The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same: Race, Education, and Critical Race Theory After 20 Years: An Appraisal

We know that the permanence of racism emanates from the determination of whites to dominate blacks and other colored peoples with little regard to the hidden, but no less real, costs of that dominance. … [R]acism is a necessary stabilizing force…. —Derrick Bell (2004), The Unintended Lessons in Brown v. Board of Education.

Since the 1995 publication of Gloria Ladson-Billings and William F. Tate's seminal article, “Toward a Critical Race Theory in Education,” considerable social and political change has taken place within the United States and abroad—the most significant sociopolitical occurrence being the 2008 presidential election and 2012 reelection of the first African American president of United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama. Obama's election was enthusiastically embraced by many in the mainstream news media, conservative pundits, and racial liberals as the onset of a “postracial” epoch in which race no longer served as a determinant in shaping the individual and collective life chances for people of color. At the same time, the Obama presidency and the postracial narrative ironically seemed to have magically transformed people of European ancestry (i.e., whites) into a minority population under siege, as illustrated by the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017. Indeed, the eruptive visceral and evocative pleas by white people in America to “take their country back,” and white Britons' decision to withdraw from the European Union (i.e., Brexit), are the latest iteration of white backlash to nonwhite political progress (Hughey, 2014). As sociologist Matthew W. Hughey (2014) reminds us, “[b]acklashes are not atomistic or static events… [They] serve as crucial mechanisms in the reproduction of racial inequality” (p. 721). In other words, white backlash to people of color's advancement is “sewn together by the narrative that non-white success is purposefully engineered at the expense of white sacrifice” (Hughey, 2014, p. 217). As scholars of critical race theory (CRT), we understand this pattern of progress and regress as the normal and permanent process of racial history in the United States.

Across the broad history of racial progress in the United States, a majority of white people have displayed a range of emotions from support, tacit approval, outright hostility, and obstructionist opposition.¹ Those against advancing equality have employed tactics such as massive resistance and strategic delay to thwart the implementation of antidiscrimination laws. Furthermore, white people have not only supported recalcitrant policies that run counter to their social, political, and economic interests (Anderson, 1988; Bartley, 1999; Day, 2014; Donnor (2018/this issue; Finely, 2008; Robin, 2011; Span, 2009; Ward, 2011; Webb, 2005), but also the myth that they are under siege. Together their efforts have continued the political repression and socioeconomic marginalization of people of color from meaningful material resources, such as a quality education. In short, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The contributing authors in this issue of the Peabody Journal of Education not only continue to address Ladson-Billings and Tate's argument that race remains undertheorized in education, but also articulate how race and the legacy of institutionalized racism remain major determinants in shaping the education of students of color in the 21st century. As previously mentioned, much has transpired socially and politically since the 1995 article. At the societal level, the seemingly daily instances of black and Latino/a fatal encounters with law enforcement, as well as the church massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, and the presidential election of Donald Trump (who promised to “make America great again”) have renewed the national conversation on the “doings of race” and the qualitative impact of racism on nonwhites. Also, the foregoing sparked worldwide protests and social movements, such as “Black Lives Matter,” which brought to the forefront the indisputable historical fact that the lives of nonwhites in the United States are not only discounted, but do not matter, unless they benefit whites who wield the power. Again, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

This issue themed on race, education, and critical race theory is relevant and timely. Whereas the early critical race scholarship in education focused heavily on voice and counter-narrative/counter-storytelling (Dixson & Rousseau, 2005), the articles in this issue employ interdisciplinary frameworks, constructs, and methodologies to disentangle and contextualize the cumulative consequences of racial discrimination. For example, William F. Tate and Mark Hogrebe's article “Show Me: Diversity and Isolation Indicators of Spatial Segregation Within and Across Missouri's School Districts,” examines patterns of spatial segregation using diversity and isolation indicators within and across Missouri school districts from a critical spatial perspective, which emphasizes the importance of place for educational opportunity with diverse student populations. In addition to making a methodological contribution that more accurately represents how segregation operates across geographic space, Tate and Hogrebe contend that more “walkable neighborhoods” with high-quality schools in urban communities, as well as interdistrict school transfer options in metropolitan regions, are needed to provide cost-benefit advantages to local and state residents.

Next, Jamel K. Donnor and Thandeka K. Chapman, respectively, illuminate the flexibility and continuity of white racism and white backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. In “Cowan, Whiteness, Resistance to Brown, and the Persistence of the Past,” Donnor examines the use of litigation as a strategic tool of resistance by whites in Bolivar County, Mississippi, to delay the desegregation of area public schools. Acknowledging that although segregationists lost the constitutional right to racially segregate public schools according to an explicit white supremacist doctrine, whites in Bolivar County, Mississippi, were successful in stemming the impending tide of social change associated with school desegregation through litigation. Furthermore, litigious resistance not only provided southern whites with a racially moderate narrative for undermining school desegregation regionally, but their legal challenges to school desegregation laid the groundwork for nonsouthern white animus in all federal education policies that promoted racial inclusion.

Similarly, Chapman's “Segregation, Desegregation, Segregation: Charter School Options as a Return to Separate and Unequal Schools for Urban Families” focuses on the law as an instrument of racial justice in education during the era of school desegregation and as a device for oppression since that time. Chapman provides a pivotal analysis in CRT education research by explaining how race must be considered when examining education legislation or the Supreme Court's interpretations of the Constitution. More importantly, Chapman illustrates how segregation in urban communities is legally perpetuated through choice-based policies that promote charter schools as an alternative to “traditional methods” of integration. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Anthony L. Brown elucidates on the comprehensiveness of race as it pertains to black males in America. In “From Subhuman to Human-Kind: Implicit Bias, Racial Memory, and Black Males in Schools and Society,” Brown argues that the present concerns of implicit racial bias with black males is a manifestation of a long trajectory of Western racial memory and anti-blackness about black males being subhuman, dangerous, and menaces to society. Drawing from theological, scientific, and social science texts to illustrate how discourses have historically constructed black males as subhuman, Brown contends that current pedagogical and disciplinary practices in schools are tied to durable racial discourses of power that have consistently rendered black males as dangerous and creatures to be feared.

Conversely, David Gillborn and Eddie R. Cole, respectively, discuss the fluidity and amorphousness of race and white racism as it relates to social institutions. In “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Anti-Black Racism as Fluid, Relentless, Individual and Systemic,” Gillborn posits that Derrick Bell's racism as permanent thesis detractors misrepresent as signaling that racism is monolithic. Gillborn instead argues that racism is not only relentlessly fluid, but also quick to morph depending on current societal circumstances. Examining two key education policy measures in the UK that on the surface appear to be socially progressive, the policy measures Gillborn discusses, according to him, paradoxically mask a deeper reality of continued racial injustice as it pertains to the changing contours of the black/white achievement gap in England and the continued fetishizing of the relationship between genetics and intelligence. Eddie R. Cole, in “College Presidents and Black Student Protests: A Historical Perspective on the Image of Racial Inclusion and the Reality of Exclusion,” examines how university presidents at traditionally white institutions (TWI) address African American student activism on campus. In contrast to traditional historical analyses that focus exclusively on elected officials or student activists, Cole discusses the interconnected challenges and struggles college students and university presidents experience in rendering a richer and more nuanced understanding of the complexities the aforementioned institutional stakeholders face in ensuring meaningful educational opportunities for enrolled students.

Gloria Ladson-Billings and Keffrelyn D. Brown each explore the role of race as a social signifier in education. In “The Social Funding of Race: The Role of Schooling,” Ladson-Billings explains how society “funds race” through unjust and undemocratic practices. In treating race and funding as interconnected constructs, Ladson-Billings discusses how the continued funding of race through texts, historical practices and patterns, and technologies continues to create inequitable schooling experiences. Similarly, Keffrelyn Brown, in “Race as a Durable and Shifting Idea: How Black Millennial Preservice Teachers Understand Race, Racism, and Teaching,” examines the perspectives held by millennial preservice teachers of color regarding race, racism, and its place in teacher education. According to Brown, millennial black preservice teachers tell us that “race does in fact continue to matter.” In addition to recognizing contemporary racism as different from its generational predecessors in both expression and emphasis, millennial black preservice teachers tell us that contemporary expressions of racism are more insidious and subtle than in the past. In short, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Finally, in “Where Are We? Critical Race Theory in Education 20 Years Later,” Dixson apprises for readers the current state of CRT in education and provide a blueprint to assist scholars in incorporating ideas from the legal literature into educational research and scholarship. As the editors of one of the first volumes in education to capture the theoretical, methodological, and empirical utility of critical race theory, Dixson is perfectly positioned to outline recommendations for the critical race scholarship in education on how to move forward. Moreover, Dixson's advice is designed to ensure that CRT not only remains an intellectual movement, but also an engaged approach to positively link and impact schools and communities for people of color.

In total, the articles in this issue of the Peabody Journal of Education more than simply elucidate the comprehensive nature of race, racism, and racial inequality in education. The authors, individually and collectively, expand the field's understanding of the complexity and sophistication of race and racism. Indeed, the enduring gift of critical race theory as illustrated in this issue of PJE is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Notes

¹ We acknowledge that some white people, albeit a minority, have embraced Black Lives Matter, the civil rights movement, most notably white clergymen and clergywomen.