The Whites to Remain Silent: Critical Race Theory Perspective on the School-to-Prison Pipeline

THE WHITES TO REMAIN SILENT:CRITICAL RACE THEORY PERSPECTIVE ON

THE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE

M. ALEX EVANSDOCTORAL STUDENT

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGNEDUCATION POLICY, ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP

SOCIAL CULTURAL STUDIES IN EDUCATION POLICY

N.C.C. Law Review SymposiumYouth in N.C. Panel

Central High School 1957 – Little Rock,

Arkansas

“[T]he rights of the oppressed are seldom effectively

asserted and exercised within the dominant

institutionalized channels of the social order.” - JOHN O

CALMORE -

What is Critical Race Theory

Examines relationship between

race, racism, and power.

Includes economics, history,

context, group/self-interest,

feelings, and the unconscious.

Activism beyond understanding

social situations, to transform racial

hierarchies.

Challenges dominant Ideologies

Critical

Race

Theory

Richard Delgado, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction

Critical Race Theory Tenets

1. The Permanence & Pervasiveness

of Racism

2. Whiteness as Property/Privilege

3. Race as a Social Construction

4. Interest-Convergence

5. Intersectionality

6. Storytelling, Counter-storytelling,

Narratives

Richard Delgado, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction

Critical Race Theory and the School-to-Prison

Pipeline

Permanent and Pervasive Racism

Permanent and Pervasive Racism

Race and racism are central,

endemic, and fundamental in

defining and explaining how U.S.

society functions.o Adrienne D. Dixson and Celia K. Rousseau, “Critical

Race Theory in Education: All God’s Children Got a

Song”.

This principle provides an accurate

historical/context lens and critical

framework to analyze the racially

disparate data in the STPP.

Permanent and Pervasive Racism

In Wake County, Black students are

subject to:

62.3% of short-term

67.5% of long-term suspensions,

73.4% of school-based delinquency

complaints.

26.1% of the total student population

Jason Langberg, The State of the School to Prison Pipeline in the Wake County Public School System. Advocates for

Children’s Services a Project of Legal Aid of North Carolina.

Permanent and Pervasive Racism

1970

2010

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

BlackStudents

WhiteStudents

Suspension Rates Data from 1970 and 2010

1970 2010

Permanent and Pervasive Racism

0%

10%

20%

30%

BLACK BOYS

WHITE BOYS

BLACK GIRLS

WHITE GIRLS

Middle School Racial and Gender Disparities

Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis - 2010

Critical Race Theory and the School-to-Prison

Pipeline

Whiteness as Property

Whiteness as Property

Cheryl Harris, Whiteness as Property

“Origins of property rights in the U.S. rooted in racial domination.”

The dominant culture’s perceptions of race and property played a critical role in establishing and maintaining racial and economic subordination.

Refers to: Slavery, Native American Land Seizure, Plessy, Brown, Regents of University of California v. Bakke, City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Ed.

Whiteness as Property

White Students Property Rights

Right to an education

Use and Enjoyment of Privilege

Reputation and Status

Right to Exclude

To Remain Silent

Whiteness as Property

STPP Critical Race Theory Research

Subini Ancy Annamma, Whiteness as Property:

Innocence and Ability in Teacher Education.

Provides racial analysis of teachers’ attitudes toward

students of color.

Highlights the need for training in understanding of

race, racism, and inequities that recognize the

historical legacy of whiteness as property.

Critical Race Theory and the School-to-Prison

Pipeline

Race as a Social Construction

Race as a Social Construction

Race is not a natural, fixed, or biological

concept.

Race is a social and legal construct.

Race has not been constructed neutrally, but

instead coercively as an ideological tool.

See IAN HANEY LÓPEZ, WHITE BY LAW: THE LEGAL

CONSTRUCTION OF RACE 78–108 (rev. ed. 2006).

Race as a Social Construction

David Simson, Exclusion, Punishment, Racism and Our Schools: A Critical Race Theory Perspective on

School Discipline

Critical Race Theory and the School-to-Prison

Pipeline

Interest-Convergence

Interest-Convergence

Dominant culture (whites) support racial

justice, only when there is something in it for

them. See the movie “Space Traders” by Derrick Bell

“[T]he fourteenth amendment, standing alone,

will not authorize a judicial remedy providing

effective racial equality for blacks where the

remedy sought threatens the superior societal

status of middle and upper class whites.” Derrick Bell, Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-

Convergence Dilemma

Interest-Convergence

Historical Examples of Interest-Convergence

Abolition of Slavery – Hayes Tilden Compromise

Brown v. Board of Ed & Desegregation – Foreign

Policy

Super Bowl XXVVII – Martin Luther King Day

Controversy

Interest-Convergence = Prison Industrial Complex

Interest-Convergence = Prison Industrial Complex

Critical Race Theory and the School-to-Prison

Pipeline

Intersectionality

Intersectionality

Study of intersections between

oppression, domination, and

discrimination.

Race, Gender, Class, Ethnicity,

Sexual Orientation, Ability, Religion,

etc…

“Intersectionality” – Term coined by

Kimberle Crenshaw

Intersectionality

Black Girls Matter

“As public concern mounts for the

needs of men and boys of color

through initiatives like the White

House’s My Brother’s Keeper, we

must challenge the assumption that

the lives of girls and women who are

often left out of the national

conversation are not also at risk,” -

Kimberle Crenshaw -Kimberle Crenshaw, Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and

Underprotected

Critical Race Theory and the School-to-Prison

Pipeline

Storytelling & Narratives

Storytelling & Narratives

“Counter-stories can engage conscience and

stir imagination in ways in which more

conventional discourse cannot.”

Stories, parables, chronicles, and narratives

are powerful means for destroying white

supremacist ideals.

Richard Delgado, Storytelling for Oppositionists

and Others: A Plea For Narrative

Conclusion

Critical Race Theory provides a sound

methodological framework to research the

School-to-Prison Pipeline.

As an activism based form of research, it

serves as a change agent with valuable

historical, economical, and social context.

CRT & STTP Articles

Allen, Q., & White-Smith, K. (2014). “Just as Bad as Prisons”: The Challenge

of Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline Through Teacher and Community

Education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(4), 445-460.

Blessett, Brandi. (2014). Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline:

Reconfiguring the System from Investing in the Failure of the "Other". In The

American Mosaic: The Latino American Experience. Retrieved March 24,

2014, from http://latinoamerican2.abc-clio.com/

Fasching-Varner, K., Mitchell, R., Martin, L., & Bennett-Haron, K. (2014).

Beyond School-to-Prison Pipeline and Toward an Educational and Penal

Realism. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(4), 410-429.

Healey, Melina A. (2014) Montana's Rural Version of the School-to-Prison

Pipeline School Discipline and Tragedy on American Indian Reservations.

Montana Law Review. 75, 15-66.

CRT & STTP Articles (cont’d.)

Irizarry, Jason G. & Raible, John. (2014) “A Hidden Part of Me”: Latino/a

Students,

Silencing, and the Epidermalization of Inferiority, Equity & Excellence in

Education, 47:4, 430-444, DOI: 10.1080/10665684.2014.958970

Sherman, F., & Jacobs, F. (2011). Juvenile Prison Schooling and Reentry:

Disciplining Young Men of Color. In Juvenile justice advancing research, policy,

and practice (pp. 310-330). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons.

Simson, D. (2014). Exclusion, Punishment, Racism and Our Schools: A Critical

Race Theory Perspective on School Discipline. UCLA Law Review, 61, 506-

563.

Vaught, S. (2012). Hate Speech in a Juvenile Male Prison School and in US

Schooling. The Urban Review, 239-264.

Thank You N.C.C. Law Review V.37

The Whites to Remain Silent:

Critical Race Theory Perspective on

the School-to Prison Pipeline

M. Alex EvansMarch 27, 2015

N.C.C. Law Review Symposium

North Carolina Central University School of Law