Critical race parenting in the Trump era: a Sisyphean endeavor? A parable

Abstract

This article examines the complicated decisions parents make when they decide to raise critically conscious children. The article argues that critical parenting in US society is often analogous to the Greek myth of Sisyphus. Using Critical Race Parenting, Critical Race Theory, and Critical Whiteness Studies, this critically interpretive parable looks to the election of Donald Trump as US President and the ways whiteness, patriarchy, sexism, xenophobia, ableism, and racism function in social, cultural, economic, and educational spheres. This parable tells the story of Sue Libertad and analyzes how parenting in the era of Trump is Sisyphean. This concludes with a discussion of the importance of talking about race, racism, and heterosexism with our children, which disrupts whiteness, sexism, and patriarchy, and ultimately Trump and his administration.

Keywords:

• Critical Race Parenting (ParentCrit)
• Critical Race Theory
• Critical Whiteness Studies
• parables

Notes

1. Parent for the purpose of this paper is a person who is entrusted with the care of the person or property, or both, of another, as a minor or someone legally incapable of managing his or her own affairs. Including but limited to: biological parents, adoptive parents, guardians, care-takers, siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and extended family.

2. A friend and co-mother.

3. Our people, our community, and our race.

4. Daughter.

5. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, nursing, and non-nursing postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five.

6. Darker skinned.

7. Combination ‘march’ and ‘parade.’

8. We understand and are acutely aware that the terms ‘colorblind’ and ‘mute’ can be interpreted as ableist. Our usage is not to promote ableism but to include specific scholarship that addresses issues of race avoidance.

9. Robin Bernstein, a professor of African and African American studies and women, gender, and sexuality, presented a critique of the historic study at a W.E.B. DuBois Institute Colloquium, revisited and revalidated the original test results.