Non-Neutrality & Oppositional Scholarship in Critical Race Theory
Last updated Aug 14, 2023. This is part of the upcoming section on critical race theory in the Culture War Encyclopedia. In the future this may be expanded to be about oppositional scholarship in academia more generally.Oppositional Scholarship in Critical Race Theory
CONTENTS
Introduction
CRT’s Oppositional Origin
Voice of Opposition in CRT
Closing
Introduction
As we will see, critical race theory is oppositional in origin and in nature.
In this piece it is assumed that the reader has some idea of what critical race theory is and at least knows that it broke off from critical legal studies and it is assumed that the reader wants to know about CRT’s oppositional aspect. If needed, see the sections on CRT and/or CLS.
CRT’s Oppositional Origin
In Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, the editors write1 of
two key institutional events in the development of Critical Race Theory as a movement.
The first is the student protest, boycott, and organization of an alternative course on race and law at Harvard Law School in 1981 - an event that highlights the significance of Derrick Bell and the Critical Legal Studies movement to the ultimate development of Critical Race Theory, and symbolizes Critical Race Theory’s oppositional posture vis-a-vis the liberal mainstream.
Note that the Derrick Bell they refer to is Derrick A. Bell Jr. who, it is helpful to know, is considered the “intellectual father figure” of CRT.2
I may also need to clarify that they mean to write that in 1981, students at Harvard Law School protested and boycotted an already existing course and started their own course about race and law. Here the editors refer to it as “an alternative course”. Later, they refer to as “the Alternative Course”.3 They continue,
The second is the 1987 Critical Legal Studies National Conference on silence and race, which marked the genesis of an intellectually distinctive critical account of race on terms set forth by race-conscious scholars of color, and the terms of contestation and coalition with CLS.
They write that the Alternative Course was 3 weeks long and that it was conducted as a sort of protest against the university’s decision to fill a newly a vacant position with the most qualified candidate based on merit alone. They wanted the most qualified black candidate to fill the post.4 Note that when they write of “Bell” below, they are referring to the same Derrick A. Bell Jr.. They write,5
In the local Harvard confrontation, student organizers decided to boycott the mini-course offered by the administration and organized instead “The Alternative Course,” a student-led continuation of Bell’s course which focused on American law through the prism of race. Taught by scholars of color from other schools who were each asked to speak about topics loosely organized to trace the chapters of Bell’s Race, Racism and American Law book, the course simultaneously provided the means to develop a framework to understand law and racial power and to contest Harvard’s deployment of meritocratic mythology as an instance of that very power.
The Alternative Course was in many ways the first institutionalized expression of Critical Race Theory. With the aid of outside funding and sympathetic Harvard teachers (many of them white crits who provided encouragement, strategic advice, and independent study credit to enable students to attend the classes) the course brought together a critical mass of scholars and students, and focused on the need to develop an alternative account of racial power and its relation to law and antidiscrimination reform. Among the guest speakers were Charles Lawrence, Linda Greene, Neil Gotanda, and Richard Delgado, all of whom were already in law teaching. Mari Matsuda, then a graduate law student, was a participant in the Alternative Course, and Kimberle’ Crenshaw one of its main organizers.
In our sections on CRT and in related sections in the Culture War Encyclopedia we discuss and quote from the works of all of these people (see the bottom of this article for a list of these sections). They continue,
The Alternative Course is a useful point to mark the genesis of Critical Race Theory for many reasons. First, it was one of the earliest attempts to bring scholars of color together to address the law’s treatment of race from a self- consciously critical perspective. . .
Second, the Alternative Course exemplified another important feature of Critical Race Theory movement, namely, the view - shared with the Critical Legal Studies movement - that it is politically meaningful to contest the terrain and terms of dominant legal discourse. . .
Note the emphasis on “contention”, as in opposition. They continue,
Finally, the Alternative Course embodied one of the key markers of Critical Race Theory - the way in which our intellectual trajectories are rooted in in a dissatisfaction with and opposition to liberal mainstream discourses about race such as those presented by the Harvard administration.
Further on they write that
the Alternative Course symbolizes the trajectory of Critical Race Theory as a left intervention in conventional race discourse
Notice the importance in CRT of the interventionist view and the emphasis on opposition to liberal mainstream academic narratives regarding race. CRT is to the left of liberalism. It’s roots are in Marxism.
See the sections in the Culture War Encyclopedia on cultural Marxism, neo-Marxism, critical theory and CLS for more on this.
Voice of Opposition in CRT
In Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement the editors included three essays in Part Five - The Search for the Oppositional Voice.
The first of these is Critical Race Theory Archie Shepp and Fire Music Securing An Authentic Intellectual Life in A Multicultural World by John O. Calmore6 in which he writes7 of
critical race theory's radical assessment orientation
and adds8 that
critical race theory recognizes that revolutionizing a culture begins with the radical assessment of it.
Further along these lines, he writes9 that CRT is
oppositional scholarship
In other words, it takes an adversarial position to general academia. He compares jazz music’s oppositional relationship with mainstream music to CRT’s oppositional stance to mainstream academia. By “fire music”, he means jazz when he writes,10
Like fire music's oppositional stance, critical race theory presents not only a different methodology and grounding, but also a message different from traditional race scholarship, now euphemistically known as “civil rights” or “antidiscrimination” scholarship.
Note the emphasis on confrontation, rebellion and opposition when he writes,11
In sum, as critical race theorists confront the texts of America's dominant legal, social, and cultural strata, we are critical, fundamentally so, because we engage these texts in a manner that counters their oppressive and subordinating features. In this endeavor we are not simply in opposition; we are not rebels without a cause. We are the “new interpreters,” who demand of the dominant institutions a new validity…
The second of these essays in Part Five - The Search for the Oppositional Voice is Two Life Stories: Reflections of One Black Woman Law Professor by Taunya Lovell Banks. This was originally published in Berkeley Women’s Law Journal (1990-1991) and it was reprinted in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement in 1995. 12 I think it is fair to say that her essay is not oppositional in the sense of being confrontational. She puts forth her view on what is called the voice of color or voice of color thesis (see the section on CRT for more on that) as opposed to the mainstream color blind / race neutral view. For more on her essay, see the voice of color under critical race theory (coming soon).
The third of these essays is The Word and the River: Pedagogy as Scholarship as Struggle by Charles R. Lawrence, III13 who is considered “a pioneer in critical race theory”.14 As his title suggests, in this essay, Lawrence III paints their scholarship as being inseparable from activism. In this essay he also stresses subjectivity / non-neutrality. He dedicates a section to The Gift of Identity: Embracing Subjectivity in which he writes,15
Most legal academics aspire to the classical scholarly paradigm of the detached, objective observer/recorder. This model envisions scholars achieving an unbiased and universal perspective by distancing themselves from the social reality they seek to describe.[50] The Word, in stark contrast, embraces positioned perspective.
He titles a subsection Subjectivity as Taking Sides: Embracing Nonneutrality16 in which he writes of scholarship that,17
the work must be political
and that18 the contrast between their
nonneutral commitment to results and dominant scholarship's professed quest for value neutrality and the identification of shared values, a quest that may well be indifferent to results, is striking in the context of faculty debates over the appropriateness of quotas and set-asides to achieve race and gender diversity on law school faculties.
Closing
The oppositional stance of CRT is often mentioned in passing in writings by critical race theorists, so frequently that it would be too much to systematically include all such instances here.
Also see:
critical race theory (coming soon)
critical theory (coming soon)
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
interest convergence (coming soon)
racial separatism in critical race theory
SOURCES
Banks, Taunya Lovell - Two Life Stories: Reflections of One Black Woman Law Professor originally published in Berkeley Women’s Law Journal (1990-1991), reprinted in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, pages 329-336.
Calmore, John O. - Critical Race Theory Archie Shepp and Fire Music Securing An Authentic Intellectual Life in A Multicultural World - originally printed in Southern California Law Review 65 (July, 1992), reprinted in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement by multiple authors and editors (copyright 1995, the New Press)
Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic - Critical Race Theory - an Introduction (3rd edition, 2017) New York University Press
Lawrence, III, Charles R. - The Word and the River: Pedagogy as Scholarship as Struggle, originally published in Southern California Law Review 65 / 2231 (July, 1992); reprinted in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, pages 336-351
(Georgetown Law) - Georgetown Law Celebrates Commencement 2017 - Georgetown Law
(multiple authors, forward by Cornel West, edited by Kimberle Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, Kendell Thomas) - Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement by multiple authors and editors (copyright 1995, the New Press)
∴ Liberty ∴ Strength ∴ Honor ∴ Justice ∴ Truth ∴ Love ∴ Laughter ∴
FOOTNOTES
Pages xix-xx
See page 6 in Critical Race Theory - An Introduction by Delgado and Stefancic
Pages xxi and xxii, for example.
Pages xx-xxi
Pages xxi-xxii
Originally printed in Southern California Law Review 65 (July, 1992), reprinted in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement by multiple authors and editors (copyright 1995, the New Press)
Page 13 in Southern California Law Review 65 (July, 1992); Page 319 in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings that Formed the Movement.
Page 12 in Southern California Law Review 65 / 2231 (July, 1992); Page 319 in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement
Banks, Taunya Lovell - Two Life Stories: Reflections of One Black Woman Law Professor originally published in Berkeley Women’s Law Journal (1990-1991), reprinted in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, pages 329-336.
Lawrence, III, Charles R. - The Word and the River: Pedagogy as Scholarship as Struggle, originally published in Southern California Law Review 65 / 2231 (July, 1992); reprinted in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, pages 336-351
Pages 11-12 in Southern California Law Review 65 / 2231; Page 338 in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement
Pages 14-17 in Southern California Law Review 65 / 2231 (July, 1992); Pages 339-340 in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement
Page 15 in Southern California Law Review 65 / 2231 (July, 1992); Page 340 in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement
Page 15 in Southern California Law Review 65 / 2231 (July, 1992); Page 340 in Critical Race Theory - The Key Writings That Formed the Movement