flight to Brazil and, on disembarking, would find that he was viewed very differently by most Brazilians because the conventional race categories in that society are markedly different to the “common-sense” assumptions in North America. Despite its contested, changing, and ultimately deceitful character, however, race remains one of the most important characteristics in relation to how people experience education and the kinds of outcome that they are likely to achieve. Critical race theory (CRT) is a relatively new, fast growing, and radical perspective that places an understanding of race and racism at the very heart of its approach but also seeks to understand how racism intersects with other forms of oppression such as class, gender, and disability. In this chapter we outline the tenets of CRT in education and discuss recent developments as CRT scholars seek to establish the approach and offer support to colleagues within a hostile and discriminatory system. We begin by describing the origins of the approach, as a radical activist perspective that has had to fight for recognition from its very inception to the present day.