New Directions in Critical Race Theory and Sociology: Racism, White Supremacy, and ResistanceChristian, Michelle; Seamster, Louise; Ray, Victor
doi: 10.1177/0002764219842623pmid: N/A
Critical Race Theory (CRT) provides a highly generative perspective for studying racial phenomena in social, legal, and political life, but its integration with sociological theories of race has not been systematic. However, a group of sociologists has begun to show the relevance of CRT for driving empirical inquiry. This special issue (our first of two on the subject) shows the relevance of CRT for sociological theory and empirical research. In this introduction, we identify primary concerns of CRT and show their sociological utility. We argue that CRT better explains the long-standing continuity of racial inequality than theories grounded in “progress paradigm,” as CRT shows how racism and white supremacy are reproduced through multiple changing mechanisms.
White Supremacy, Patriarchy, and Global Capitalism in Migration StudiesGolash-Boza, Tanya; Duenas, Maria D.; Xiong, Chia
doi: 10.1177/0002764219842624pmid: N/A
Ten years after sociologist Mary Romero lamented the “ideological and theoretical gulf between immigration research and the sociology of race,” researchers have begun to bridge this theoretical gulf by centering critical race theory in studies of migration. Building on these analyses, this article argues that migration flows and immigrant incorporation are shaped not only by white supremacy but also by patriarchy and global capitalism. Insofar as migrants, predominantly from the Global South, are usually racialized as non-white, and come to work in a labor market shaped by exploitation, oppression, and patriarchy, it is critical to think of migrant flows and settlement within the context of what bell hooks describes as a White supremacist capitalist patriarchy. We draw from examples from our research with a broad spectrum of migrants and their children to elucidate how these three systems of oppression shape the experiences of migrants.
The Limits of Community: Deconstructing the White Framing of Racist Speech in UniversitiesMoore, Wendy Leo; Bell, Joyce M.
doi: 10.1177/0002764219842615pmid: N/A
This article identifies the dominant frame through which university administrators in the United States respond to racist incidents and analyzes that from using the lens of critical race theory (CRT). We argue that the stock response of college and university administrators, which calls for counterspeech as the only appropriate response to racist speech, fails to consider the harmful effects of racist speech on students, staff, and faculty of color. Furthermore, this abstract-liberalist, color-blind approach decontextualizes racist speech from the historical and contemporary reality of structural racism that informs the speech acts and symbols used in these displays. We further use the CRT approach by shifting the perspective from a unilateral focus on protecting the right to racist speech to explore what happens when analysts focus instead on protecting substantively equal access for community members of color. In so doing, we highlight the value of CRT for revealing how white racial framing obscures competing legal and policy norms.
The White-Centering Logic of Diversity IdeologyMayorga-Gallo, Sarah
doi: 10.1177/0002764219842619pmid: N/A
In this article, I present a framework for diversity as a racial ideology that rearticulates the logic of civil rights. Diversity ideology is, in part, a co-optation of calls for race consciousness that challenged color blindness: it highlights race and other axes of difference to achieve a color-blind ideal of fairness where race will no longer matter. In this way, diversity ideology creates space for minor acknowledgment of structural inequality in the abstract. This is an important difference from color-blind racism, which explains inequality as a function of the past, individual “racist” bad apples, or the failings of people of color. The logic of diversity ideology is based on four tenets (diversity as acceptance, diversity as intent, diversity as commodity, and diversity as liability) that frame an amorphous diversity as the answer to racial inequality, while centering white people’s desires and feelings. These conceptualizations of diversity are devoid of power and history, which is how systemic whiteness is reinscribed.
From Insult to Estrangement and Injury: The Violence of Racist Police JokesPérez, Raúl; Ward, Geoff
doi: 10.1177/0002764219842617pmid: N/A
This article examines racially derogatory police jokes, what we call “racist blue humor,” as discourse that negatively targets and ridicules racial and ethnic minorities as inferior, dangerous, or as objects of symbolic and cultural violence. We argue that racist blue humor fosters the social acceptability of prejudice and discrimination among officers, normalizing a culture of dehumanization that legitimizes structural and direct violence. We analyze illustrative cases of racist blue humor in the light of critical race theory, humor studies, and other work in behavioral science to elaborate this violence and its potential for harm across multiple contexts. Racist blue humor engenders legal estrangement, diminishes protection and representation in law, and heightens exposure to police and other state violence. We conclude with considerations for research and policy, including order-maintenance policing of racist blue humor.