Chapter two

2.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter takes a critical look at what racism and the quest for identity means. Not only at
it in depth meanings, has it also reviewed past works on racism and the quest for identity in
accordance with the project.
2.1 RACISM
According to Oxford dictionary, racism is the belief that one race is superior to all
others.According to Ernest Raiklin, he argues that American racism has two colours (white
and black), not one; and that racism dresses itself not in one clothing, but in four: (1)
"Minimal" negative, when one race considers another race inferior to itself in degree, but not
in nature; (2) "Maximal" negative, when one race regards another as inherently inferior;
"Minimal" positive, when one race elevates another race to superior status in degree, but not
in nature; and (4) "Maximal" positive, when one race believes that the other, race is
genetically superior. The monograph maintains that the needs of capitalismcreated black
slavery; that black slavery produced white racism as a justification of black slavery; and that
black racism is a backlash of white racism. The monograph concludes that the abolition of
black slavery and the civil rights movement destroyed the social and political ground for
white and black racism, while the modern development of capitalism is demolishing their
economic and intellectual ground (1990; 2-108).Therefore, Ernest Raiklin only focused on
racism as a result of differences in colour, whereas, racism can also be cultural.
According to Paul Austin Murphy,
"anti-racists" seem to be fighting racism by being racist.
They are tying violence to skin colour (i.e, to what's often called "whiteness") and even to

DNA and genes. Paul Austin asked why the other anti-racists, Critical Race Theorists,
activists, also mention "whiteness". Why don't they simply point the finger at "the West',
culture, history, institutions, or certain states or government? Paul Austin focuses on the fact
that the anti-racists are fighting racism with racism, which seems to be either dumb or
deceitful.
According to HalukSoydan, Racism is an important factor that has been associated
with a range of negative outcomes, including unemployment, stigmatization, substance abuse,
and limited access to education. Furthermore, because members of a "racial group" tend to
develop collectively shared value systems, behavioural patterns and lifestyles, they stand out
as a group with specific characteristics relating to sex roles, peer relationships, marriage,
childbearing nutrition, psychological changes, and dealing with social, psychological, health,
and mental health problems (2017).Therefore, HalukSoydan is of the belief that racial
categories are constructed by a group itself or others for the purpose of defining social
boundaries and the domination of one (racial) groups, resulting in racism. Typically, social
work literature is dedicated to exploring whether racial groups have specific needs and how
these needs can be met by the social care services. In the literature and colloquial language,
"race" is closely positioned to "ethnicity", and "ethnicity" is closely positioned to "culture"
Therefore, it is recommended that one view all the concept areas for a better understanding of
how these concepts are related to each other.
Gordon C. Nagayama Hall, defined racism as
"prejudice, discrimination, or
antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief the one's own
race is superior". He explains that racism does not solely reside within White supremacists.
To Gordon, racism as been described as a disease that everyone in the United States is
exposed to. Every one is racist to some degree. Racism is a continuum. White supremacists
are at the extreme end. Most other people are less racist, but still have some racism in them.

Everyone tends to favour their own group. To Gordon, racism is not a rare disease. It is more
like the common cold. Gordon further explains that Whites tends to have higher thresholds
for racism than people of colour. For many Whites, only blatant racism qualifies as racism.
Subtle forms of racism do not. Not calling a person for interview with a "Black sounding
name", despite having an identical resume to someone with a "White sounding name", is an
example of subtle racism.
Gordon reveals three reasons why Whites have high thresholds for racism. One reason
is self-protection. Many Whites are very concerned about appearing racist. If racism is
limited to blatant and extreme forms of behaviour, then they don't have to see themselves as
racist. Another reason for high thresholds for racism is lack of experience. The American
Psychological Association found in a national survey that Whites experience less raced-based
discrimination than people of colour. Less experience with racism results in less sensitivity to
it. A third reason for high thresholds for racism is lack of awareness. Research indicates that
both Whites and Blacks who could not distinguish historical facts from fiction about racism
were less likely to detect racism on a subsequent test.
2.2 IDENTITY
According to Oxford dictionary, identity is the difference or character that marks off an
individual from the rest of the same kind, selfhood. It is also the knowledge of who one is.
According to BolatitoKolawole, Africans are one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in
the United States, yet their presence receives little attention in public discourse about
immigration. In an era where America's immigration policies have grown increasingly
insular, African immigrants are particularly at risk of having measures that historically
facilitated their entry into the United States, stripped away without recognition of the benefit

they pose to them. She argues that the intersectional identity of Black African immigrants,
being black and foreign, renders them effectively invisible in the immigration debate and
vulnerable to policies that affect them both due to their Blackness as well as their status as
foreigners. She proposes that the intersectionality framework can serve as a useful tool to
shed light on the unique concerns of African immigrants and create policies that directly
address them (2017: 2-3).
Erikson who was described as the father of identity theory, views identity as:
...a subjective sense as well as an observable
quality of personal sameness and continuity,
paired with some shared world image. As a
quality of unself-conscious living, this can
be gloriously obvious in a young person
who has found himself as he has found his
communality. In him we see emerge a
unique unification of what is irreversibly
given. that us, body type and temperament,
giftedness and
vulnerability,
infantile
models and acquired ideals…with the pen
choices provided
IN
available roles,
occupational possibilities, values offered
mentors met, friendships made, and first
sexual encounters (1970: 11-12).
From the above definition by Erikson, one could infer that, identity is all about make one
special, different, unique from others. Every human being is created differently, no matter the
similarities that exist between two persons; there are some differentiations that give them trait
not to be exactly the same.
In a related account of what identity is, James posits that:
In the widest possible sense, a man's self is
the sum total of all that he can call his, not
only his body and his psychic powers, but
his clothes and his house, his wife and
children, his ancestors and friends, his
reputation and works, his land and horses,
and yacht and bank account (1983: 279).

This definition of the self is clearly very inclusive; it spans almost all major aspects of
personhood.
According to Myhutza, the quest for identity depends a lot on the emotional, cultural,
and social stability of an individual. He further says that stability is the ultimate stage of this
quest; this is why he believes that there is a strong interdependence between the two. He
explains that one cannot speak of identity without referring to emotional, social and cultural
stability (1).
2.3 REVIEW OF PAST WORKS
A lot of works have been done on Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah and Buchi Emecheta's
The Joys of Motherhood. Different writers have written papers on the texts, some of this related
works research, and papers would be reviewed in this aspect.
2.3.1 REVIEW ON ADICHIE'S AMERICANAH
Mike Peed examines the realities if race: a study of Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah In his
research, he examines race and the difference between an African-American and American-
African. Adichie, born in Nigeria but now living both in her homeland and in the United States,
is an extraordinarily self-aware thinker and writer, possessing the ability to lambaste society
without sneering or patronizing. For her, it seems no great feat to balance high-literary intentions
with broad social critique, Americanah examines Blackness in America, Nigeria and Britain, but
it's also a steady-handed dissection of the universal human experience - a platitude made fresh
by the accuracy of Adichie's observation. In an attempt to examine race and the difference
between African-American and American-African, Mike Peed explains that, an African-

American is a black person with long generational lines in the United States, most likely with
slave ancestors. She might write poetry about "Mother Africa", but she is pleased to be from a
country that gives international aid rather from one that receives it. An American-African is an
African newly immigrated to the United States. In her native country, she did not realize she was
Black - she fit that description only when she landed in America. In college, the African-
American joins the Black Student Union, while the American-African signs up with the African
Students Association. He further explains that Adichie understands that such fine-grained
differentiations don't penetrate the minds of many Americans. This is why a lot of people here,
when thinking of race and class, instinctively speak of «blacks and poor whites*,
not "poor
blacks and poor whites". He also stated that many of Adichie's best observation regard nuances
of language. When people are reluctant to say "racist", they say "racially charged'. The phrase
"beautiful woman", when enunciated in certain tones by certain haughty white women,
undoubtedly means "ordinary-looking black woman" (2013:12).
MindiMc Mann in an outlet: Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, examines
"You're black": Transnational perceptions of race in ChimamandaNgoziAdichie'sAmericanah
and Andrea Levy Small Island.In the essay, he analyzed how race- and specifically, the idea of
"blackness"
- circulate in two contemporary novels. In the essay, he argues that the term "black'
is not a stable signifier of race, but materially and geographically contingent. The transnational
mobility of the two female protagonists in these novels uncovers the variableness in perceptions
of racial differences. This slippage reveals the connections between racialized and national
identity and demonstrates the necessity of linking the way to demarcate the limits of national
belonging (2017: 200-212).
Camille Isaac in the journal of South African and American Studies examines meditating
women's globalised existence through social media in the work of Adichie and Bulawayo. In the
essay, she considers the transmission of affect through social media in the recent work of

Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah and Bulawayo's We Need New Names. She explains that the
young protagonists, Ifemelu and Darling, both use the internet and various social media to
question the disembodied and deterritorialized spaces that digital networks potentially engender.
While they at first not see their connections to spaces as mediated, in part because of their
youthful ages, they ultimately begin to recognize both the constructed and mediated nature of
the
relationship at home and in the Diaspora, She further explains that what the young women's
examples demonstrate is that the internet or blogsphere constitute peculiar spaces of access to
both homelands left behind and the host cultures. They ultimately reach the conclusion that,
despite the visual, aural, and synchronous contact that computer-mediated communication
allows, the lack of a physically present body limits the transmission of affect (2016: 174-188).
Adeniyi and Akingbe in Rupkatha journal on Interdisciplinary studies in humanities
examines
'Reconfiguring Others': Negotiating Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's
Americanah. In his examination of Adichie's Americanah, they reveal a mapping of exponential
growth of obtrusive racial tension which leaves in its wakes prejudice, acrimony and hatred. In
the article, Adeniyi and Akingbe argues that despite its dialogic engagement with the possibility
of harmonizing the varied characters' racial/ cultural backgrounds, Adichie's Americanah's
experimentation with transculturalism faded in a miasma of morbid biases and despair. They thus
conclude that transculturalism could only manifest in a globally differing society if the walls of
ethnocentrism and racism insulating it collapse. They explains that transculturalism
in
Americanah ostensibly failed due to the obtrusive racial intolerance exhibited by the varied
characters who appear to have determined to cling to divisive racial sentiments identified in their
attitude (2017: 37-55).

PatrycjaKoziel, in her book, Studies of the Department of African Languages and

Cultures, examines Narrative Strategy in Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah: the Manifestation
of Migrant Identity. In the essay, she examines the characteristics of narrative strategy used by
Nigerian writer and activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her novel Americanah with special
reference to Igbo language. The paper provides examples of several expressions in Igbo taken
from the novel such as phrases, sentences, proverbs and other lexical items. In using the concept
of the migrant identity for her analysis, she argues that Adichie's narrative strategy including
certain Igbo context as base for recognition could be interpreted as the method of manifestation
of different self-identifications, global identities and a dynamic sense of belonging trom
perspective of Nigerian writer living in the United States (2015: 96).
2.3.2 REVIEW ON EMECHETA'S THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD
Afolake Olagunju examines The Joys of Motherhood: When your Children Becomes Undoing. In
the essay, she explains that the novel was set in two part of Nigeria, rural Ibuza, where traditional
values and life styles were maintained and the urban Lagos, where traditional values gave way
under the pressures of Western education, capitalism, and mixture of various culture (Hausa,
Yoruba, Ibo, and European). She believes that, The Joys of Motherhood started in 1934 Lagos
where Nnu Ego was running to Carter Bridge to drown herself as she just lost her first son- a
major proof to the world that she was not a barren after all. She further explains that The Joys of
Motherhood saw Nnu Ego struggle to maintain her traditional values while living in a modern,
westernized, and industrialized Urban setting. She is of the opinion that, despite the fact that Nnu
Ego means wealth, she ironically had to feed from hand to mouth and put up with a lot all
through her life as a result of the love she had for her children and a tradition which expected her
to fulfill the expectations of others. She thus concludes that Nnu Ego's selflessness became her

greatest undoing, as her children constantly took advantage of her while her husband
emotionally
blackmailed her, blaming her when things went wrong (2017: 1-4).
Aparna Talukdar examines Motherhood: A Study of Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of
Motherhood. In the essay, Talukdar referred to
"Motherhood' as one of the most essential
requirements to complete a woman, which is still being practiced rather with traditional, cultural,
and religious values than with human values. He explains that "Motherhood" is understood as an
important act which goes way beyond the physical act of giving birth irrespective of class,
culture, creed, age, religion, etc. Therefore "Motherhood" is regarded as a sacred and powerful
spiritual act for being able to bring new lives to the world. But, even if it is regarded sacred, a
woman loses her individuality in its sacredness. In the essay, Talukdar opines that Emecheta has
twice critiqued the idea of "motherhood". At first, for giving it so much importance and
necessity in a woman's life; and secondly, for making the most wanted desire and pleasure, a
sour and burdensome one. NnuEgo, the protagonist of the novel, gives birth to a number of
children. Yet, throughout the novel, there is no where that she finds her identity or authority. He
therefore concludes that through Nnu Ego, Emecheta even critiques the idea of motherhood as a
kind of slavery (1-5).
Olusola Oso examines The Treatment of Patriarchy in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of
Motherhood and Sefi Atta's Everything Good Will Come. He grounded his study on feminist
theory, this is because feminism is considered appropriate since it aimed at empowering women
in the society, and the novels under review expose how women are oppressed and marginalized
in many African societies, and stress the need for the women to challenge the status quo with a
view to liberating themselves from the oppressive African men. The research demonstrates how
female African novelists have responded to the phallic nature of the African literature by
empowering the female characters in their novels, and unabashedly exposing the patriarchal

proclivity of the African men.In the journal, Olusola examines patriarchy in Emecheta's The
Joys of Motherhood. He explains that the work is a graphical representation of the ordeal of
women and women-related issues, as it obtains in a patriarchal society. He further explains that
Nnu Ego, the protagonist of the novel, has a more traumatic experience as a senior wife in her
second husband, NnaifeOwulum's house. Stating that her previous marriage, the love making
between Amatokwu and the new wife takes place in a separate hut. She only imagines it in her
mind. However, in Nnaife's case, the love making between Nnaife and Adaku is done in the one
room apartment they all stay. He concluded this part by saying that, this is a blatant
demonstration of patriarchy. While examining Patriarchy in Sefi Atta's Everything Good Will
Come, Olusola explains that Sefi Atta exposes the way patriarchy has relegated women to the
background. Not only does patriarchy hinders women from making meaningful contribution to
the development of the society, it also results in moral degradation of women. He further
explains that Enitan, the protagonist of the novel, who can be likened to a radical feminist during
her teenage years, experiences a dramatic transformation in her marriage, and complains bitterly
on how her husband treats her like a personal servant.He concludes that, like Emecheta, Sefi Atta
exaggerates in her negative portrayal of men in Everything Good Will Come and that there is a
compelling need for the contemporary and the coming generations of female African novelists to
give fair representation of men in their novels while addressing the various issues affecting
women (2017: 1-8).
Newa Catherine Mankaasi examines Gender Identity as a Marker of Cultural Crisis in
Marriage: a study of Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of
Motherhood. In her essay, she states that gender identity as a marker of cultural crises in
marriage especially in Africa and West Africa in particular are something of long standing. He
explains that women face a lot of challenges and are the most oppressed members of the society
in marriage, work, and school and so on. Catherine Mankaasi is of the opinion that Black African

female writers are aggressively breaking the silence imposed on them for a long timè by a racist
world or a sexist one. In justifying the study, she reveals that Bmecheta provides a much needed
glimpse into the world of African woman, a world harsher than that of the African male because
women are doubly marginalized. As a female in Africa the opposite of male, woman suffers
sexual oppression as an African. As an African is the opposite of white is an ever colonized
nation, the African woman also suffers racial oppression. She explains that Nnu Ego,
Emechaeta's protagonist in The Joys of Motherhood, to an extent becomes the symbol for the
female of Africa, a representative of all subjugated African women, wrong that can only be
righted through feminist discourse. She further explains that Mariama Ba for her part also
writesof colonial and post-colonial African life, though her intention is not primarily anti-
colonial. Catherine is of the opinion that Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter, exemplifies how
African literature provides a different perspective of their culture from European writers' view of
Africa, and despite not the model of the African canon, is valuable and significant on its own
terms. She states in the essay, that Ba is not writing in defense of Africa, she is writing about
Africa, gender, polygamy, religion, and class are much more fundamental to her work than race.
It can be said that rather than writing back to the empire, she is writing back African male
authors on behalf of African women, reclaiming the voice that has been denied to them
In conclusion, she explains that Emecheta and Ba present the development nature of
female character through a varied exploration of the theme of female assertiveness, in the
various
societal facets which enslave women. Basically, the thematic message is that even in the face of
an oppressive system, of deep rooted norms and practices that foster female subordination, the
female must strive to assert herself. Both writers messages are for African women and all women
to take charge of their own destiny, refusing to be denied freedom or reduced to a depressed
state
(2008: 2-86).

Zahra Barf, HamedrezaKohzadi and FatemehAzizmohammadi, carried out a study of

Buchi Emecheta'S The Joys of Motherhood in the Light of Chandra TalpadeMohanty: A
Postcolonial Feminist Theory. In the journal, they opine that Emecheta's The Joys of
Motherhood, aims at rewriting an integral part of history which has been dismissed. Stating that,
Emecheta seeks to speak for Ibuza women being multiply marginalized and oppressed by a
colonial and indigenous patriarchal society. They explain that besides criticizing colonialism,
capitalism and racism, The Joys of Motherhood points out the way in which women are silenced
and oppressed by native patriarchy and, however, this oppression is not mediated by race Or
class. This is, by no means, in contrast with postcolonial feminist premise because the
fundamental issue in the postcolonial feminist discourse is to consider the intersection of gender,
class and race. In the light of Mohanty, they explain that Mohanty (2003) is of the opinion that
the development of capitalism in the industrial counries followed by the racial "sexual politics of
global capitalist domination and exploitation" (168) leads to the demand for cheap workers for
it's goal: more profit more accumulation and exploitation (169). This strategy is cèntral to the
development of capitalism. In this regard, the concept of "unskilled" work was a definition of
work for immigrant which was given by racial capitalism. They further explains that, Emecheta
question such capitalist policy which leads to the immigration of many villagers, with no
profession, to Lagos- a colonized city, to find a job. They are of the opinion that the story seeks
to display Mohanty's suggestion that disempowered group have been concentrated in jobs with
lower pay, less job security, and more difficult working conditions. They concluded that
Emecheta, in her novel, The Joys of Motherhood, attempts to explore the extent to which the
colonialism, racism and patriarchal society dominated Third World women and their lives (2015:
1-13).

2.4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.4.1 RADICAL FEMINISM
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical reordering of the
society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts. Radical
feminists view society as fundamentally a patriarchy in which men dominate and oppress
women. Radical feminists seek to abolish the patriarchy in order to liberate everyone from an
unjust society by challenging existing norms and institutions. This includes opposing the sexual
objectification of women, raising public awareness about such issues as rape and violence
against women, and challenging the very notion of gender roles. Shulamith Firestone wrote in
The Dialect of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution: "The goal of feminist revolution must be,
unlike that of the first feminist movement, not just the elimination of male privilege but of the
sex distinction itself: genital differences between human beings will no longer matter culturally"
(1970).
Early radical feminism, arising within second-wave feminism in the 1960s, typically
viewed patriarchy as
"trans-historical phenomenon" prior to or deeper than other sources of
oppression,
"not only the oldest and most universal form of domination but the primary form"
and the model of others. Later politics derived from radical feminism ranged from cultural
feminism to more sycretic politics that placed issues of class, economics, etc. on a par with
patriarchy as sources of oppression. Radical feminists locate the root cause of women's
oppression in patriarchal gender relations, as opposed to legal systems (as in liberal feminism) or
class conflict (as in anarchist feminism, socialist feminism, and Marxist feminism). Gail Dines,
an English radical feminist spoke about the appeal of radical feminism to young women: "After
teaching women for 20-odd years, if I go in and I teach liberal feminism, I get looked at blank.
1go in and teach radical feminism, bang, the room explodes" (2011).

2.4.2 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RADICAL FEMINISM AND CRITICAL RACE

According to Delgado and Stefancie, Critical Race Theory builds on the insights of two
previous movements, Critical Legal Studies and Radical Feminism, to both of which it owes à
large debt. It also draws from certain European philosophers and theorists, such as Antonio
Gramsci and Jacqus Derrida, as well as from the American radical tradition exemplified by such
figures as Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther
King, Jr., and the Black Power and Chicano movements of the sixties and early seventies. The
group built on feminism's insights into the relationship between power and the construction of
social roles, as well as the unseen, largely invisible collection of patterns and habits that make up
patriarchy and other types of domination. CRT also shared with a sympathetic understanding of
the notion of nationalism and group empowerment (2001: 3-5).
2.4.3 MAJOR PROPONENTS OF CRT
According to Kimberle Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller and Kendal Thomas, Derick Bell,
professor of law at New York University, is the movement's intellectual father figure. Still active
today, Bell teaches, writes occasional law review article and memoir-type books, delivers
speeches, and keeps a number of case-books current. The late Alan Freeman, who taught at the
State University of New York at Buffalo law school, wrote a number of foundational articles,
including a part-breaking piece that documented how the U.S. Supreme Court's race
jurisprudence, even when seemingly liberal in thrust, nevertheless legitimized racism. Kimberle
Crenshaw, Angela Harris, Charles Lawrence, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia Williams are major
tigures as well, Leading Asian scholars include Neil Gotanda, Eric Yamamoto, and Matsuda

The top Indian critical scholar is Robert Williams; the best- known Latinos are Richard Delgado,
Kelvin Johnson, Margaret Montoya, Juan Perea, and Francisco Valdes.
2.4.4 BASIC TENETS OF CRITICAL RACE THEORY
According to Haney Lopez and Ian F, what do critical race theorists believe? First, that racism is
ordinary, not aberrational- "normal science", the usual way society does business, the common,
everyday experience of most people of color in this country. Second, most would agree that our
system of white-over-color ascendancy serves important purposes, both psychic and material.
The
first feature, ordinariness, means that racism is difficult to cure or address. Color-blind, or
"formal", conceptions of equality, expressed in a rule that insists only on treatment that is the
same across the board, can thus remedy only the most blatant forms of discrimination, such as
montage redlining or the refusal to hire a black Ph.D. rather than a white high school dropout,
that do stand out and attract our attention. The second feature, sometimes called
'interest
convergence" or material determinism, adds a further dimension. Because racism advances the
interest of both white elites (materially) and working-class people (physically), large segment of
society has little to eradicate it. A third theme of critical race theory, the "social construction"
thesis, holds that race and races are products of social thought and relations. Not objective,
inherent, or fixed, they correspond to no biological or genetic reality; rather, races are categories
that society invents, manipulates, or retires when convenient. Closely related to differential
racialization- the idea that each race has its own origins and ever evolving history- is the notion
of intersectionality and anti-essentialism. No person has a single, easily stated, unitary identity,
A white feminist may be Jewish, or working-class, or a single mother. An Africah American
activist may be gay or lesbian. A Latino may be a democrat, a Republican, or even a black-
perhaps because that person's family hails from the Caribbean. Everyone has potentially
conflicting, overlapping identities, loyalties and allegiances. A final element concerns the notion

of a unique voice of color. Coexisting in somewhat uneasy tension with anti-essentialism, the
voice-of color thesis holds that because of their different histories and experiences with
oppression, black, Indian, Asian, and Latino/ writers or thinkers may be able to communicate to
their white counterparts matters that the whites are unlikely to know. Minority status in other
words, brings with it a presumed competence to speak about race and racism (1994: Rev.I).
2.4.5 CRITICAL RACE THEORY THEMES
INTEREST CONVERGENCE, MATERIAL DETERMINISM, AND RACIAL
REALISM
This hypothetical question poses an issue that squarely divides critical race theory
thinkers-indeed, civil rights activist in general. One camp, which we may call "idealists"
holds that racism and discrimination are matters of thinking, mental categorization,
attitudes, and discourse. Race is a social construction not biological reality. Hence, we
may unmake it and deprive it of much of its stings by changing the system of images,
words, attitudes, unconscious feelings, scripts, and social teachings by which we convey
to one another that certain people are less intelligent, reliable, hardworking, virtuous, and
American than others.A contrasting school- the realists, racism is a means by which
society allocates privilege and status. Racial hierarchies determine who gets tangible
benefits, including the best jobs, the best schools, and invitation to parties in people's
homes. Members of this group point out that prejudicesprang up with slavery. Before
then, educated Europeans held a generally positive attitude toward Africans, recognizing
that African civilization was highly advanced with vast libraries and centers of learning.
Africans pioneered mathematics, medicine, and astronomy long before Europeans had
much knowledge of them. Materialists point out that conquered nations generally
demonize their subjects to feel better about exploiting them, so that, for example, planters

ranchers in Texas and the Southwest circulated notions of Mexican inferiority at

roughly the same period that they found it necessary to take over Mexican land or, later,
to import Mexican people for backbreaking labor. For materialists, understanding the ebb
and flow of racial progress and retrenchment requires a careful look at conditions
prevailing at different times in history. Circumstance change so that one group finds it
possible to seize advantage, or to exploit another. They do so and then form appropriate
collective attitudes to rationalize what was done (Bell, Derick A. Jr: 2000) In the early
years of critical race theory, the realists were in a large majority. For example, scholars
questioned whether the much-vaunted system of civil rights remedies ended up doing
people of color much good. In a classic article in Harvard Law Review, Derick Bell
argued that civil rights advances for black always coincided with changing economic
conditions and the self-interest of elite whites. Sympathy, mercy, and evolving standards
of social decency and conscience amounted to little, if anything. Audaciously, Bell
selected Brown v. Board of Education, the crown jewel of U.S. Supreme Court
jurisprudence, and invited his readers to ask themselves why the American legal system
suddenly, in 1954, opened up as it did. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund had been
courageously and tenaciously litigating school desegregation cases for years, usually
losing or, at best, winning narrow victories (Bell, Derick A. Jr. 1976).
REVISIONIST HISTORY
Derick Bell's analysis of Brown illustrates a second signature of CRT theme, revisionist
history. Revisionist history reexamines America's historical record, replacing comforting
majoritarian interpretations of events with ones that square more accurately with
minorities' experiences. Revisionism is often materialist in thrust, holding that to
understand the zigs and zags of black, Latino, and Asian fortunes, one must look to things

like profit, labor supply, international relations, and the interest of elite whites (Zinn,
Howard 1999: 20). The difference between the materialists and idealists is no minor
matter. It shapes strategy on decisions of how and where to invest one's energies. If the
materialists are right, one need to change the physical circumstance of minorities' lives
before racism will abate. One takes seriously matters like Unions, immigration quotas,
and the loss of industrial jobs to globalization. If one is an idealist, campus speech codes,
tort remedies for racist speech, diversity seminars, and increasing the representation of
black, brown and Asian actors on television shows will be high on one's list of priorities.
A middle ground would see both forces, material and cultural, operating together and
synergizing each other, so that race reformers working in either area contribute to a
holistic project of racial redemption (Delgado and Stefancic 1992: 20-21).
CRITIQUE OF LIBERALISM
As mentioned earlier, critical race scholars are discontent with liberalism as a framework
for addressing America's racial problems. Many liberals believe in color blindness and
neutral principles of constitutional law. Critical race theorists hold that color blindness
will allow us redress only extremely egregious racial harms, ones that everyone would
notice and condemn. But if racism is embedded in our thought processes and social
structures as deeply as many theorists believe, then the "ordinary business" of society-
the routines, practices, and institutions that we rely on to effect the world's work- will
keep minorities in subordinate positions. Only aggressive, color-conscious effort to
change the way things are will do much to ameliorate misery. As an example of such
strategy, one critical race scholar proposed that society "look to the bottom" in judging
new laws. If they would relieve the stress of the poorest group- or, worse, if they
compound it- we should reject them. Although color blindness seems firmly entrenched

in the judiciary, a few judges have made exceptions in unusual circumstances (Gotanda,
Neil 1991: Rev.1).
STRUCTURAL DETERMINISM
Everyone has heard the story about Eskimos who have twenty-six words for different
kinds of snow. Imagine the opposite predicament- a society that has only one word (say,
racism) for a phenomenon that is much more complex than that. For example: intentional
racism; unintentional racism; unconscious racism: institutional racism; racism tinged with
homophobia or sexism; racism that takes the form of indifference or coldness; and white
privilege- reserving favors, smiles, kindness, the best stories, one's most charming side,
and invitations to real intimacy for one's own kind of class. Children raised in smoggy
Mexico City are said to paint pictures with a brownish-yellow, never blue, sky. This
example point out the concept that lies at the heart of structural determinism, the idea that
our system, by reason of its structure and vocabulary, cannot redress certain types of
wrong. Structural determinism is a powerful notion that engages both the idealistic and
materialistic strands of critical race theory (Lawrence, Charles R. 1987: Rev.317).
2.4.6 CRITICAL RACE THEORY TODAY
THE 1990s
The decades of the nineties saw a vigorous offensive from the political Right. Abetted by
heavy funding from conservative foundations and position papers from right-wing think
tanks, conservatives advanced a series of policy initiatives, including campaigns against
bilingual education, affirmative action, and immigration. They also lobbied energetically
against hate-speech regulation, welfare, and governmental measures designed to increase
minorities' political representation in congress. Many of the backers of these conservative

reforms were former liberals disenchanted with the country's departure from color-blind
neutrality. Critical race theorists took part in all of those controversies, but especially in
three areas: Capitalism, wealth accumulation, and distributive justice and domestic issues
of power. They also addressed identity issues within critical race theory and intra-group
coalitions.
CAPITALISM AND RAMPAGE
Though the American economy advanced rapidly during the Reagan years in the 1980s,
the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991 put a new glint in the eye of American capitalists.
Military spending was cut back; by the end of the nineties the federal debt had dwindled.
Many critical thinkers put their mind to task of combating what they saw as the country's
long slide into racial indifference. The first issue is color-blindness; when Martin Luther
King, Jr., issued his famous call for America to put aside its racist past and judge people
not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, he was echoing a
theme with long roots in America's history. More than half a century earlier, in Plessy v.
Ferguson, Justic John Harlan in a famous dissent protested the majority's formalistic
separate-but-equal decision. In Plessy, a black man had challenged a railroad's rule
prohibiting him from riding in a car reserved for whites. The railroad replied that it had
set aside identical cars for black passengers; hence its practice did not violate the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court opinion agreed
with the railroad, establishing the principle of separate but equal that lasted until the
Brown decision of 1954 (Hernandez, Tanya Kateri 1998: Rev. 97).
Race, Class, Welfare, and Poverty is a second field on which ideological battle rage is the
distribution of material benefits in the society. This controversy shades off into the much-
debated question of whether race or class is the dominant factor in the subjugation of
people of color. Is racism a means by which whites secure material advantages, as

Derrick Bell Proposes? or is a "culture of poverty", including broken families, crime,

intermittent employment, and a high educational dropout rate, what causes minorities to
lag behind? Critical race theory has yet to develop a comprehensive theory of class.
A
few scholars address issues such as housing segregation in terms of both race and class,
showing that black poverty is different from almost any other kind (Cole David 1999: 2-
4).
A third issue that is very much in the forefront of critical race theory currently is
international globalization. A globalizing economy removes manufacturing jobs from
inner cities, creates technology and information industry jobs for which many minorities
have little training, and concentrates capital in the pockets of an elite class, which seems
little inclined to share it (Carrasco, Enrique. R. 2000).
IDENTITY
A great divide separates two broad types of current critical race scholarship. One group
(the "real world" school) writes about issues such as globalization, human rights, race
and poverty, immigration, and the criminal justice system. These writers are apt to be
influenced by and sympathetic to Derrick Bell's view of race as expressing material
interests of elite groups, and they set out either to understand, analyze, criticize, or
change conditions that afflict communities of color. Another group of scholars focuses on
the system of ideas and categories by which our society constructs and understands race
and racism. Writers in this camp are apt to emphasize issues such as identity and
categories. They are likely to examine the role of ideas, thoughts, and unconscious
discrimination (Delgado and Stefancic 2001: 120-121).

2.4.7 RELEVANCE OF THE THEORY

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a theoretical framework in the social sciences that uses critical
theory to examine society and culture as they relate to categorizations of race, law, and power.
Critical race theory is a broad range of ideas concerning race inequality, a theory which
originated in the United States. Increasingly, CRT is used in many social-science disciplines
including education, both in the United Kingdom and worldwide. CRT provides an alternative
theorization which centered on race and its role in society. A fundamental tenet of CRT is a
description of racism as an endemic,
"deeply ingrained, legally, culturally, and even
psychologically'. Within CRT, racism is not considered limited to isolated episodes of individual
prejudice or violence, but as "normal, not aberrant' in every-day life.
CRT emerged as an effective framework to challenge racism as critical race theorists
have utilized it to present alternative criticisms and interventions in legal system before
becoming more widely used in the academy. As Delgado and Stefancic argue,
"the incentive to
innovate may be stronger in persons for whom the current system does not work... (2001: 219).
AudreLorde fixed the notion of the need to innovate when she argued that "the master's tool will
never dismantle the master's house (1979). Hylton encourages us to challenge conventional ideas
and practices in a way that encourages new tools and ideas in the quest to be critical and
inclusive (2009: 34). CRT can be summarized as a framework from which to explore and
examine the racism in society that privileges whiteness as it disadvantages others' because of
their "blackness' (Hylton: 2009). CRT confronts 'race-neutrality' in policy and practice and
acknowledges the value of the
black' voice that is often marginalized in mainstream theory,
policy and practice.