Critical Race Theory

This week, I've been thinking a lot about the Critical Race Theory article. The ideas that were discussed in that article helped to solidify my understanding of race and oppression. While I had heard of Critical Race Theory before, I really wasn't familiar with it as sort of a perspective or paradigm from which to view social problems concerning race. The discussion of the multicultural or cultural sensitivity model of teaching about race or ethnic differences and it's inadequacy in addressing social justice problems of race on a large scale was something I had really never considered.In contrast, Critical Race Theory approaches the problem of institutionalized racism directly. One of the most interesting principles of critical race theory to me was Differential Racialization: "Dominant social discourses and people in power can racialize groups of people in different ways at different times, depending on historic, social, or economic need." The article goes on to give an example of differential racialization using Asian American groups, but personally I thought it relates really well to the way Mexican Americans and undocumented workers are treated. A couple of semesters ago I studied the history of immigrant labor in the US and learned that the political rhetoric condemning immigrant laborers of color occurs in a very predictable cycle: Economy grows-> Cheap, undocumented labor is exploited and even encouraged by business and political interests->Economy stagnates->Undocumented workers become the scapegoat of joblessness and a struggling economy.

It just goes to show that race is definitely still a prominent, ugly issue.