ABSTRACT

US Republican lawmakers continue their nationwide crusade against Critical Race Theory because it unsettles the racial state. We argue that the partisan attacks on Ethnic Studies and CRT are motivated by White American fears of racial reconciliation. An honest review of our racial past and present through a critical race lens would upset the United States’ centuries-long colonial racial project, whose maintenance and containment are dependent on an enduring system of a hierarchical racial order grounded in White supremacy. Attacks on Ethnic Studies and CRT are about US political society preserving racial meaning in the US, by which safeguarding their entitled position within the racial order. The latest political tactic in educational policy to maintain White privilege is to empty meaning from racial categories, particularly the term ‘White’, through a colorblind linguistic subterfuge we call ‘arrested semantics’. As members of civil society, students and community members continue to mobilize to wrestle away political control over their education. Civil society continues to be a potent force against White supremacy, especially in the struggle for Ethnic Studies – whose curriculum is grounded in the premise that race has been the central organizing principle in US nation-state building. Indeed, US political society’s wealth-building capacity – and therefore sociopolitical and economic positioning, is predicated by the current racial order. We believe the reconciliation of racism will only occur by naming those agents who perpetuate racist policies and practices. Critical Race Theory and Ethnic Studies employ unequivocal language that can help us to identify the agents upholding White supremacy.

摘要

美国共和党议员继续在全国范围内反对批判种族理论，因为它扰乱了种族国家。我们认为，对种族研究和 CRT 的党派攻击是出于美国白人对种族和解的恐惧。通过批判性的种族视角诚实地审视我们种族的过去和现在，将会扰乱美国长达几个世纪的殖民种族计划，该计划的维持和遏制依赖于以白人至上为基础的持久的种族等级秩序体系。对种族研究和CRT的攻击是关于美国政治社会在美国保留种族意义，从而维护其在种族秩序中的应有地位。教育政策中维护白人特权的最新政治策略是消除种族类别的含义，特别是“白人”一词，通过一种我们称之为“逮捕语义”的色盲语言诡计。作为公民社会的成员，学生和社区成员继续动员起来，争取摆脱对教育的政治控制。公民社会仍然是反对白人至上的强大力量，特别是在种族研究的斗争中——其课程的前提是种族一直是美国民族国家建设的核心组织原则。事实上，美国政治社会的财富建设能力 — — 以及社会政治和经济定位 — — 是由当前的种族秩序决定的。我们相信，只有点名那些推行种族主义政策和做法的代理人，种族主义才能得到和解。