Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth

Abstract

This article conceptualizes community cultural wealth as a critical race theory (CRT) challenge to traditional interpretations of cultural capital. CRT shifts the research lens away from a deficit view of Communities of Color as places full of cultural poverty disadvantages, and instead focuses on and learns from the array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts possessed by socially marginalized groups that often go unrecognized and unacknowledged. Various forms of capital nurtured through cultural wealth include aspirational, navigational, social, linguistic, familial and resistant capital. These forms of capital draw on the knowledges Students of Color bring with them from their homes and communities into the classroom. This CRT approach to education involves a commitment to develop schools that acknowledge the multiple strengths of Communities of Color in order to serve a larger purpose of struggle toward social and racial justice.

Notes

* Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. Email: [email protected]

Although not exhaustive, the following resources are some examples of the different frameworks cited: ethnic studies (see Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies); feminist studies (see Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies); cultural nationalist paradigms (see Asante, 1987); critical legal studies (see Kelman, 1989); Marxist and neo‐Marxist frameworks (see Bowles & Gintis, 1976; Barrera, 1979); internal colonial models (see Bonilla & Girling, 1973); LatCrit (see Arriola, 1998; Valdes, 1997, 1998); WhiteCrit (see Delgado & Sefancic, 1997); FemCrit (see Wing, 1997); AsianCrit (see Chang, 1993).

Solórzano and Yosso (2001) note that while each individual tenet of CRT is not ‘new’, synthesizing these tenets into a CRT framework in education is relatively recent. For instance, William Tate’s 1994 autobiographical article in the journal Urban Education—titled ‘From inner city to ivory tower: does my voice matter in the academy’—represents (to my knowledge) the first use of CRT principles in education. A year later, in 1995, Gloria Ladson‐Billings and William Tate wrote a paper titled, ‘Toward a critical race theory of education’ in the Teachers College Record. Two years later, Daniel Solórzano’s 1997 essay on ‘Images and words that wound: critical race theory, racial stereotyping and teacher education’ in Teacher Education Quarterly applied CRT to a specific subfield of teacher education. Also in 1997, William Tate’s ‘Critical race theory and education: history, theory and implications’ in the Review of Research in Education furthered our understanding of the history of CRT in education. The field was expanded significantly with the 1998 ‘Special issue on critical race theory in education’ in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. The 1999 edited book on Race is—race isn’t: critical race theory and qualitative studies in education (Parker et al., 1999) was followed by individual scholars presenting on panels at professional conferences across the country and publishing their work in various journals. In 2002, the journals Qualitative Inquiry and Equity and Excellence in Education dedicated a special issue to CRT in education. In 2004, the American Education Research Association conference symposium ‘And we are still not saved: critical race theory in education ten years later’ acknowledged the ten year anniversary of Tate’s 1994 article introducing CRT officially to education.

As is consistent with the concept of community cultural wealth, this working definition demonstrates an accumulation of collaborative work. Thank you to Daniel G Solórzano who originally conceptualized cultural wealth. He shared with me a model in progress and later a collaboratively written piece (with Octavio Villalpando), and asked me to ‘run with it’. Since that time, cultural wealth has taken on multiple dimensions. I also acknowledge those personal and professional experiences, community histories and students’ research projects that have informed this work. I look forward to the ways that cultural wealth will take on new dimensions as others also ‘run with it’.

Thanks to Rebeca Burciaga, whose identification of linguistic and familial capital added important dimensions to cultural wealth.

Thanks to UCSB undergraduate students, Pablo Gallegos, Moises Garcia, Noel Gomez and Ray Hernandez, whose research conceptualizing graffiti and hip hop poetry as unacknowledged sources of community cultural wealth expanded my thinking about linguistic capital.

Chicana scholars note for example that in Spanish, educación holds dual meanings (Delgado‐Gaitan, 1992, 1994, 2001; Elenes et al., 2001). A person can be formally educated with multiple advanced degrees, but may still be rude, ignorant, disrespectful or unethical (immoral)—mal educada. On the other hand, a person with only a second grade formal education may be una persona bien educada or a well‐mannered, kind, fair‐minded, respectful (moral) individual.

The book Farewell to Manzanar (Wakatsuki Houston & Houston, 1973) offers a first‐hand account of some of the ways Japanese internees held onto hope, fostered caring, coping and responsibility, maintained skills of language, poetry, music, social networks and critical navigational skills, and challenged social and racial inequality.

I recognize that the notion of capital may be associated with capitalism, which is a system that is exploitative and has historically been an oppressive force against Communities of Color. The concept of schooling itself can be contradictory, given that schools have historically oppressed Students of Color, while still having the potential to be transformative places of empowerment. Similarly, as viewed through mainstream media, hip‐hop’s contradictory nature offers an example of how historically some aspects of community cultural wealth are co‐opted and utilized for exploitative purposes (see Spike Lee’s film Baboozled, 2000). Still, hip‐hop maintains amazing potential to be a revolutionary art form and transformative cultural expression that can inspire and inform social movement. I believe community cultural wealth and forms of capital nurtured in the histories of People of Color holds the same potential.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tara J. Yosso *

* Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. Email: [email protected]