Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline: A Trauma-Informed, Critical Race Perspective on School Discipline

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Dutil
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
School Discipline ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Trauma Informed Practice

Abstract Disciplinary policies in schools throughout the United States disproportionately affect students of color through exclusionary policies. A punitive approach can have detrimental effects on a population that also experiences higher rates of trauma. This article identifies school disciplinary practices that may retraumatize and criminalize youths and suggests replacing exclusionary discipline practices with trauma-informed ones that prioritize social–emotional support to students. Critical race theory (CRT) is an appropriate theoretical framework to guide the development of trauma-informed schools. Suggestions are provided for school social workers as key change agents in the issue of school discipline. The integration of CRT and trauma-informed practice is emphasized, as both are essential tools for dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline.

The Every Student Succeeds Act and Multicultural Education: A Critical Race Theory Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (13) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Floyd D. Beachum
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is now the educational law of the land. It replaced and revised what was known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). ESSA represents a movement from more federal oversight to more state and local control. Although this transitional time period is one of great potential and excitement, educators and policy makers might also want to remain cautious. This next educational era of ESSA is still plagued by the problems of the past era. Teachers and administrators are still struggling to turn around low-performing schools in many U.S. urban areas; many urban educational issues, like high-dropout rates, gang influence, and low student engagement, are still inextricably linked to the socioeconomic problems that exist in local communities. This analysis first seeks to explain the purpose of ESSA. It then outlines the current plight of many students of color in the United States. Next, critical race theory is used to contextualize and categorize persistent problems that face the implementation of ESSA for these students of color. Finally, the author proposes ways to address the stated problems for school leaders and policy makers.

Critical Race Theory 20 Years Later

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyrone C. Howard ◽  
Oscar Navarro
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Racial Lines ◽  
Historical Trajectory

As the nation’s schools become increasingly diverse along ethnic and racial lines, examining and understanding the racial complexities in the United States is more germane now than ever in the nation’s history. To that end, critical race theory (CRT) has been a transformative conceptual, methodological, and theoretical construct that has assisted researchers in problematizing race in education. As we reflect on 20 years of CRT, it is essential to examine in what ways, if any, CRT is influencing school practice and policy. Given the disparate educational outcomes for students of color, researchers have to inquire about the influence of CRT on the lived experiences of students in schools. In this article, the authors lay out the historical trajectory of CRT, discuss its influence on educational research, and then evaluate to what extent, if any CRT has had on school policy and practice. The article will conclude with research, practice, and policy implications that may influence CRT’s development over the next 20-year period.

scholarly journals Achieving Health Equity by Addressing Legacies of Racial Violence in Public Health Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 694 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Darrell Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
Black People ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Health Inequities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Optimal Level ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Historical Factors

Health equity means that everyone, regardless of their abilities, economic status, or race/ethnicity, has the opportunity to reach their optimal level of health. However, the inequitable distribution of resources, power, and privilege in the United States means that historically marginalized communities bear a disproportionate burden of poor health and disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the problem for Black Americans: already bearing an unequal burden of social, economic, and health inequities and experiencing systemic racism in various sectors of American life, Black Americans have been at even greater risk of COVID-19 transmission and severity of the disease. I use critical race theory (CRT) to show how key social and historical factors fuel racial health inequities. Further, I use key tenets of CRT to argue that redressing historical legacies of racism cannot be done without using a critical, race conscious lens and lifting up the voices of Black people.

“I’m Not going to the f***ing White House”: Twitter Users React to Donald Trump and Megan Rapinoe

2020 ◽  
pp. 216747952095077
Author(s):  
Evan L. Frederick ◽  
Ann Pegoraro ◽  
Samuel Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Black People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
White House ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Inductive Analysis

When asked if she would go to the White House if invited, Megan Rapinoe stated, “I’m not going to the fucking White House.” The next morning, President Donald Trump posted a series of tweets in which he criticized Rapinoe’s statements. In his tweets, Trump introduced issues around race in the United States and brought forth his own notion of nationalism. The purpose of this study was to conduct an analysis of users’ tweets to determine how individuals employed Twitter to craft a narrative and discuss the ongoing Rapinoe and Trump feud within and outside the bounds of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and nationalism. An inductive analysis of 16,137 users’ tweets revealed three primary themes: a) Refuse, Refute, & Redirect Racist Rhetoric b) Stand Up vs. Know your Rights, and c) #ShutUpAndBeALeader. Based on the findings of this study, it appears that the dialogue regarding racism in the United States is quickly evolving. Instead of reciting the same refrain (i.e., racism no longer exists and systematic racism is constructed by Black people) seen in previous works, individuals in the current dataset refuted those talking points and clearly labeled the President as a racist. Additionally, though discussions of nationalism were evident in this dataset, the Stand Up vs. Know Your Rights theme was on the periphery in comparison to discussions of race. Perhaps, this indicates that some have grown tired of Trump utilizing nationalism as a means to stoke racism.

scholarly journals Color Crit: Critical Race Theory and the History and Future of Colorism in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Reece
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Skin Tone ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
American Society

Critical race theory teaches that racism and racial inequality are constants in American society that stand outside of the prejudices of individuals. It argues that structures and institutions are primarily responsible for the maintenance of racial inequality. However, critical race theorists have neglected to formally examine and theorize colorism, a primary offshoot of racial domination. Although studies of colorism have become increasingly common, they lack a unifying theoretical framework, opting to lean on ideas about prejudice and preference to explain the advantages lighter skinned, Black Americans are afforded relative to darker skinned Black Americans. In this study, I deploy a critical race framework to push back against preference as the only, or primary, mechanism facilitating skin tone stratification. Instead, I use historical Census data and regression analysis to explore the historical role of color-based marriage selection on concentrating economic advantage among lighter skinned Black Americans. I then discuss the policy and legal implications of developing a structural view of colorism and skin tone stratification in the United States and the broader implications for how we conceptualize race in this country.

scholarly journals The Limits of Resilience and the Need for Resistance: Articulating the Role of Music Therapy With Young People Within a Shifting Trauma Paradigm

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elly Scrine
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Music Therapy ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Trauma Informed Practice ◽  
A Site

A broad sociocultural perspective defines trauma as the result of an event, a series of events, or a set of circumstances that is experienced as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening, with lasting impacts on an individual’s physical, social, emotional, or spiritual wellbeing. Contexts and practices that aim to be “trauma-informed” strive to attend to the complex impacts of trauma, integrating knowledge into policies and practices, and providing a sanctuary from harm. However, there is a body of critical and decolonial scholarship that challenges the ways in which “trauma-informed” practice prioritizes individualized interventions, reinscribes colonial power relations through its conceptualizations of safety, and obscures the role of systemic injustices. Within music therapy trauma scholarship, research has thus far pointed to the affordances of music in ameliorating symptoms of trauma, bypassing unavailable cognitive processes, and working from a strengths-based orientation. In critiquing the tendency of the dominant trauma paradigm to assign vulnerability and reinforce the individual’s responsibility to develop resilience through adversity, this conceptual analysis outlines potential alternatives within music therapy. Drawing on a case example from a research project with young people in school, I elucidate the ways in which music therapy can respond to power relations as they occur within and beyond “trauma-informed” spaces. I highlight two overarching potentials for music therapy within a shifting trauma paradigm: (1) as a site in which to reframe perceived risk by fostering young people’s resistance and building their political agency and (2) in challenging the assumption of “safe spaces” and instead moving toward practices of “structuring safety.”

In the End, There Is No Such Thing as Unconscious Racism: CRT/Asian American Crit Counterstories by Undergraduate Students During the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 153270862110540
Author(s):  
Jeremy Hau Lam ◽  
Katrina Le ◽  
Laurence Parker
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Asian American ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Asian American Women ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
Honors College

This article emerged from undergraduate students in an Honors College class on critical race theory at the University of Utah during the spring semester 2020 during the pandemic. The counterstories evolve around critical race theory/Asian American Crit and the historical and current violence against the Asian American community in the United States. Given the recent anti-Asian American backlash which has emerged through the COVID-19 crisis, to the March 2021 murders of the Asian American women and others in Atlanta, we present these counterstories with the imperative of their importance for critical social justice to combat White supremacy.

Disaster racism: using Black sociology, critical race theory and history to understand racial disparity to disaster in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Breen
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Black People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sociology Of Disaster ◽  
Black Sociology

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a call to action to use a new theoretical framework for disaster researchers that focuses on using a critical approach to understanding differential disaster impacts due to systemic racism.Design/methodology/approachUsing critical race theory (CRT) and Black Sociology, theoretical and disciplinary frameworks that center Black people and NBPOC as well as a focus in dismantling systemic racism and other oppressive systems, this article calls for a new approach – “disaster racism” – that builds on past discussions for a more nuanced theoretical approach to disaster studies.FindingsAlongside CRT and Black Sociology, this study identifies two examples of the oppressive systems that create disparate impacts to disaster including slavery and the legacy of slavery and mass incarceration.Originality/value“Disaster racism” – a critically focused approach – should be used in the future rather than social vulnerability to further dismantle oppressive systems and institutions, which not only provides strong theoretical backing to research but also creates an actively anti-racist research agenda in the discipline of sociology of disaster.

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