Jul 13, 2021 12:00:00 AM
In education, we have a tendency to overcomplicate things by getting caught up with sophisticated academic jargon for things that, I believe, are common sense. Differentiation, culturally relevant pedagogy, scaffolding … the list goes on and on. We can now add critical race theory (CRT) to the list of these terms.
Although I firmly believe that critical race theory provides a necessary lens for how racism shows up in our school systems, I’ve come to realize that the term itself has become a huge distraction for many of us educators. The reason why is because many of us are intimidated by our lack of expertise in the field and spending too much time worrying and scrambling to figure out how to use the theory in our schools. Additionally, the racist gaslighting and fearmongering tactics by right-wingers and conservatives have placed many of us in a perpetual and unnecessary state of “analysis paralysis.”
I’m here to you that we’re totally overthinking this and giving way too much power to these politicians. Here’s why: [pullquote]Even though many of us are not scholars of critical race theory, we have always taught our students and fought for them in the spirit of the theory.[/pullquote] We may not know all the tenets of the theory and we may not have read all the books from the theory’s founding scholars, but I can assure you that we have already been incorporating critical race theory principles into our practice in more ways than we probably realize.
I still encourage you to spend a portion of your summer break reading up on critical race theory texts and deepening your understanding of what it is. Although being a critical race scholar is not a requirement, reading a few CRT books will only help your cause. If you are still unsure about whether you’re applying a critical race lens to your teaching practice after reading all of this, here are a few questions to ask yourself:
Your responses to these questions will help you in building a personalized game plan for how you intend to strengthen your critical race lens to challenge racist practices within your school. This erroneous belief that we have to be critical race scholars before engaging in antiracist work breeds a perfectionist mindset that keeps us in a state of inaction. Instead of wasting our time worrying about what we don’t know about critical race theory, let’s shift our mental focus to what we already know. Believe it or not, [pullquote]the little that we do know about CRT is more than enough for us to take immediate action against the embedded racism in our schools.[/pullquote]
Let’s block all the political noise and channel our energy into the work.
Kwame Sarfo-Mensah is the founder of Identity Talk Consulting, a global educational consulting firm that specializes in developing K-12 teachers into identity-affirming educators. Throughout his 17-year career as a classroom teacher, author, and consultant, Kwame has earned numerous accolades for this work, which include being honored as the 2019 National Member of the Year by Black Educators Rock, Inc. and being recognized as a Top Education Influencer by brightbeam, Inc. in 2021 and 2022. His newest book, "Learning to Relearn: Supporting Identity in a Culturally Affirming Classroom", is out now.
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