Ignorance of critical race theory predicts White Americans’ opposition to it

The years since George Floyd's murder in 2020 have been characterized by both a renewed attention to systemic racism and a backlash intended to silence conversations about race. Critical Race Theory (CRT), in particular, has become a larger part of the public discourse around race than ever before. Although CRT developed in the 1980s as a critical approach in legal studies and was incorporated into social psychology in the 1990s, psychology's engagement with CRT has been much more limited than that of other fields. In two installments, this special issue aims to (re)introduce psychological researchers to Critical Race Theory (CRT), to underscore CRT's importance and limitations in the context of psychological research, to feature novel applications and new directions in CRT, and to address the current political climate of opposition to discussions of CRT. The first installment looks inward to examine how psychology can more effectively advance racial equity within the field and the research we conduct by continuing to incorporate a CRT lens throughout higher education and research. The second installment looks outward to highlight psychological research that uses CRT frameworks to advance racial justice in society.

Section: Section Iv: Understanding Opposition To Crtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Focusing the critical race psychology lens: CRT and the psychological study of social issues

Salter,

Moadel‐Attie,

Miller

et al. 2024

“…On one hand, by confining the concept of racism to direct acts of differential treatment flowing from personal biases, the standard portrayal inhibits critical consciousness about the systematicity of racism and its enduring role in constituting the Eurocentric modern order. In turn, by inhibiting this critical consciousness, the standard portrayal undermines support for urgent actions designed to disrupt and counteract the ongoing violence of systemic racism (Adams, Edkins, et al, 2008;Richmond et al, 2024;Salter & Adams, 2016;Salter et al, in press).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another way to understand the identity relevance of racism conceptions is in terms of cultural knowledge socialization and the epistemic resources a person has available to make sense of the world (see Richmond et al, 2024). One source of cultural socialization or set of epistemic resources that has received attention in psychological research is critical historical knowledge (Salter et al, in press), especially about past incidents of colonial and other racial violence.…”

Section: Racism-evasive Ignorance In Us Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Confronting Racism‐evasive Ignorance in Standard Pedagogy of Hegemonic Social Psychology

Adams,

Omar

2024

A core tenet of Critical Race Theory (CRT) is an understanding of systemic racism as a defining and constitutive feature of the Eurocentric modern order. In contrast to this foundational insight, discussions in hegemonic social psychology tend to approach racism in a manner—specifically, as prejudice and individual bias—that abstracts the topic from social and historical context. We consider this proposition via an analysis of standard textbooks for undergraduate courses in social psychology. Our review reveals that standard textbooks do not include racism, per se, as a topic of investigation; instead, they tend to consider racism‐relevant topics as specific cases of supposedly more basic (and therefore more general) processes of cognition or affect. We conclude the article by drawing on textbooks from South African settings and perspectives of decolonial theory (i.e., examples of social psychologies Other‐wise) as resources to re‐think hegemonic social psychology in directions that resonate more clearly with a CRT emphasis on the systematicity of racism.

“…This ignorance in turn leads people to deny that presentday examples of systemic racism are indeed examples of systemic racism (Bonam et al, 2018). Ultimately, racism denial manifests materially, for example, in the form of less antiracist social action, opposition to CRT, and depressed support for race-conscious social policies (Collins & Walsh, 2024;Richmond et al, 2024;Salter & Adams, 2016). These patterns are consistent with the core CRT concept of interest-convergence (see Bell, 2004, p. 49), which asserts that broad-based support for action advancing racial equity occurs only when White people believe it is in their own best interest-in other words, when White and POC interests converge.…”

Section: Critical Race Theory and Racism Denialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fighting Racism Denial; Becoming a Mother‐Scholar‐Activist

Bonam

2024

Using autoethnography and a Critical Race Theory framework, I recount how I experienced racism denial in my son's school district during 2019–2020 (his kindergarten year). To build this counternarrative, I analyzed multiple data sources (e.g., field notes, personal journal entries, public documents) and, across three chapters, describe my interactions with key school district gatekeepers while advocating for racial equity‐oriented school policies. These policies included: a school desegregation program (Chapter 1), a plan to incorporate critical race education into one school's curriculum (Chapter 2), and a district‐level endorsement of critical race and ethnic studies K‐12 curriculum in California schools (Chapter 3). In responding to this advocacy, the district professed surface‐level support for racial equity, but I saw this form of support as racism denial merely masquerading as support for racial equity. I explain why I interpreted the district's responses in this way, and how I experienced these responses from my perspective as a mixed Black mother, scholar, and activist. I end by reflecting on how these experiences forced me to integrate my mother‐scholar‐activist identities in uncomfortable and productive ways, and with recommendations for how psychological researchers and K‐12 schools can support racial equity.