A look back at the NYT

I was combing through information on critical race theory recently when I stumbled upon a New York Times article, “For Black Scholars Wedded to Prism of Race, New and Seperate Goals.”  This article came out over ten years ago and describes the critical race theory movement as a “growing academic movement among minority scholars.” 

Today critical race theorists are found across racial lines and as we all attempt to make sense of the intersections of politics, law, and race, critical race theory is increasingly important.  The NYT notes:

“Critical race theorists, who are on the faculty at almost every major law school and are producing an ever-growing body of scholarly work, have drawn from an idea made popular by postmodernist scholars of all races, that there is no objective reality. Instead, the critical race theorists say, there are competing racial versions of reality that may never be reconciled.”

Postmodernism and critical race theory do not necessarily go hand in hand.  Many race scholars have decried postmodernism’s lack of a focal point.  Others have argued that postmodenism is a series of thoughts supported by a White intellectual elite and therefore offers little hope for Black scholars and communities.  It seems to me that postmodernism’s decentralized approach to society affords countless opportunities for reconfiguring power structures and reassessing notions of space and place.  Here I echo bell hooks in her article, “Postmodern Blackness,” featured in the first issue of Postmodern Culture.  hooks wrote:

“Postmodern culture with its decentered subject can be the space where ties are severed or it can provide the occasion for new and varied forms of bonding. To some extent ruptures, surfaces, contextuality and a host of other happenings create gaps that make space for oppositional practices which no longer require intellectuals to be confined to narrow, separate spheres with no meaningful connection to the world of every day. Much postmodern engagement with culture emerges from the yearning to do intellectual work that connects with habits of being, forms of artistic expression and aesthetics, that inform the daily life of a mass population as well as writers and scholars. On the terrain of culture, one can participate in critical dialogue with the uneducated poor, the black underclass who are thinking about aesthetics. One can talk about what we are seeing, thinking, or listening to; a space is there for critical exchange. It’s exciting to think, write, talk about, and create art that reflects passionate engagement with popular culture, because this may very well be ‘the’ central future location of resistance struggle, a meeting place where new and radical happenings can occur. “

Race is not simply skin color, but is a category constructed by society through law and culture.  Understanding the way race is constructed, like understanding how gender is constructed, is integral to an appreciation of the law’s impact on traditionally maligned peoples.  Postmodernism attempts to debase these constructs across society where as critical race theory focuses this deconstruction on the specific issue of race.  Postmodernism affords the opportunity to re-conceptualize space so that dispossessed peoples may find room from which to advance their interests and tell their stories.  The NYT article does an excellent job of highlighting the importance of narrative to critical race theory.  Narratives and storytelling have taken on an expanded role in legal academia, surpassing their use for marginalized groups.  Now even dominate groups are utilizing narratives to better describe their experienced with the law.  I’ve argued before that we too often remove the people from the law and part of my attraction to critical race theory is that it seeks to make people players in the game.  It attempts to restore the voices of the masses and understands that everyone comes to the law in a different way. 

The article is a great read for critical race scholars and students.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to look it up or forgot about it, take a gander.