Critical Race
Theory and
African
American
Critical Lens
Mr. Whitener
What is it?
 CRT
is born out of a postcolonial
relationship which superimposes an
intersection between race, the law, and
the powerful (Yosso).
 CRT promotes a “radical” pushback
against the majority by the marginalized.
The lens
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The African American critical lens’ chief concern is
the relationship between the arts and developing
the nature of AA culture.~Bressler
Music, theatre, poetry, WRITING
Derrick Bell wanted to show the importance of
Blackness in everything that is American culture.
Rooted in idea that blacks have been excluded
from the narrative of history in a positive way.
Major themes:
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The “other” has significant issues that are a result of
the construction of society as a whole.
Can you think of any problems you have with
society?
This system of problems reverberates within its own
culture confines.
For example, Native Americans and casinos.
If you’ve never been taught anything different
than why should you know/care?
If you have been taught differently, how does it
positively/negatively change your community or
culture?
Theory Tenants
“America is inherently a “white” country: in
character, in structure, in culture. Needless
to say, black Americans create lives of their
own. Yet as a people, they face boundaries
and constrictions set by the white majority.”
Michael Foucault
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Folks are expected to talk, act, and
walk a certain way.
The internalized gaze creates a
disciplined “people” fearful of the
powerful.
Behavior becomes panopticon, a
vigilance of intersecting gazes.
Our story is observed and rated to
see if we fit into the preferred story
of the disciplined employee.
Deviations and differences are
noted in our records.
This networking of story assessment
mechanisms turns panoptic when
we do not quite know for sure if our
story is being gazed and evaluated
or not.
Cont’d
 AACL
assumes the story is observed and
rated to see if it fit into the preferred story
of the disciplined majority. Deviations and
differences are noted in the records of
“the Other.”
 This networking of story assessment
mechanisms turns panoptic when we do
not quite know for sure if our story is being
gazed and evaluated or not.
Recap
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CRT focuses on culture;
assumes that people
with influence define
culture
Cultures clash,
specifically one deems
itself superior
Marginalized groups
have not been able to
define their culture
They are stakeholders
Cont’d
 Out
of postcolonial
lens, many things
are left behind
from the majority,
i.e. culture
 Some things are
good some are
bad.
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Marginalized groups
were a part of that
culture formation but
were not molders.
AA CL assumes that
blacks have a huge
stake in American
culture which they wish
to express in their own
way, but it can never
be separated from
their history.
W.E.B. Dubois
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Double Consciousness: The
term originally referred to
the psychological
challenge of reconciling
an African heritage with a
European upbringing and
education.
An individual whose
identity is divided into
several facets with a
premise of otherness as its
backdrop.
Difficult for AA to unify their
black identity with their
American identity
Cont’d
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of
always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring
one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt
and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, an American, a Negro; two souls,
two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark
body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
The history of the American Negro is the history o9f this strife- this longing
to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better
and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be
lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much
to teach the world and Africa. He wouldn’t bleach his Negro blood in a
flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a
message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to
be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon
by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in
his face” (2-3).
“Language has a dual
character: it is both a means
of communication and a
carrier of culture” (Thiong’o
13)-1981.
Cont’d
Microagressions
Is He Black Enough?
http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/rac
ial-microagressions-you-hear-on-adaily-basis
Storytelling
Is He an American?
Permission to change our
outlook…
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB27v
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