By Sara Sonsini and Ava Berger
Critical Race Theory is the language of love, Janet Bell, panelist and social justice advocate, said during Boston University Senior Diversity Offices Critical Race Theory panel on Feb. 10.
Between January and September of 2021, 24 states introduced or passed legislation banning CRT from schools. Amid the national debate, BU SDO, in collaboration with the Dean of Students Office, BU School of Law, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development and BU School of Public Health, held a panel on CRT in the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground.
In addition to Bell, the event featured panelists Craig Andrade, associate dean of practice at the School of Public Health, and Laura Jimnez, associate dean of equity, diversity and inclusion at Wheelock.
We are told to love our neighbor as ourselves, and how can you do that if you dont respect that persons history, that persons past, that persons struggles? Bell said.
Senior Diversity Officer, Andrea Taylor, introduced the event as a multidisciplinary panel which would provide context, clarity and resources to students.
Moderator and dean of BU School of Law Angela Onwuachi-Willig emphasized the event was not a partisan panel.
Were not trying to inform you what side you should take, Onwuachi-Willig said. As an educational institution its really important that we have a responsibility to educate everybody on one of the most prominent debates thats occurring in our country right now.
Onwuachi-Willig started the event by defining CRT and racism. She said CRT does not contend that a person is inherently racist.
It is a movement by activists, by scholars who are interested in studying and transforming the relationship between race, racism, power and the law, Onwuachi-Willig said. Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is systemically embedded in laws, policies and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities.
With regards to the law, she said CRT is a necessary alternative to the currently accepted legal doctrine of colorblindness which reifies racism.Critical race theory is an analytical frame that stresses that racism goes beyond individual explicit prejudice and implicit bias, Onwuachi-Willig said. In that sense, critical race theory primarily focuses on structural racism.
Expanding on this definition, Jimnez challenged the common understanding that CRT focuses solely on blackness.
Critical Race Theory is really about white power structures, Jimnez said. Thats where racism lies.
Bell emphasized that CRT allows for black progress which can lead to progress for everyone. Yet Jimnez and Andrade both said CRT is often seen as a boogeyman in their respective fields.
In education, its become a boogeyman, Jimnez said. Its become this thing to fear and to malign and to literally burn down.
Andrade said this fear associated with CRT allows those in power to maintain power. He spoke about why it is critical to discuss CRT.
In the midst of this reaction we have to make sure that we dont allow our own communities to be bamboozled in a way that they have in the past, that we tell what Critical Race Theory is, what the history that usually isnt told is, and how that relates to this moment in time, Andrade said.
Bell added that by banning CRT those in power are keeping knowledge away from their own people.
I always tell young people Claim your space and Claim your future, Bell said. Dont let anyone deny you the opportunity to be the beneficiary of the great knowledge thats out there.
In discussing how we can talk about CRT with those in opposition to the theory, Bell said language matters.
Instead of saying inherent racism, structural racism is a less volatile term, even though its volatile, but I think thats one way of getting into a conversation because it depersonalizes it, Bell said.
Event attendee and graduate student in the College of Engineering, Santiago Gomez, said CRT has become a lightning rod in the public zeitgeist.
Even as educated individuals we can also get lost in this meta conversation about what it is but we dont really know how to define it, Gomez said.
Jali Griesbach, another panel attendee and senior pursuing a dual degree in the College of Communication and the College of Arts and Sciences, described the event as incredible.
I feel really empowered to just go out and continue expanding on this knowledge, Griesbach said. And hopefully just utilize it in conversations with people I know who feel really closed off to this kind of idea.
Andrade said the future of the movement will continue to reject binary frames.
There are people that are taking that information from traditional feminist literature, to queer literature, to liberation theory in all kinds of ways and making it their own, Andrade said. And thats the future of where were going.
See the rest here:
- Kate Berlant and John Early Discuss the Origin of Would It Kill You to Laugh? and Their Absence of Sexual Tension - Variety - June 29th, 2022
- As Wimbledon Begins, an Era of Sports Free of Bans and Boycotts Ends - The New York Times - June 29th, 2022
- The End of a 50-Year Chapter - City Journal - June 29th, 2022
- 'Elvis' Costume Designer Catherine Martin on Recreating the King's Inimitable Style - Coveteur - June 29th, 2022
- Further thoughts on restorationistsand a remark on papal sycophants - Catholic World Report - June 29th, 2022
- These are the 11 greatest Glastonbury Festival sets ever - Louder - June 29th, 2022
- Lebanese-Australian Fashion Designer, Yasmin Jay, On Why Theres A Gap In The Market For Modest Fashion - ELLE Australia - June 29th, 2022
- The benefits of adaptive reusing old buildings into new... - Inhabitat - June 29th, 2022
- Author Leah Sottile discusses her deep dive into two dead children in Idaho, and where extreme religion meets extreme conspiratorial fervor - Inlander - June 29th, 2022
- 10 Most ICONIC 50s Fashion Looks - Dress Like The 1950s - The VOU - June 18th, 2022
- Outrage From Young Women Sparks Ambition to Become More Involved in Politics - Australian Institute of International Affairs - Australian Institute of... - June 18th, 2022
- 4 Young Critics Put New Eyes and Fresh Perspectives On 'Hamilton' - Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO Weekly) - June 18th, 2022
- GOPs violent, expanding war on LBGTQ kids should make you think about 1930s Germany | Will Bunch - The Philadelphia Inquirer - June 18th, 2022
- Nova Twins' Supernova is the album leading alt rock into a new future - Louder - June 18th, 2022
- TABLEAU's 'Confessions' addresses the silent crisis in male mental health - STIRworld - June 18th, 2022
- Michelle Obama delivers impassioned speech on voting: If you dontothers will! - TheGrio - June 18th, 2022
- What the Zeitgeist can Tell us About the Future of Terrorism - ICCT - International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague - June 11th, 2022
- REVIEW: 'Six' brings out the rock star side of Henry VIII's wives - Sioux City Journal - June 11th, 2022
- The Biennial Stars: Meet the 17 (Perhaps Unexpected) Artists Who Have Defined Our Current Era of International Art Shows - artnet News - June 11th, 2022
- "Nevada" and the Multiverse of Sadness - www.autostraddle.com - June 11th, 2022
- It breaks your heart: How Geraldine Brooks turned her grief into a book of love - Sydney Morning Herald - June 11th, 2022
- Does Tom Cruise represent the last generation of flesh and blood movie stars? - Flicks - June 11th, 2022
- What is LGBTQIA+? The acronym for the queer community keeps evolving. - Yahoo Life - June 9th, 2022
- A 35-Year-Old Man Listens to My Chemical Romances The Black Parade for the First Time - Consequence - June 9th, 2022
- Commentary: How Anton Chekhov became the playwright of the moment - Los Angeles Times - June 9th, 2022
- The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Announces 2022-2023 Season Featuring Two World Premieres & More - Broadway World - June 9th, 2022
- Preserve the past, please! - Dhaka Tribune - June 9th, 2022
- What Happens to Johnny Depps and Amber Heards Careers? Insiders Weigh In - Vanity Fair - June 5th, 2022
- WA Symphony Orchestra and Asher Fisch play Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms at Perth Concert Hall - The West Australian - June 5th, 2022
- PODCAST: Rewind of the Living Dead Reviews 'Stranger Things' Season 4, Volume 1 - Nerdcore Movement - June 3rd, 2022
- Review: Two and a Half Rivers by Anirudh Kala - Hindustan Times - June 3rd, 2022
- The Problem with Zeitgeist | The Anarchist Library - May 20th, 2022
- Zeitgeist Movement | Emerging economy Wiki | Fandom - May 20th, 2022
- Screen Printing the Visual Zeitgeist - The Provincetown Independent - May 20th, 2022
- 'Think you can do what you want with your body?': vintage pro-choice ads in pictures - The Guardian - May 20th, 2022
- How Will Remote Work Effect The Media Industry - Forbes - May 20th, 2022
- 2022 GOP primaries prove that MAGA is now bigger than Donald Trump - Salon - May 20th, 2022
- Escape Academy captures the fun of escape puzzles, without the cramped rooms - BEAM Media - May 20th, 2022
- 6 Nigerian Artists Riding On the Y2K Fashion Big Time - The Culture Custodian - May 20th, 2022
- Seizing the zeitgeist - PharmaTimes Magazine May 2022 - PharmaTimes - May 17th, 2022
- Hear rare audio of Television and Patti Smith performing 'Marquee Moon' in 1975 - Far Out Magazine - May 17th, 2022
- Are You in a Cult? This Podcast Can Tell You - Vulture - May 17th, 2022
- "Traditional" Catholics and white nationalist "groypers" forge a new far-right youth movement - Salon - May 15th, 2022
- The missing election ingredient: nothing here for the next generation - ABC News - May 15th, 2022
- Moving the Mountain: A Conversation about Pro-Blackness with Cyndi Suarez, Liz Derias, and Kad Smith - Non Profit News - Nonprofit Quarterly - May 15th, 2022
- Review: Ali Smith's 'Companion Piece' to her timely quartet - Los Angeles Times - May 7th, 2022
- Five artists whose image was more important than the music - Far Out Magazine - May 7th, 2022
- What's New on DVD/Blu-ray in May: 'Turning Red,' 'X,' 'Mississippi Masala' and More - TheWrap - May 7th, 2022
- June Ambrose On Style, Motherhood And Building Her Legacy - HelloBeautiful - May 7th, 2022
- Surrealism's Alternative History The 59th Venice Biennale - Nico Kos Earle - ArtLyst - May 7th, 2022
- A Brief History of Sex Clubs, And Their Clandestine Predecessors - InsideHook - May 7th, 2022
- New York cannot be the city of your dreams - Washington Square News - April 24th, 2022
- Kate Sutton at the 59th Venice Biennale - Artforum - April 24th, 2022
- Punk and poison: The trailblazing life and sad legacy of Johnny Thunders - Far Out Magazine - April 24th, 2022
- The Passover Offensive and the Easter(n) Promises - Jewish Journal - April 24th, 2022
- Inside the Critics Circle: This book gives a sociologists perspective on contemporary reviewing - Scroll.in - April 24th, 2022
- Unpacking the nature and human health zeitgeist Discover Society - April 20th, 2022
- Catching the zeitgeist - The Korea JoongAng Daily - April 20th, 2022
- To Reckon with Theft of Indigenous Land, Change Place Names - GovExec.com - April 20th, 2022
- What is shadow banning? And what do social platforms say about it? - Sydney Morning Herald - April 20th, 2022
- Tribeca Festival Lineup Includes Corner Office With Jon Hamm, Ray Romanos Somewhere In Queens, More - Deadline - April 20th, 2022
- Eli Roth names his five favourite horror movies of all time - Far Out Magazine - April 20th, 2022
- Tune into baseball for long enough in 2022 and you're almost assured to c - EMEA TRIBUNE - April 20th, 2022
- So what is the good of book reviewing? A review of a review of the reviewers - The Conversation - April 20th, 2022
- The Euphoria Casts Fashion-World Takeover - Surface Magazine - April 15th, 2022
- Ranking the songs of David Bowie album Aladdin Sane in order of greatness - Far Out Magazine - April 15th, 2022
- Keeping up with the Kardashians' confounding popularity - Stuff - April 15th, 2022
- Bulgari Releases the Thinnest Mechanical Watch in the World - Gear Patrol - March 26th, 2022
- Former Amazon Studios Chief Roy Price on His Downfall: 'That Was Not a Good Week to Have a Bad Article' - Next TV - March 26th, 2022
- The top 10 documentaries that can genuinely change your life - Far Out Magazine - March 26th, 2022
- This stunning Deep South fable isn't the next Kentucky Route Zeroit's the first Norco - PC Gamer - March 26th, 2022
- The 74 Interview: Howard Historian Daryl Scott on 'Grievance History,' the 1619 Project and the 'Possibility that We Rend Ourselves on the Question of... - March 26th, 2022
- What is the secret to happiness? Arthur Brooks talks sources of happiness | Opinion - Deseret News - March 26th, 2022
- 'The Godfather' at 50 Review - The Film Magazine - March 26th, 2022
- Chasing the Gold: Why 'The Power of the Dog' Should Win Best Picture - InSession Film - March 26th, 2022
- On art and women: I-You-They at Istanbuls spacious Meher | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah - March 26th, 2022
- SCRUTINY | National Ballets The Sleeping Beauty Filled To The Brim With Talent - Ludwig Van - March 26th, 2022
- Oil time high: Do analysts think crude will hit $200 a barrel? - Capital.com - March 26th, 2022
- The Glasgow bootmaker who ordered Freddie Mercury to fit David Bowie with a pair of platforms - Glasgow Live - March 26th, 2022
- Wear a suit to the office. Its a special occasion - The Guardian - February 19th, 2022