Critical Race Theory and Education (eBook)

Mike Cole is Professor of Education at the University of East London, UK. His latest books are New Developments in Critical Race Theory and Education: Revisiting Racialized Capitalism and Socialism in Austerity (2016); Racism: A Critical Analysis (2016); and Education, Equality and Human Rights: Issues of Gender, ‘Race’, Sexuality, Disability and Social Class 4th Edition (2017). 

Series Editor Foreword 6
Preface 9
References 10
Acknowledgements 12
Contents 14
Chapter 1: Introduction 16
Some Early Personal Experiences of Racist Britain 16
A First Encounter with and an Ongoing Interest in Marxist Analyses of Racism 18
Outline of the Book 19
Notes 21
References 22
Chapter 2: Critical Race Theory: Origins and Varieties 23
The Voice of the Other 23
Postmodernism 23
Transmodernism 25
Critical Legal Studies 26
Critical Race Theory: The Beginnings 29
CRT: Identity-Specific Varieties 33
LatCrit and Black Exceptionalism 33
Asian American Jurisprudence 36
Native Jurisprudence 37
Materialist and Idealist CRT 40
References 45
Chapter 3: White Supremacy and Racism Social Class and Racialization
Tenet I: ‘White Supremacy’ Rather than ‘Racism’ 49
Directing Attention Away from Modes of Production 51
The Homogenization of All White People 52
Non-colour-coded Racism 56
Anti-Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Racism 57
Islamophobia 58
Xeno-racism 59
White Supremacy as a Unifier and Political Rallying Point 60
Tenet II: ‘Race’ Not Class as the Primary Contradiction 62
The Salience of Social Class 64
Delgado and Going Back to Class 66
Racism and Marxism 67
Racism Defined 69
Racialization 71
Racialization and the British Empire 72
The New Racial Domain in the US 74
Xeno-racialization 75
References 83
Chapter 4: The Strengths of CRT 91
The Use of the Concept of Property to Explain Historically Segregation and White Supremacy2 in the US 92
The Importance of Voice 93
The Concept of Chronicle 95
The All-Pervasive Existence of Racism in the World 96
Interest Convergence Theory 98
Contradiction-Closing Cases 99
The Stephen Lawrence Case 100
The Case of Barack Obama 103
Transposition 105
CRT and the Law in the US 106
Appendix 107
Chronicle: CRT, White Supremacy and Racism 107
References 115
Chapter 5: Multicultural and Antiracist Education in the US and the UK 119
Traditional Forms of Multiculturalism in the US 119
Conservative Multiculturalism 120
Liberal Multiculturalism 120
Left-Liberal Multiculturalism 121
Critical and Resistant Multiculturalism 121
CRT and a Rights-Based Discourse 122
Revolutionary Multiculturalism 124
Multicultural Education and Antiracist Education in the UK 126
References 135
Chapter 6: CRT Comes to the UK: A Critical Analysis of David Gillborn’s Racism and Education 139
On Marxists 140
On Marx and Slavery 142
On Marx and ‘Species Essence’ 144
On ‘White Powerholders’ 145
On Racist Inequalities in the UK Education System 148
On Education Policy 149
On Ability 154
On Institutional Racism 155
On ‘Model Minorities’ 157
On Whiteness and Free Speech 157
On Conspiracy 158
And Finally … on ‘Struggling where We are’ Against ‘the Powers that Be’ 159
References 163
Chapter 7: Neoliberal Global Capitalism and Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century 168
Capitalism 168
Globalization 170
Neoliberalism 171
Globalization and Global Environmental Destruction 173
Globalisation and the US Empire2 175
Enfraudening and Enantiomorphism: A Transmodern Perspective 177
A Postmodern Fantasy 178
Transmodern ‘Narcissism’ or Racializing the Other: A Marxist Analysis 179
The Occupation of Iraq Five Years On 184
Appendix 188
References 190
Chapter 8: Marxism and Twenty-First Century Socialism 195
Common Objections to Marxism and a Marxist Response4 197
How Is the Marxist Vision of Socialism Different from Capitalism and Why Is It Better? 197
Marxism Is Contrary to Human Nature Because We Are All Basically Selfish and Greedy and Competitive 198
Some People Are Naturally Lazy and Won’t Work 199
Why Shouldn’t Those Who Have Worked Hard Get More Benefits in Life? 200
Marxism Can’t Work Because It Always Leads to Totalitarianism 200
Someone Will Always Want to Be ‘Boss’ and There Will Always Be Natural ‘Leaders’ and ‘Followers’ 201
It Is Impossible to Plan Centrally in Such a Hugely Diverse and Complex World 202
Someone Has to Do the Drudge Jobs, and How Could that Be Sorted Out in a Socialist World 202
Socialism Means a Lower Standard of Life for All 202
Socialism Will Be Dull, Dreary and Uniform and We Will All Have Less Choice 203
A Social Revolution Will Necessarily Involve Violence and Death on a Massive Scale 203
The Working Class Won’t Create the Revolution Because They Are Reactionary 204
Marxists Just Wait for the Revolution Rather than Address the Issues of the Here and Now 205
Marxism Is a Nice Idea, but It Will Never Happen (for Some of the Reasons Headlined Above) 206
Ok, Show Me where Marxism Works in Practice 209
The Bolivarian Revolution11 209
The misiones 210
Marxism and the Venezuelan State 212
Antiracism in Practice 216
References 224
Chapter 9: CRT and Marxism: Some Suggestions for Classroom Practice 228
Some Areas of Agreement 228
Preston’s Classroom Pedagogies: A CRT Strategy1 231
Whiteness Is a False Form of Identity and … There Is No Such Thing as White Culture 232
Whiteness Is a Structural System of Oppression and There Is No Possibility of Redemption or Reformation of Whiteness 233
Whiteness Divides Humanity Against Itself and Therefore Is Not in the Genuine Interests Even of White People 233
Some Suggestions for Classroom Practice, Based on Marxism 234
Antiracist Multicultural Education 235
The Reintroduction of the Teaching of Imperialisms 237
The Last Taboo: The Teaching of Democratic Socialism in Schools 238
Ecosocialism 239
Communities, Values and Justice 240
Linking Up with the Community 240
The UK National Curriculum 240
The Global Gateway 241
The Revised Citizenship Curriculum at KS3/4 241
Every Child Matters 242
Appendix5 243
References 245
Chapter 10: Conclusion 249
CRT and Human Liberation 250
The Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. 251
Classism or Marxism and Democratic Socialism? 252
A Realignment of CLS and CRT Informed by Marxism? 254
References 256
Postscript 258
References 260
References 261
Index 289