This article was downloaded by: [UTSA Libraries]On: 18 October 2013, At: 11:54Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Race Ethnicity and EducationPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cree20

Critical race pedagogy 2.0: lessonsfrom Derrick BellMarvin Lynna, Michael E. Jenningsb & Sherick Hughesc

a School of Education, Indiana University South Bend, IN, 46634,USA.b College of Education and Human Development, University ofTexas at San Antonio, TX, 78249, USA.c School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,NC, 27599, USA.Published online: 26 Sep 2013.

To cite this article: Marvin Lynn, Michael E. Jennings & Sherick Hughes (2013) Critical racepedagogy 2.0: lessons from Derrick Bell, Race Ethnicity and Education, 16:4, 603-628, DOI:10.1080/13613324.2013.817776

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2013.817776

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &

Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

Critical race pedagogy 2.0: lessons from Derrick Bell

Marvin Lynna*, Michael E. Jenningsb and Sherick Hughesc

aSchool of Education, Indiana University South Bend, IN 46634, USA; bCollege ofEducation and Human Development, University of Texas at San Antonio, TX78249, USA; cSchool of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,NC 27599, USA

In this article, we attempt to honor the rich legacy of Derrick Bell bydetailing how exploring his specific contributions to critical race theory(CRT) provided lessons for developing and refining critical racepedagogy (CRP). We examine Bell’s racial realism thesis in connectionwith his pedagogical work. In doing so, we find that he was as commit-ted to developing a ‘community-based’ law classroom as he was to artic-ulating a strong critique of the law (Radice 1991). As part of histeaching philosophy, Bell wrote extensively about the value and impor-tance of a student-centered humanist pedagogy (Bell 1980, 1982, 1997;Bell and Edmonds 1993; Delgado and Stefancic 2005). We draw paral-lels between Bell’s humanist student-centered pedagogy and the tenetsof CRP as a way to expand the accessibility of this framework. Finally,as the ultimate homage to the work of Derrick Bell, we end with afuturistic mini-chronicle that takes place in a school district boardroom.The chronicle features a fictitious character who happens to be a distantrelative of Bell’s. As we will discuss, we believe that the use ofchronicles and storytelling hold the possibility for helping us to nameextant challenges and illuminate further possibilities of CRP as a toolfor battling globalized oppression at the intersection of race, class,gender and sexuality in education.

Keywords: critical race pedagogy; critical pedagogy; critical race theory;race

Introduction

As critical cisgender1 African American male scholars and leaders ineducation who happen to be ‘simultaneously disempowered by race andempowered by [our] professional status’ (Espinoza and Harris 1997), wehave developed and nurtured a fascination with matters of race andpedagogy. This, in no small measure, has much to do with our backgroundsas poor and working class black male children who experienced urbanpublic schooling in places like Chicago and Philadelphia and rural North

*Corresponding author. Email: lynnm@iusb.edu

Race Ethnicity and Education, 2013Vol. 16, No. 4, 603–628, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2013.817776

� 2013 Taylor & Francis

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

Carolina. We learned the value of ‘good teaching’ (Ladson-Billings 1995).In fact, we so appreciated ‘good teaching’ that we befriended every goodblack teacher we met…for life! It was our associations with these goodblack teachers that propelled us toward higher education and toward theprofession of education.

In our quest to find examples of good teaching in the research literature,in graduate school, we were introduced to the works of Paulo Freire – thefather of Critical Pedagogy – and subsequently the works of scholars likeGiroux, McLaren, Kincheloe and others who helped to carry and articulateFreire’s message to the academy in US. We found affinity with theseapproaches to examining the role of teachers in developing liberatorypedagogies in oppressive spaces. We became conversant in the discourseand formed close affiliations with critical pedagogists.

While we delighted in the discovery of the language of critical pedagogy,we remained restless. Critical pedagogy spoke to our need to ‘fight thepower’ and critique ‘the hell out of the system’ but it did not abate ourrapidly expanding appetites for a critical analysis of race and racism inschools and society. At UCLA, Marvin Lynn had the good fortune to workwith scholars like Daniel G. Solórzano, Kimberle Crenshaw, DevonCarbado, while Michael E. Jennings and Sherick Hughes were doctoralstudents of George W. Noblit at the University of North Carolina at ChapelHill. Noblit met Derrick Bell in the mid-1970s through Ron Henderson aspart of his work on a school desegregation project for the National Instituteof Education and a highly publicized panel for the US Department ofEducation. Since that time, Noblit has been recognized internationally as thetype of rare white scholar-activist that Bell (1995) characterizes as beingcognizant of and committed to overthrowing his own racial privilege. As aresult of the tutelage received from these pioneers, we were encouraged topursue critical race scholarship and developed critical race critiques ofcritical pedagogy.

This pursuit led eventually to the development of ‘critical race pedagogy’(CRP) – a term first coined by Marvin Lynn and based on his research withAfrican American urban schoolteachers (1999). In the article, publishedwhile he was a graduate student working under the tutelage of Dr Solorzanoat UCLA, he draws specifically on McLaren and Dantley’s (1990) articula-tion of a ‘critical pedagogy of race’ – a Marxist critique of race and racismin teaching – to suggest that a CRP could subvert a class-based discourseby necessarily placing an emphasis on race and it’s connection to thedevelopment of liberatory practices in schools. At the same time, MichaelJennings was developing his own specific iteration of CRP based on theteachings and writings of radical black activist Huey P. Newton of the BlackPanther Party (2000).

Since that time, CRP has been expanded to incorporate LatCrit Theoryor Latino Critical Race Theory – ‘an extension and development of critical

604 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

race theory (CRT) (and critical theory generally) that focus on the previ-ously neglected areas of Latino/a identity and history and the role of racismas it affects Latinos/as’ (Perea 1997). Solorzano and Yosso (2000–2001)extend CRP by focusing on the experiences of Latino/as in the US andincorporating issues of language, citizenship status and ethnicity into the dis-course about the ways that critical teachers of color teach in ways that honorthe racialized experiences of students of color. We have further expandedthe discourse on CRP by articulating more extensive critiques of criticalpedagogy and paying significantly more attention to the research of criticalblack women scholars (Henry 1998; Johnson 2000) and the practices ofblack male teachers (Jennings and Lynn 2005; Lynn and Jennings 2009).

At the 15th anniversary of the publication of the first research article onCRP, we want to examine how to make CRP accessible beyond the academy.We are scholars and administrators involved in the scholarship of race but weare also deeply engaged in advancing race-blind teacher education projects inpublic universities. It is beyond the scope of this article conduct a criticalrace analysis of teacher education. The problems with teacher education areself-evident and contribute greatly to the problems we face in public schools.While we do not propose a specific solution to this problem here, we dobelieve that making our work more accessible might assist teacher educationscholars and leaders in their efforts to draw on a variety of critical tools thatwill help improve teacher education. Suffice it to say, we are no longer satis-fied with doing race work in education that is only accessible to our tight-knitacademic community of disempowered but privileged scholars of color. Inthis article, we challenge ourselves to be more responsive to CRT’s call toexpand this social justice discourse beyond its limited disciplinary bound-aries. Our first step is to examine the impact and reach CRP.

As we began to examine ‘the reach’ of our scholarship more closely, webecame keenly aware of the number of times our work had been cited in aca-demic journals and books addressing issues of race, ethnicity and education.In fact, with the assistance of tools such as Web of Science and GoogleScholar we were quite pleased to find that our work had been cited in a num-ber of different journals and other publication outlets. For example, accordingto Sage Publications – the publisher of the journal Urban Education – Lynn’sToward a Critical Race Pedagogy (1999) has been cited at least 119 timesby scholars publishing in journals in a variety of fields including Education,English (Isakson 2000) and Nursing (see http://uex.sagepub.com/content/33/5/606.abstract). CRP has also been used by scholars in the field of PoliticalScience (Alexander-Floyd 2008), Sociology (Singer and May 2010; Mueller2012), Art History (Hampton 2011), and Digital Media (Higgin 2011).

As a point of comparison, we also conducted a simple Google search ofthe Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995) seminal article ‘Toward a Critical RaceTheory of Education,’ which was published in Columbia University’sTeachers College Record. According to Google, this article has been cited

Race Ethnicity and Education 605

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

over 1200 times in various academic journals and other publication outlets.While we certainly were not surprised that this article was more widely citedthan the others, the citation contrast did provide an important perspective forus about the broad accessibility and perhaps the applicability of our work.

As we continued our exploration, we also discovered that 9 out of 10 thetop hits for the term ‘Critical Race Pedagogy’ (after conducting a Googlesearch) were articles written by one of us or our close colleagues: a Googlesearch for ‘Critical Race Pedagogy’ produced three immediate citations(Lynn 1999; Jennings and Lynn 2005; and Yosso (2005) citing (Lynn 1999).The Google search further reveals that (Lynn 1999), (Jennings and Lynn1999) and our colleague Yosso2 (2005) who cited (Lynn 1999), have beencited 119, 35, and 561 times, respectively.

The information gleaned from these searches led us to conclude thatwhile there are some promising signs regarding the application of CRP inthe academy, there is more work to do in order to develop CRP for educa-tors both inside and outside of the academy. In an effort to make our workmore accessible, we draw on the work of Derrick Bell – the father of CRT– to help us further ground and enrich our research. He is probably the mostwidely read scholar in this area because while his work is voluminous,complex and theoretically rich, it remains accessible to a wide range ofaudiences in a number of different fields including education.

In this article, we attempt to honor the rich legacy of Derrick Bell bydetailing how exploring his specific contributions to CRT provided lessons fordeveloping and refining CRP. We specifically discuss two key principles ofCRT: racial realism and the interest convergence principle. We also examineBell’s teaching. In doing so, we find that he was as committed to developing a‘community-based’ law classroom as he was to articulating a strong critiqueof the law (Radice 1991). As part of his teaching philosophy, Bell wroteextensively about the value and importance of a student-centered humanistpedagogy (Bell 1980, 1982, 1997; Bell and Edmonds 1993; Delgado and Ste-fancic 2005). We draw parallels between Bell’s humanist student-centeredpedagogy and the tenets of CRP as a way to expand the accessibility of thisframework. Finally, as the ultimate homage to the work of Derrick Bell, weend with a futuristic mini-chronicle that takes place in school district board-room. The chronicle features a fictitious character who happens to be a distantrelative of Bell’s. As we will discuss, we believe that the use of chronicles andstorytelling hold the possibility for helping us to name extant challenges andilluminate further possibilities of CRP as a tool for battling globalized oppres-sion at the intersection of race, class, gender and sexuality in education.

Derrick Bell, CRT and counter story as methodology

In a chapter in the Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education (Lynnand Dixson 2013), legal scholars Brown and Jackson 2013 argue that CRT

606 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

developed in 1989 after the convening of 25 legal scholars of color at aconference on race and the law in Madison, Wisconsin. According to theauthors, there was a ‘confluence’ of several intersecting legal, political andsocial factors that brought about a sense of urgency among these law schoolfaculty members. First, the legal protections gained in the past 100 yearswere systematically being eroded by a series of legal cases being fought atthe federal and state level. Next, while there was an emergent discourse inthe law that framed how issues of gender and social class influence the legalstructure, there was very little discussion in the law about the ways in which‘race matters’ (West 1994). As a result, legal scholars of color developed anew discourse that would provide a critique of colorblindness in the lawwhile emphasizing and highlighting the perspectives of people of color(Brown and Jackson 2013). The discourse was aptly named CRT).

CRT possesses a number of distinct features. Lynn and Parker (2006)asserted that these pioneering scholars (and those that preceded them)established key features of CRT that give shape and emphasis to theirarguments about the basic nature of race in society. First, drawingprincipally from Bell’s Racism as Permanent Thesis, CRT argues that racismis pervasive and represents ‘a normal fact of daily life in US society’ (Bell1995; Taylor 2009, 5). Supporting this idea are the ideologies andassumptions of white supremacy which are ingrained in the political, legaland educational structures in ways that make them almost unrecognizable(Bell 1995; Delgado 1995, as cited in Taylor 2009). Second, CRT views thestructure of white supremacy as having a profound effect on the world andrepresenting an ‘all-encompassing and omnipresent’ (4) system of privilege,power and opportunities that are often invisible to its own beneficiaries(Taylor 2009). Third, oppositional scholarship is seen as a desirable outcomeof CRT research and teaching. CRT challenges traditional notions ofscholarly objectivity by promoting a radical scholarship that goes beyondthe experience of whites as the normative standard and instead grounds itsconceptual framework in the distinctive historical context that places anemphasis on the experiences of people of color (Taylor 1998).

In conducting this type of research, scholars of CRT often use ‘non-tradi-tional’ methods of research such as narrative and storytelling as a means tochallenge the existing social construction of race (Ladson-Billings 1998,2013). Fourth, CRT advocates a strong critique of liberalism as a supportingideology for a just and equal society. CRT offers a sustained critique of thebelief that traditional government institutions can create an equitable and justsociety. CRT advocates are skeptical that the current paradigms utilized bygovernment institutions can be catalysts for social change given the emphasison incrementalism that is ingrained in these institutions (Ladson-Billings1998). CRT adherents also reject the idea that government institutions such asschools have the ability to function as ‘neutral’ entities in a society whereconstructs like race, class, gender and sexual orientation remain powerful

Race Ethnicity and Education 607

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

paradigms for oppression (Marx 2008). In the next section, we discuss waysin which Derrick Bell’s work helped generate many of these founding con-cepts of CRT.

The influence of Derrick Bell

In a special issue of the Connecticut Law Review published in 20113,Kimberle Crenshaw describes the way in which Derrick Bell’s scholarshipserved as a foundation for the establishment of CRT as discourse on raceand inequality in the law:

…Race, Racism and American Law. Bell’s textbook and his overall productwere especially important in setting the foundation upon which CRT wasbuilt. Bell’s entire body of work encouraged an emerging cohort of criticalthinkers to place race at the center of scholarly inquiry, a license that had notyet been granted by the legal academy. Bell’s work revealed how liberal,rights-oriented scholarship had been preoccupied with the task of reconcilingracial equality with competing values such as federalism, free market econom-ics, institutional stability, and vested expectations created in the belly of whitesupremacy, such as seniority. Bell sought to critique the liberal constitutionalframe within which race scholarship was disciplined, uncovering the ways thatthese investments were not separate values to be balanced against the questfor racial equity but were themselves repositories of racial power. (Crenshaw2010, 1282)

Gloria Ladson-Billings, who can effectively be referred to as ‘the Mother ofthe field of Critical Race Theory in Education’ explains why she oftendescribes Bell as the ‘Father of Critical Race Theory’:

The late Professor Derrick A. Bell is considered the ‘Father of Critical RaceTheory,’ perhaps because of his prolific writing on the topic, his instrumentalrole in educating many cohorts of law scholars who fostered the movement, andthe principles by which he lived his life and career. (Ladson Billings 2013, 38)

These quotes underscore the significance of Derrick Bell’s foundational rolein CRT. More specifically, Bell’s scholarship brought attention to thesubjective nature of the law by highlighting the ways in which it wasconstitutive of hierarchies of racial power and privilege (Crenshaw 2010).His racial realism thesis, which argues that racism and white supremacy arepermanent features of US society, brought analytical depth to scholarly dis-cussions on race and racism in the law because it helped to illuminate thestructural elements of racism as a system of power. This was particularlysignificant given the scant attention given to race and racism in the CriticalLegal Studies literature and the way in which it was theorized simply as a‘mindset’ in traditional civil rights legal scholarship. Related to this, Bell’sarticulation of the Interest Convergence Principle drew significant attentionbecause of its analysis of the Brown v. Board of Education decision which

608 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

had largely been heralded as a major victory for civil rights in the US. Heargued that while it did constitute a move away from de jure segregation, itonly happened because of America’s vested interest in promoting an imageof itself as more egalitarian in light of harsh criticisms from the formerSoviet Union (See Mary Dudziak 1987). Bell helps to illuminate how self-serving political and economic interests can sometimes drive the construc-tion of laws that, on the surface, appear to be in the interest of racially mar-ginalized people.

Lawyer, activist, teacher, writer: for over 40 years, Derrick Bell has provokedcritics and challenged his readers with uncompromising candor andprogressive views on race and class in America. A founder of Critical RaceTheory and pioneer in the use of allegorical stories as tools of analysis, Bell’sgroundbreaking work shatters conventional legal orthodoxies and turnscomfortable majoritarian myths inside out. (Delgado and Stefancic 2005)

Critical race theory scholarship is characterized by frequent use of the firstperson, storytelling, narrative, allegory, interdisciplinary treatment of law andthe unapologetic use of creativity. (Bell 1995)

Bell’s (1987) use of narrative and storytelling as forms of methodologychallenged prevailing ideas and assumptions by ‘telling the stories of thosepeople whose experiences are often not told’ (Solorzano and Yosso 2002).These stories represented an important ‘counternarrative’ that challenged theracist ideology used to create, maintain and justify the use of a ‘masternarratives’ in storytelling (Solorzano and Yosso 2002). Given that theconcept of race is a central focus in the dilemma(s) facing most people ofcolor, Bell’s (1987) focus on race necessitated a theoretical lens and acomplimentary methodology that offered a counternarrative that fullycomprehended the dilemma and helped to develop a viable solution.

An essential component to the construction of a counternarrative orcounterstory (we use the terms interchangeably) is the concept of the ‘masternarrative’. The phrase ‘master narrative’ comes from the term metanarrativewhich was first described by Jean-Francois Lyotard 1984 as part of his cri-tique of the Enlightenment (Stanley 2007). Stanley (2007) describes masternarratives as ‘a script that specifies and controls how some social processesare carried out’ (14). These scripts go beyond the grand narratives describedby Lyotard ([1984] 1979) by also including ‘the “official” and “hegemonic”narratives of everyday life: those legitimating stories propagated for specificpolitical purposes to manipulate public consciousness by heralding a nationalset of common cultural ideas’ (Giroux et al. 1996, 2). It is these common cul-tural ideas, or scripts, that Bell (1987) attempted to challenge with the narra-tive use of counterstories in his research.

Legal scholar George H. Taylor (2006) asserts that Bell’s (1987, 1992)stories should also be read as parables in the tradition of the Christian

Race Ethnicity and Education 609

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

Bible’s New Testament. Taylor (2006) compares Bell’s (1987, 1992) writingwith the literary style of stories told in the New Testament Bible. Inestablishing this comparison, Taylor (2006) states that:

New Testament parables and Bell’s parables both reorient, and they do so bydisorienting. Just as the New Testament parables should be read based on thecriteria of manifestation – the manifestation of new knowledge and insight –rather than on the basis of adequation – to existing norms and knowledge –so, I argue, should Bell’s narratives. (226–227)

This reliance on manifestation challenges the norms of the status quo bychallenging truth claims that assert knowledge exist only as a byproduct of‘veracity and verifiability’ (Farber and Sherry, Beyond All Reason, as citedin Taylor 2006, 258). In doing so, Bell’s (1987, 1992) work offers analternative narrative that tells the world that the master narrative is not theonly story that exist. We offer a fuller treatment of Bell’s approach anddiscuss how the education literature has employed these strategies in theservice of manifesting new knowledge about the important links betweenrace and education.

Derrick Bell’s counter-storytelling method in education

All the black school-age children were gone. They had simply dis-appeared.No one in authority could tell the frantic parents what they already knew…black children, every one of them, had vanished. (Bell 1987, 102–103)

The children were never found, their abductors never apprehended. (107)

4In The Chronicle of the Sacrificed Black Schoolchildren, Derrick Bell(1987) wrote a fictionalized parable about how desegregation affected thelives of African American children in the United States. These fictionalizedparables – referred to in the critical race literature as chronicles orstorytelling – often appear in the form of conversations between attorneyswho are engaged in a debate over some issue of major political and legalimportance. In the chronicles, Bell has conversations about the role of thelaw in promulgating racism in the US.

In this particular chronicle, Bell (1987) wrote about the direconsequences of desegregation for many African American children. Thechronicle begins with the idea that African American children have simplyvanished on the ‘implementation day for the new desegregation plan’ (Bell1987, 102). He does not explain how they vanished or where they went. Heexplains the impact of this legislation on black schools: They were closed,and black teachers and principals were fired. He noted that it was whites,not blacks, who stood to gain the most from the losses experienced by

610 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

African American children. It was African American children who wouldbecome ‘invisible’ or lost in all-white schools where they were not wantedor appreciated. In schools that were created with white children in mind,African American children’s culture and language were misunderstood andpathologized as deficient, and these students were ultimately framed asoppositional. In this sense, Bell is using the parable to argue that Brown v.Board of Education did not significantly improve the lives of AfricanAmerican children; instead, it made them even more invisible. It could beargued, then, that the problems identified by Bell help to explain the currentcrisis facing many African American children in US schools today.

A number of education scholars have drawn on counterstorytelling as amethod to make important claims about race and education (Love 2004;Smith, Yosso and Solorzano 2007; Solorzano and Yosso 2001, 2002;Stinson 2008; Yosso et al. 2004; Ladson-Billings 2013). Tara Yosso andDaniel Solorzano have used this approach to examine education policy(Yosso et al. 2004) and to analyze dropout rates for Chicano/a students fromelementary to graduate school (Yosso 2013). Gloria Ladson-Billings hasdrawn specifically on Bell’s narrative-based discussion about ‘black schools’to imagine a world where black schools are resource-rich environmentswhere black students excel (Ladson-Billings 1994). More recently, she hasdrawn on this method to articulate some concerns about the uses and abusesof CRT by education scholars who lack a commitment to developingrigorous research agendas (Ladson-Billings 2013). Bernal and Villalpando(2002) have used this framework as a way to challenge the myth of meritoc-racy that shapes conversations about the promotion and tenure of Chicano/afaculty in higher education. More specifically, they bring the reader insidefaculty conversations about the promotion and tenure of a Chicana facultymember that was heavily criticized by her white colleagues for engaging intoo much community service and for employing methods they consideredillegitimate in some way. In doing so, they call attention to the hypocrisyprevalent in the academy and suggest that colorblind discussions about meritthat devalue the work of scholars of color have the affect of constructingconditions of ‘apartheid’ in the academy (Bernal and Villalpando 2002).

We are also interested in how Bell’s use of narrative could illuminate therole of African American faculty and offer commentary about their role inthe academy and their influence in K-12 schools as well as the broadercommunity. African American educational theorists such as Marvin Lynn(2010); Sherick Hughes (2004), and Theodorea Berry (2004) have all usedcounter-storytelling as a method to articulate the concerns of AfricanAmerican faculty in predominantly white universities.

Theodorea Berry (2004) crafted a personal counterstory that focused onthe ideas of conflict and consumption and the role that they played in herlife while she sought entrance into the academy. Berry (2004) asserts thather strongest role models were teachers and that she desired to emulate them

Race Ethnicity and Education 611

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

because of their sensibility and strength. Perhaps most importantly, sheadmired the fact that they weren’t afraid to speak their minds. Despite thisadmiration, Berry (2004) viewed teaching as ‘women’s work’ andendeavored to travel the world as a writer and musician. However, many ofthe activities that she engaged in, from middle school through college, wereclosely related to education. Through her informal roles as an assistant toseveral elementary school teachers (including her own mother) and herformal role as a Resident Assistant in college, Berry (2004) found herself asa ‘budding critical race feminist’ (50). She asserts that experiences through-out her life, particularly as related to her education, brought her to the placeof being a critical race feminist. She defines critical race feminism as ‘amultidisciplinary genre based on the need to voice a distinction in theexperiences of men of color (which CRT tends to focus on) and whitewomen (which feminist theory addresses)’ (Berry 2004, 50). She expoundsupon this idea in her narrative by exploring personal interactions withseveral white women faculty members she encountered while completingdoctoral work in education.

Berry (2004) characterizes her relationships with faculty members in hergraduate program as problematic and reflecting what seemed to be a certainconfusion regarding her very presence. She states:

My journey as an African American female doctoral student was full ofmissed-understandings for those who attempted to guide me along the way.These individuals often tried to hide their confusion and found my blackwomanhood mystifying. At times, they found my whole being exotic andintellectually erotic. (Berry 2004, 51)

The white women faculty that Berry (2004) encounters often attempted toconnect with her in a form of feminist bonding but could not seem to movepast fetishizing her as an exotic other; another black body reduced to acommodity for the purpose of consumption. These attempts at consumptionresulted in a series of conflicts that eventually became what could best bedescribed as a ‘long-standing war’ (Berry 2004, 52) between Berry (2004)and the white women who made up the majority of the faculty in her doctoralprogram. However, she recognized that she was not on even footing in thisconflict. In describing the nature of the conflict Berry (2004) states that:

The fights were unfair because I was ill equipped. I didn’t speak the language.I didn’t know the rules. I couldn’t see the barriers. Months went by before Irealized I was asking for admittance to a socially exclusive club called theacademy. I thought I was getting an education. I was. But not the kind Ithought I was getting. And thus the battles played out. (52)

Berry’s counterstory highlights the essential challenge that many AfricanAmerican faculty face while on their road toward the academy: the lack of

612 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

effective mentoring by faculty in doctoral programs. Additionally, AfricanAmerican faculty often face hostility from faculty members who seek tosilence and control their ideas and their minds rather than trying tounderstand their positions (Berry 2004).

Sherick Hughes (2004), in his chapter, ‘Beyond the Silenced Dialogue:What We Tell Ourselves When the white academy Ain’t Hearin’ Us’ looksto similar issues of exclusion and domination when discussing hisexperiences as a graduate student as well as the experiences of others whosought to navigate the complexities of doctoral education. Hughes (2004)utilizes Delpit’s (1988) seminal article, ‘The Silenced Dialogue: Power andPedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children,’ as a departure point todiscuss the role of silencing in the lives of African American graduatestudents. In doing so, he views the role of African Americans in theacademy as embodying an existential moral dilemma that asks the question‘what in general is good for African Americans with our kind of history inthis kind of situation?’ (62). Reflecting on his own experiences and those ofhis research participants, he concludes that African Americans in theacademy should anticipate the act of silencing as an inevitable part ofacademic life.

Furthermore, in dealing with this form of domination Hughes (2004)suggests that African Americans in the academy must anticipate the rise ofinternal dilemmas that test their resolve while guiding their actions in a waythat sustains hope and informs praxis. In analyzing Hughes’ (2004) movetowards combining hope and praxis, his work suggest the need for a CRTthat sees praxis as a logical outcome of a struggle with existential dilemmassurrounding themes of racism, privilege and silencing. This praxis, whichwe see as a form of CRP, serves to bring CRT into concert with a need forpedagogical practices that span the concept of education across both formaland informal institutions and throughout individual life cycles (i.e., birththrough death).

Marvin Lynn (2005, 2010) offers two counternnaratives that discuss hisexperiences as an African American in the academy. First, Lynn (2005)chronicles his experience in graduate school by drawing a comparisonbetween the academy and the slave plantation by arguing that the doctoraltraining process is designed to effectively de-politicize radical young blackscholars by shaping them into conciliatory non-threatening ‘Negroes’ whoare reminiscent of ‘Mammies and Sambos’ (Lynn 2005). In both Berry andLynn’s narratives, race, gender and class become significant as they are bothquickly stereotyped as either ‘the loud and aggressive black woman’ or as‘the angry black male’ who, because of their working class status, lack theappropriate ‘cultural capital’ for success in the academy.

In his work titled Exorcizing Critical Pedagogy Again (2010) Lynncontinues his critique of the academy and makes explicit use of the narrativecounterstorytelling frequently associated with the work of Derrick Bell

Race Ethnicity and Education 613

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

(1987). Lynn (2010) starts with a discussion of the concept of ‘CriticalPedagogy’ and its failure to empower women and people of color both inthe academy and within K-12 educational settings. Critical Pedagogy wasfounded on the intention of ‘explicitly advocating for social justice andtransformation within education’ (Jennings and Lynn 2005, 22). Despite thisintention, Critical Pedagogy has come under attack by critics (Ellsworth1989; Gordon 1995; Lather 1991; Murillo 1999; Lynn 2004; Allen 2006)who charge that Critical Pedagogy ‘doesn’t live up to its name because itignores key questions of power and privilege’ (Lynn 2010, 199). In drawingon these critiques, Lynn (2010) discusses the difficulties of doing transfor-mative work in the development of education programs at the universitylevel. More specifically, he identifies those in the university who ‘profess anillusory commitment to “social justice” while remaining silent andsometimes openly supportive of policies and practices that promote anexclusionary, paternalistic, and white supremacist project in teachereducation’ (Lynn 2010, 199). Lynn (2010) reflects on how these practiceshave impacted his work in the academy by constructing two counterstoriesthat are delivered in the form of short fictional writings that emulate whatBell (1987) describes as ‘metaphorical tales’ (6) or chronicles. Bell (1987)further describes these chronicles as a way to avoid academic abstractionsand to create a rich and engaging form of written discourse that is part of‘an ancient tradition in using fantasy and dialogue to uncover enduringtruths’ (6).

In his first chronicle, Lynn (2010) introduces the character of ProfessorJack Turner, a university professor that works in the college of education atan urban university in his hometown of Detroit, MI. Professor Turner isbeing interviewed by a newspaper reporter about the poor achievement ofminority children in the Detroit public schools. He laments the fact that sofew black students are admitted into the teacher education program at hisuniversity and expresses anger at the white radical scholars in the programwho seem uninterested in admitting African American students into the pro-gram. Turner laments this situation and asks the question, ‘why is this urbanuniversity with a clear-cut social justice mission and a critical mass ofleading radical scholars still safely operating under the principles of JimCrow, separate but equal doctrine in the twenty-first century?’ (Lynn 2010,200). Perhaps even more importantly, Turner seeks to know why his radicalwhite colleagues, who are well known for their research on social justiceissues in education, are doing absolutely nothing to change this situation.

Lynn (2010) continues this theme in his second chronicle where heintroduces Principal Vargas, a Latino male principal who has helped tosecure a new school building for his community. The radical professors atPrincipal Vargas’ school eventually help to bring about his downfall byencouraging the school’s students to stage a very public protest against theleadership of the school district. The professors do this as part of their

614 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

efforts to discourage school reform policies that would significantlyshortchange students of color at the school and across the district. AsPrincipal Vargas is being escorted off of the campus by the police, he shoutsto a waiting television news camera:

Keep the white Marxists out of our schools! They don’t give a damn aboutpeople of color and sure in hell don’t give a rat’s ass about what happens tokids that don’t look like them! They are only here because they want to takeover and try to own our movement! (Lynn 2010, 200)

Lynn’s (2010) forceful admonitions regarding white faculty and theirrelationship with African American faculty and students is echoed in thework of CRT scholar Ricky Lee Allen (2006) who has offered a scathingcritique of the racism that exists within the world of critical pedagogueswho profess strong support for people of color. Allen (2006) points out thatAfrican Americans are infrequently seen in the leadership ranks of criticalpedagogy and that this absence is a reflection of a theoretical lens that hasfailed to sufficiently confront and analyze race as a persistent factor not justin schooling, but also as a factor in shaping and guiding a professoriate whoin turn are the creators and custodians of critical pedagogy. Allen (2006)links this conflict to the concept of white supremacy by asserting that theracial composition and power structure within the community of criticalpedagogues mirrored that of the racial hierarchy so prevalent in the LatinAmerican world; whites on top, mestizos in the middle and black andindigenous peoples on the bottom. He further explains that:

In the alliance between white and light-skinned mestizo leftists, the racialstrategy, whether exercised consciously or not, is to divert attention fromwhite supremacy and toward the capitalist class so that when revolutionsoccur, the problem of racial struggle is overlooked and the darker masses stillhave a lower status. (Allen 2006, 8)

Allen (2006) goes on to discuss the rise of CRT as an alternative toCritical Pedagogy. He speculates that many scholars of color who previouslysupported frameworks based in Critical Pedagogy eventually moved towardsan adherence to the principles of CRT in an effort to address issues of racein education. We believe that Allen (2006) is on to something and that thepedagogy of Derrick Bell can help inform a CRP that embodies the best ofboth CRT and Critical Pedagogy.

Derrick Bell’s Pedagogy

Derrick Bell’s participatory pedagogical approach to teaching constitutionallaw placed students at the center of the class.… Bell believed that ‘studentinterest and learning are enhanced if [students] are actively engaged in the

Race Ethnicity and Education 615

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

learning and teaching process.’ He used progressive pedagogy rooted in thetheories of John Dewey and Paulo Freire to shape his course syllabi.…Derrick Bell enhanced this participatory, non-hierarchical pedagogy by inten-tionally creating community within the law school classroom – a communitythat humanized the students’ educational experience. (Radice 1991, 44)

As scholars of race and pedagogy, we have read Bell’s work widely. Wehave come into contact with influential law professors such as KimberleCrenshaw who were greatly influenced by his writing and teaching. So weknew that he had been influential as a teacher. What we did not know is thathe and others had developed a body of scholarship specifically devoted tothe exploration and explication of Derrick Bell’s teaching (Bell 1980, 1997;Bell and Edmonds 1993; Delgado and Stefancic 2005; Lawrence 1991). Aswe began to explore this literature, we learned that Bell’s teaching was alsoinfluenced by the work of Paulo Freire (Solorzano 2013) and John Dewey(Radice 1991). Our attraction to CRT was borne, in part, out of our frustra-tion with the limited ways in which progressive and critical pedagogiesfailed to explicitly address issues of race and culture in the social world andin the classroom. It is quite ironic to find that Derrick Bell – whose work ismost foundational to CRT – drew on the work of critical and progressivescholars to frame a radical humanist approach to teaching in the law class-room. Joy Radice (1991), a former student and a NYU teaching assistant ofBell’s, writes about the way in which the classroom was a humanizing spacewhere Bell built ‘community’ in all of his classes – whether large or small.

Students in Bell’s law classes were expected to take responsibility fortheir own learning by presenting the material and offering their ownperspectives on the issues. In the true Freirian sense, Bell was clear aboutwhere he stood on the issues. Sometimes he actively debated with hisstudents in class. However, his students felt it was safe to openly disagreewith him in class which led to them being successfully challenged withoutfeeling threatened. According to Radice (1991), class participation in Bell’scourses was extensive and included a great deal of discussion both in classand online. Students were also expected to write what were framed as ‘op-ed’ pieces reflecting their opinions on legal doctrine. These op-ed pieceswere then tied to a written self-assessment that students were expected toproduce. Bell’s classes often included music, poetry, and food while encour-aging other forms of social activity. In Radice’s (1991) view, this is whyBell’s classes more closely reflected a strong sense of community as com-pared to other law classes that she had taken.

Of particular note in describing Bell’s pedagogy are several importantwritings that are contained in the The Derrick Bell Reader (2005). Thisreader was edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, and represents acompendium of Bell’s most influential writings. Specifically, the readercontains four of Bell’s most intriguing reflections on teaching and learning.

616 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

In Humanity in Education, originally published in 1980, Bell argues thatlaw school should ‘strengthen character, increase sensitivity to humanitarianconcerns, and deepen [the} moral values’ of students en route to becominglawyers (Bell, 275, quoted in Delgado and Stefancic 2005). In The LawStudent as Slave, which was originally published in 1982, Bell compareslegal education to slavery and warns his students that their quietacquiescence to the system as part of the pursuit of money and powercondemns them to a life of mental slavery. He reminds them that‘meaningful survival’ in an unjust system ‘requires risk, confrontation, andrevolt’ (Bell 1982 as quoted in Delgado and Stefancic 2005, 279).

This call to action is reminiscent of Freire’s (2000) problem-posingmethodology where he encouraged adult learners to challenge the systemby questioning authority and becoming agents of social change. It alsoreimagines the educational process as one where students are empoweredto redefine their education on their own terms. Consistent with Dewey,Bell resituates the idea of ‘teaching as a moral practice’ (Murrell et al.2010) by calling on students to accept their role as public servant leaderswhose goal is to change the status quo rather than blindly accepting it inpursuit of what he calls ‘the paper chase’ (Bell 1982, as quoted in Delgad-o and Stefancic 2005, 281). In ‘Pedagogical Process: Active Classroomand Text as Resource’ Bell describes his constitutional law class as ‘theantithesis of traditional inculcation of “passivity as the norm” so commonin legal education’ (Bell 1997, quoted in Delgado and Stefancic 2005,284) because it was based on an approach that emphasized the idea oflearning by doing. His students were engaged in the analysis of legal doc-trine and were expected to work collaboratively with other legal studentsto form and respond to the written opinions of their colleagues.

In summary, Bell relied on a problem-posing pedagogy that embodiedhumanist, moral, and experiential traits. For this reason, Bell’s pedagogyserves as an important example of how CRT and Critical Pedagogy can beutilized to help us re-think the concept of CRP. It does this by focusingmore attention on the practice of teaching as a moralizing and humanizingprocess rather than on teachers’ critiques of racism and inequality. In thenext section, we examine how CRP came into existence and then discusshow and perhaps why it must change if it is going to be accessible beyondits current limited audience.

CRP, Counterstorytelling and the Humanist Pedagogical Project

The concept of CRP was first discussed in the literature by Marvin Lynn(1999) in his article Toward A Critical Race Pedagogy: A Research Note.Later the concept was critiqued and expanded upon by Jennings (2000).Since that time, specific tenants or characteristics of CRP have rarely beendelineated in the literature. However, Jennings and Lynn (2005) offered a

Race Ethnicity and Education 617

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

detailed discussion of CRP and established a basic set of tenants thatcharacterize this concept. These tenants (Lynn and Jennings 2005) arereviewed below with an emphasis on how the work of Derrick Bellinfluences their development and how they reflect his efforts to link CRT toa critical praxis that speaks to the conditions of people of color in theAmerican educational system.

Any attempt to fashion a CRP must first and foremost understand theendemic nature of racism. Derrick Bell (1992) has argued that racism is apermanent fixture of American society and Feagin (2010) points to thesignificant meaning of race in the history of the US. Therefore, racism canbe seen not as an aberrant entity but instead as an integral part of theAmerican socio-political landscape. Being such an integral part of Americanlife has allowed racism to shape and be shaped by the major institutionswithin American society (Feagin 2010). Chief among these institutions isthe compulsory public education system that developed from the CommonSchool movement of the nineteenth century (Spring 2005). This system isan integral part of American society and has historically reflected the racial-ized nature of American society. In other words, educational institutions inAmerica have historically reflected the same types of institutionalized racismthat exist within multiple contexts of American life. Therefore, racism andeducation are tightly interwoven in a manner that is complex, pervasive andconstantly evolving within and across a variety of contexts.

It is an understanding of these complexities that is a necessary precursorfor the existence of any CRP. This statement is not meant to establish raceas the only construct of importance when critiquing the oppressive nature ofschooling in American society. Stovall (2006) reiterates this fact when hepoints out that ‘no CRT literature is there a claim to the unanimity of race’(252). Any form of CRP must be intimately cognizant of the necessaryintersection of other oppressive constructs such as class, gender and sexualorientation (Crenshaw 1988). Theorizing these intersections is of highimportance because individuals prioritizing one facet of their identity overanother can create a false dichotomy that does not address the reality thatwe exist within society as subjective entities whose identities are negotiatedthrough multiple lenses that privilege certain race, class, gender and sexual‘norms.’

A second important component of CRP is recognition of the importanceof understanding the power dynamics that are inherit in American society.Bell’s use of fictional chronicles illustrates his use of narratives of empower-ment that challenge prevailing notions of race, power and privilege inAmerican society (Bell 1982). Simultaneously, he sought to shift the centerof power from himself as the focal point of the classroom and insteadempower his students by focusing on them. In doing so, he sought to movefrom passivity to positive engagement with the students in his classroom(Radice 1991; Bell and Edmonds 1993). Lisa Delpit (2006) writes about the

618 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

empowerment of her K-12 students from a perspective that seeksempowerment of her students through her extensive research about theexistence of a ‘culture of power’ (24) within schools. This culture of poweroften divides communities of color from well-meaning whites who wish tosupport those who they consider to be less fortunate. Delpit (2006)characterizes this culture of power as having five broad characteristics. First,issues of power are enacted within classrooms. These issues take on manydifferent forms and include the power of students, teachers, administrators,the state, etc. All of these entities hold certain degrees of power that areconstantly negotiated, defined and enacted in relation to other power brokerswithin and outside of the classroom.

Second, there are ‘rules’ regarding participation in the culture of power.These rules relate to such things as communicative strategies, speechpatterns, hygiene and dress, ways of writing, etc. Third, these rules relatedto the culture of power are created and implemented based on the culture ofthose who hold power in the larger society. This characteristic emphasizesthe importance of understanding the majority culture as a means forunderstanding and negotiating the discourse of power. Fourth, those who arenot participants in the culture of power are better enabled to participate ifthey are explicitly aware of the rules that govern the culture of power.Members of cultural groups often transmit information implicitly to oneanother thus making it difficult for non-group members to negotiate theculture of power. Lastly, those who possess power are frequently least awareof this power and are frequently least willing to relinquish this same power.Acknowledging and understanding one’s privileged place in the culture ofpower can be difficult given the quest for egalitarianism professed by manyprofessionals in the field of education.

In summary, Delpit (2006) emphasizes the existence of power in schoolsand defines why such power is difficult for students of color to negotiateand for white faculty to acknowledge. This conception of power in theclassroom is largely grounded in an understanding of whiteness that makesexplicit the privilege of being white in America. Although Delpit’s (2006)discussion of power in the classroom may differ from Bell’s, they bothfoster an understanding of how power illuminates important issues regardingrace and privilege in classroom. In doing so, both they both embody anattempt to put critical pedagogy into actual practice.

A third important component of CRP emphasizes the importance ofself-reflection, or reflexivity. Reflexivity is autobiographical by nature,therefore exploration of one’s ‘place’ within a stratified society has power toilluminate oppressive structures in society. For this reason, Bell’s chronicles(1987, 1992) act as forms of resistance to the ‘othering’ that emanates fromthe bifurcation of theory and praxis (Burdell and Swadener 1999) inacademic research. Additionally, Bell’s chronicles (1987, 1992) alsochallenge the tendency within the academy to enforce a sort of ‘ventriloquy’

Race Ethnicity and Education 619

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

(Fine 1992) that examines the privilege of social scientists who seeminglyspeak anonymously for ‘others’ in ways defined as non-political and neutral.Fine (1992) further delineates this term to identify researchers who‘pronounce truths while whiting out their own authority, so as to beunlocatable and irresponsible’ (214).

The focus on the self is especially important for scholars of colorbecause of the enormous power and privilege that is embedded within ourposition as researchers and faculty members (Bell 1994). Bell’s willingnessto utilize his own power, privilege and positionality to seek social justice ineducation speak directly to this idea (1994). His lengthy battle with and sub-sequent resignation from a tenured position in Harvard’s law school over theschool’s refusal to hire a tenured or tenure track woman of color for theirfaculty embodied Bell’s beliefs regarding the role of scholars in challengingconstructs of race, class, gender and sexuality in the academy (Bell 1994).

Although some social scientists have cited a need for reflexivity inregards to their privileged positions in relation to those they study, thisemphasis on reflexivity embodies a potentially different meaning forresearchers of color. First, reflexivity means that minority scholars must con-tinually re-theorize the ‘we’ that is frequently discussed when identifyingthe place of researchers in the literature (Villenas 1996). In doing this, schol-ars of color grapple with their identity/role as scholars of color who areprivileged as researchers while simultaneously labeled as outsiders becauseof their race. Therefore, the complex interactions of class, gender, geogra-phy, and even skin tone can reflect a specific positionality that denotes acomplex sense of privilege within our own communities. Villenas (1996)expands upon this idea by poignantly addressing the issue of how easilycritical scholars of color are co-opted by the majority community so as tobe complicit in their own marginalization and the marginalization of others.

In a similar way, researchers from the majority society must movebeyond the ‘researcher-as-colonizer’ paradigm and examine their own histo-ries of complicity and oppression in an effort to ‘mark the points of theirown marginalization’ (Villenas 1996, 729). This specific emphasis on thenarrative voice of people of color helps define CRP as a valuable tool inunderstanding how multiple dimensions of identity inform our worldview asresearchers/practitioners while questioning how this worldview affects thosewho we study as well as those who we work with as colleagues in theacademy.

Lastly, a CRP must encourage the practice of an explicitly liberatorypedagogy is its goal of advocating for justice and equity in education as anecessity if there is to be justice and equity in the broader society. Someresearchers have argued that this type of advocacy is anathema for teachersand researchers of education. Instead, they opt for a ‘neutral’ apoliticalteaching and scholarship that seeks only to provide facts, figures, andmechanistic skills. Such scholarship is often showcased as a foil to a

620 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

politicized form of critical scholarship that advocates a liberatory pedagogyemphasizing what bell hooks calls ‘teaching to transgress’ (hooks 1994).The seemingly oppositional nature of these two methodological orientationsserves to create a false dichotomy that benefits the status quo. With thepower to define what so-called facts are and how they are conceived,shaped, and communicated, those supporting the status quo have a distinctinterest in urging critical scholars and practitioners to consider a ‘lesspolitical’ worldview. Bell’s work in this regard is a testament to his influ-ence in creating and maintaining a liberation pedagogy (Cummings 2009;Radice 2012; Bell and Edmonds 1993). In the next section, we introducemini-chronicle that conforms to many of the standards outlined previously.

The chronicle of the mad black teacher

It is the year 2050. Dr Lasana Bell, a thinly framed black man with longdreadlocks, stands before a crowd of 200 anxious teachers, students, parentsand school board members inside the headquarters of Central City SchoolDistrict. A former schoolteacher in this ailing district – he is a distantrelative of the late Derrick Bell – and he has something to say. Outside thebuilding there are hundreds more parents and children marching with signsthat say things like ‘Black children will not be sold to the highest bidder!’and ‘Blackness is not a handicap!’ The roar of the crowd outside is soferocious, the chairs and tables shake! Dr Bell, a beloved former 5th gradeteacher at a poor black school on the East Side is waiting his turn to testify.You see, he has come to testify on behalf of the 20,000 students who willbe impacted by the latest round of ‘reforms’ initiated by the school board.The tension in the air is palpable. The board secretary is sitting at the endof long table placed about 10 feet up in the air on a wall in the back of thesmall crowded room. The long table which seats four board members sitsatop a flight of steps like a choir loft. Dr Bell is positioned at a smallpodium at the bottom of these steps and the audience of 200 sits another 10to feet behind him plastic chairs. The crowd is surrounded by members ofthe Central City Police Department, the DEA, the FBI and the CIA.Members of the military patrol the grounds outside with guns drawn. ‘DrBell, you have three minutes. Please stick to the topic at hand! Failure to doso will result in your ejection from the building. Please begin.’ Dr Bellstands at the small podium with his head down. The clerk yells, ‘Dr Bell,you may speak!’ The crowd begins to roar with laughter. ‘Quiet in here! Iwon’t have this foolishness!’ decries the Board President Attorney JohnnyB. Good, a middle aged black man dressed in an expensive blue pin-stripedsuit. ‘Negro, are you gone’ speak or what?’ With a smirk on his face, DrBell slowly lifts his head and begins his testimony:

Before I begin, I want to pay tribute to my great uncle, Professor DerrickBell. While I did not have the pleasure of personally knowing him, I have

Race Ethnicity and Education 621

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

learned much about him through his written work – which is voluminous. Inone of his first books on the subject of race, my uncle wrote an allegoricaltale about entitled ‘The Chronicle of the Sacrificed Black School Children.’ Inthe interest of time, I will not attempt to fully explain the chronicle to you.Let’s just say that no one during my uncle’s time knew that this tall tale hepenned would actually become our reality someday. I come here today as alearned man – a teacher who desperately loves of black children. I am beg-ging you not to sacrifice them. Don’t simply give them away. After I tell youmy story, maybe you will understand why you simply cannot do this.

Before I was mercilessly dragged out of the classroom, I worked as a 5thgrade classroom teacher at W.E.B. Du Bois School for a decade. After havingreceived a doctorate in religious studies from Yale University and trying myhand at college teaching for a couple of years in an Ivy League institution, Ireturned to my community to teach my children. I didn’t mind that the class-rooms had as many as 55 students. I didn’t mind that I was only allowed toteach reading and math through a scripted curriculum. I didn’t mind that Icould only teach writing for one hour per week. I didn’t mind that I was notallowed to teach art, music, health or social studies or science. I didn’t mindbecause I was teaching my children in the community that I loved. I saw howmy children’s eye lit up when I stood before them. My boys walked a littletaller and my girls sat up a little straighter. I was home. I loved my childrenand they loved me. To them, I was ‘daddy’ and I embraced it fully. Mychildren excelled on the nearly all of the 12 standardized tests they took thatyear. Life was good. But then something terrible happened. Because thecurriculum was scripted, teachers like me were forced to simply regurgitatewhat was in the book. If I departed from the script, the ominous cameras inthe classroom would begin to beep and soon sirens would wail loudlythroughout the classroom and the police would arrive. This happened on morethan one occasion. I got excited about teaching! As a result, I would inevita-bly diverge from the script. When it happened, the third time I was chargedwith a felony and released from my position as a 5th grade teacher at DuBois. When I lost my job, I thought it was the worst thing that could everhappen. I lost my home and was forced to live on the streets. Two years havepassed. A year ago, I was able to relinquish my tenured faculty line at Yale.As a result, I am teaching religion to some of the nation’s brightest andwhitest minds. I am miserable. But that is not the reason I am here. I am herefor another reason. I want to address your plan to officially declare that allblack children be considered for special education services by virtue of beingblack. They will be summarily recommended for ‘services’ and each andevery one of them will have an Individual Education Plan or IEP constructed.In defense of your decision, you argue that since black children are dispropor-tionately referred for services now anyway it would save time to simplyclassify them all as having special needs before they enter the classroom. Asyou consider this terrible decision, I ask that you consider the following: First,as a former classroom teacher, I can tell you that labeling any group ofchildren without a fair and unbiased assessment of their abilities is wrong andwill ultimately prove to be ineffective. I worked with many students, particu-larly African American males, whom others had deemed uneducable orun-teachable. Some had been erroneously referred for special educationservices because they were sad or sometimes angry about the violence they

622 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

witnessed against their parents. Dr Beth Harry’s extensive work in this areahas pointed not only to the misidentification of black children in specialeducation but she also points out that this problem is mostly the result ofcultural misunderstanding. I would that it also has to do with a lack ofunderstanding of how children’s social and economic conditions can affecttheir emotions and perhaps their ability to focus on learning. Several yearsback, blacks in Central City were forced into one small enclave on the EastSide of town five years ago. Even those who could afford to live in moremiddle class neighborhoods were stripped of their homes and forced intotenement slums. The Housing for Urban Development argued then that theforced inclusion of black middle class people into poor black communitieswould raise the standard of living. Instead what happened is that Du Bois andall the other severely overcrowded schools on the East Side were delugedwith angry black parents and students who lost all hope in the belief that theirsociety was going to fight for them. The dropout rates soared. Crimeskyrocketed. Our community is in the worst shape it has ever been in. Andnow this? I dare you!

Dr Bell’s eyes are suddenly full of rage. He shakes his fist at the boardmembers who shriek in fear as hundreds of black school children rush themeeting room – knocking over soldiers and beating down doors. Dr Bellturns around toward them with his fist raised. As dozens of them continuefiling into the room, they suddenly grow silent as Dr Bell begins to speak.

Dear Children, the good book says:

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb areward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put toshame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (Psalms 127:3–5)

Drawing on words taken directly from Derrick Bell’s well known articleThe Law Student as Slave, he continues:

I hope you see some relationship between the total physical domination of apeople that accompanied slavery and the more subtle, though still effective,subordination of self that occurs in your education. The time has come to stopignoring your subjugated state, to stop rationalizing the pain and sufferingyou are experiencing, and to recognize that school need not be degrading andeducationally inefficient. What are you afraid of? It’s time to fight! Your fearis not of death but of failure. Your chains are forged not of iron, but of themagnetic force of money, status, and professional recognition and acclaim.You want to survive this. But let me tell you – meaningful survival – as slaveslike Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Gabriel Prosser, and Frederick Douglaslearned – requires risk, confrontation, and revolt. Children it’s time torevolt!!!

At that point, the children storm the cathedral-like area of the room andseize the board members. The room is in complete chaos. It’s not clear

Race Ethnicity and Education 623

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

where the street begins and the building ends. Children and their familiessurround the Board of Education and begin shaking it to its very core.

Notes1. According to the website, everydayfeminism.com, cisgender refers to a person

who has a ‘biological sex that matches [their] gender identity.’ http://every-dayfeminism.com/2012/09/30-examples-of-cisgender-privilege/ accessed on 6/3/13.

2. Tara Yosso and Marvin Lynn were both students of Daniel G. Solorzano. Theyparticipated in courses together and worked closely together on severalscholarly projects. See Lynn, M., Yosso, T. J. Solórzano, D. G., & Parker, L.(Eds.), (2002) and Yosso, T., Parker, L., & Solórzano, D. & Lynn, M. (2004).

3. The special issue was a celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the publicationof Bell’s foundational law review entitled Racial Realism, published in theConnecticut Law Review in 1991.

4. Portions of this section of the article are drawn from Lynn, Bacon, Totten,Bridges and Jennings’ 2010 article ‘Examining teachers beliefs about AfricanAmerican male students in a low-performing school in an African Americanschool’ published in Teachers College Record.

ReferenceAlexander-Floyd, N. 2008. “Critical Race Pedagogy: Teaching about Race and

Racism through Legal Learning Strategies.” PS-WASHINGTON 41 (1): 183.Allen, R. L. 2006. “The Race Problem in the Critical Pedagogy Community.” In

Reinventing Critical Pedagogy: Widening the Circle of Anti-Oppressive Educa-tion, edited by C. Rossatto, R. L. Allen, and M. Pruyn, 3–20. Lanham: Rowman& Littlefield.

Bell, D. A., Jr. 1980. “Brown V. Board of Education and the Interest-ConvergenceDilemma.” Harvard Law Review 93 (3): 518–533.

Bell, D. A., Jr. 1982. One Dean’s Perspective – The Law Student as Slave. StudentLaw 11:18.

Bell, D. A. 1987. And we are not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice.New York: Basic Books (AZ).

Bell, D. A. 1992. Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism.New York: Basic Books.

Bell, D. A. 1994. Confronting Authority: Reflections of an Ardent Protester. Boston,MA: Beacon Press.

Bell, D. A. 1995. “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?” University of IllinoisLaw, Review 893.

Bell, D. A., Jr. 1997. “Pedagogical Process: Active Classroom and Text asResource.” In Constitutional Conflicts. Reprinted in The Derrick Bell Reader,edited by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic, 284–87. New York: New York Univer-sity Press.

Bell, D., and E. Edmonds. 1993. “Students as Teachers, Teachers as Learners.”Michigan Law Review 91 (8): 2025–2052.

Bernal, D. D., and O. Villalpando. 2002. “An Apartheid of Knowledge inAcademia: The Struggle over the ‘Legitimate’ Knowledge of Faculty of Color.”Equity & Excellence in Education 35 (2): 169–180.

624 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

Berry, T. 2004. “Why Are These White Women Trying to Run My Life? One BlackWoman’s Experience toward Earning a Doctorate.” In A Long Way to Go:Conversations about Race by African American Faculty and Graduate Students,edited by D. Cleveland, 47–57. New York: Peter Lang.

Brown, K., and D. Jackson. 2013. “The History and Conceptual Elements ofCritical Race Theory.” In The Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education,edited by M. Lynn and A. D. Dixson, 9–22. London: Routledge.

Burdell, P., and B. B. Swadener. 1999. “Book Reviews: Critical Personal Narrativeand Autoethnography in Education: Reflections on a Genre.” EducationalResearcher 28 (6): 21–26.

Cole, M. 2009. Critical Race Theory and Education. Basingstoke: PalgraveMacmillan.

Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1988. “Race, Reform, and Retrenchment: Transformation andLegitimation in Antidiscrimination Law.” Harvard Law Review 101: 1331–1387.

Crenshaw, K. W. 2010. “Twenty Years of Critical Race Theory: Looking Back toMove Forward.” Connecticut Law Review 43: 1253.

Cummings, A. D. P. 2009. “Furious Kinship: Critical Race Theory and theHip-Hop Nation, a.” University of Louisville Law Review 48: 499.

Delgado, R., and J. Stefancic. 2005. The Derrick Bell Reader. New York: NewYork University.

Delpit, L. 1988. “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating OtherPeople’s Children.” Harvard Educational Review 58 (3): 280–298.

Delpit, L. 2006. Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. NewYork: The New Press.

Dudziak, M. L. 1987. “The Limits of Good Faith: Desegregation in Topeka,Kansas, 1950–1956.” Law and History Review 5 (2): 351–391.

Ellsworth, E. 1989. “Why Doesn’t This Feel Empowering? Working through theRepressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy.” Harvard Educational Review 59 (3):297–325.

Espinoza, L., and A. P. Harris. 1997. “Embracing the Tar Baby: LatCrit Theory andthe Sticky Mess of Race.” California Law Review 85 (5): 1585–1646.

Feagin, J. R. 2010. The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing andCounter-Framing. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Fine, M. 1992. “Passions, Politics, and Power: Feminist Research Possibilities.” InDisruptive Voices: The Possibilities of Feminist Research, edited by M. Fine,205–231. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.

Freire, P. 2000. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Continuum International Pub-lishing Group.

Gordon, B. M. 1995. “Knowledge Construction, Competing Critical Theories, andEducation.” In Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education, edited by J.Banks and C. A. McGee Banks, 570–581. New York: MacMillan Publishing.

Hampton, R. 2011. “Family Photos: Digital Photography as Emancipatory Art Edu-cation in Montreal’s Black Community.” Doctoral dissertation, ConcordiaUniversity.

Henry, A. 1998. Taking Back Control: African Canadian Women Teachers’ Livesand Practice. Albany, NY: Suny Press.

Higgin, T. 2011. http://www.tannerhiggin.com/videogames-as-critical-race-pedagogy.Hughes, S. 2004. “Beyond the Silenced Dialogue: What Will We Tell Ourselves

When the White Academy ain’t hearin’ Us.” In A Long Way to Go: Conversationsabout Race by African American Faculty and Graduate Students, edited by D.Cleveland, 58–71. New York: Peter Lang.

Race Ethnicity and Education 625

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

Isakson, J. 2000. “From Critical Race Theory to Composition Studies: Pedagogiesand Theory Building.” Legal Studies Forum 24 (3 & 4): 695–710.

Jennings, M. E. 2000. “Learning to Live our Lives: Case Studies of Critical Peda-gogy in the African-American Experience.” Doctoral dissertation, University ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jennings, M., and M. Lynn. 2005. “The House That Race Built: Toward a CriticalRace Analysis of Critical Pedagogy.” Educational Foundations 19 (3–4): 15–32.

Johnson, K. A. 2000. Uplifting the Women and the Race: The Lives, EducationalPhilosophies, and Social Activism of Anna Julia Cooper and Nannie Helen Bur-roughs. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Ladson-Billings, G. 1995. “But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for CulturallyRelevant Pedagogy.” Theory Into Practice 34 (3): 159–165.

Ladson-Billings, G. 1998. “Preparing Teachers for Diverse Student Populations: ACritical Race Theory Perspective.” In Review of Research in Education, 24, eds.A. Iran Nejad and P. D. Pearson, 211–247. Washington, D.C: AmericanEducational Research Association.

Ladson-Billings, G. 2013. “Critical Race Theory – What It is Not!” In TheHandbook of Critical Race Theory in Education, edited by M. Lynn and A. D.Dixson. London: Routledge.

Ladson-Billings, G., and W. F. Tate. 1995. “Toward a Critical Race Theory.” Teach-ers College Record 97: 47–68.

Lather, P. 1991. “Post-Critical Pedagogies: A Feminist Reading.” In Feminisms andCritical Pedagogy, edited by C. Luke and J. Gore, 120–137. New York: Routledge.

Lawrence, C. 1991. “The Word and the River: Pedagogy as Scholarship andStruggle.” Southern California Law Review 65: 2231–2298.

Love, B. J. 2004. “Brown Plus 50 Counter-Storytelling: A Critical Race TheoryAnalysis of the “Majoritarian Achievement Gap” Story.” Equity & Excellence inEducation 37 (3): 227–246.

Lynn, M. 1999. “Toward a Critical Race Pedagogy: A Research Note.” UrbanEducation 33 (5): 606–626.

Lynn, M. 2004. “Inserting the ‘Race’ into Critical Pedagogy: An Analysis of‘Race‐Based Epistemologies’.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 36 (2):153–165.

Lynn, M. 2005. “Reflecting Black: Maintaining a Politics of Opposition in GraduateSchool.” In The Politics of Curricular Change: Race, Hegemony & Power inEducation, edited by M. C. Brown and R. R. Land, 76–90. NY: Peter Lang.

Lynn, M. 2010. “‘Exorcising Critical Race Theory’ Again: Reflections on Being anAngry Black Man in the Academy.” In The Black Professoriat: Negotiating aHabitable Space in the Academy, edited by S. Jackson and R. Johnson, III,199–214. NY: Peter Lang.

Lynn, M., and A. D. Dixson, eds. 2013. The Handbook of Critical Race Theory inEducation. London: Routledge.

Lynn, M., and M. Jennings. 2009. “Power, Politics, and Critical Race Pedagogy: ACritical Race Analysis of Black Male Teachers’ Pedagogy.” Race Ethnicity andEducation 12 (2): 173–196.

Lynn, M., and L. Parker. 2006. “Critical Race Studies in Education: Examining aDecade of Research on U.S. Schools.” The Urban Review 38 (4): 257–290.

Lyotard, F. 1984/1979. The Postmodern Condition. Minneapolis: University ofMinnesota Press.

626 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

Marx, S. 2008. “Critical Race Theory.” In The Sage Encyclopedia of QualitativeResearch Methods, Vol. 2, edited by L. M. Given, 163–167. Thousand Oaks,CA: SAGE.

McLaren, P. L., and M. Dantley. 1990. “Leadership and a Critical Pedagogy ofRace: Cornel West, Stuart Hall, and the Prophetic Tradition.” The Journal ofNegro Education 59 (1): 29–44.

Murrell, P. C., Jr, M. E. Diez, S. Feiman-Nemser, and D. L. Schussler, eds. 2010.Teaching as a Moral Practice: Defining, Developing, and Assessing ProfessionalDispositions in Teacher Education. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

Mueller, J. C. 2012. “Tracing Family, Teaching Race: Critical Race Pedagogy inthe Millennial Sociology Classroom.” Teaching Sociology 41 (2): 172–187.

Murillo, E. 1999. “Mojado Crossings along Neoliberal Borderlands.” EducationalFoundations 13 (1): 7–30.

Perea, J. F. 1997. “The Black/White Binary Paradigm of Race: The ‘NormalScience’ of American Racial Thought.” California Law Review 85: 1213.

Peters, M., and C. Lankshear. 1996. “Postmodern Counternarratives.” InCounternarratives: Cultural Studies and Critical Pedagogies in PostmodernSpaces, edited by H. A. Giroux, C. Lankshear, P. McLaren, and M. Peters, 1–39.New York: Routledge.

Radice, J. 1991. “Derrick Bell’s Community-Based Classroom.” HarvardBlackletter Law Journal, 263–267.

Seck, N. E. 2010. “Learning Media and Identity in Classrooms: A Critical Anti-Rac-ist Media Literacy.” Doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto.

Singer, J. N., and R. A. Buford May. 2010. “The Career Trajectory of a Black MaleHigh School Basketball Player: A Social Reproduction Perspective.”International Review for the Sociology of Sport 46 (3): 299–314.

Smith, W. A., T. J. Yosso, and D. G. Solorzano. 2007. “Racial Primes and Black Misan-dry on Historically White Campuses: Toward Critical Race Accountability in Edu-cational Administration.” Educational Administration Quarterly 43 (5): 559–585.

Solorzano, D. G. and Tara J. Yosso. 2000–2001. “Maintaining Social Justice Hopeswithin Academic Realities: A Freirean Approach to Critical Race/LatCritPedagogy.” 78 Denver University Law Review 595.

Solorzano, D. 2013. “Critical Race Theory’s Intellectual Roots in Ethnic Studiesand Freirean Education.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the AmericanEducational Research Association.

Solorzano, D. G., and T. J. Yosso. 2001. “Critical Race and LatCrit Theory andMethod: Counter-Storytelling.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies inEducation 14 (4): 471–495.

Solorzano, D. G., and T. J. Yosso. 2002. “Critical Race Methodology: Counter-Story-telling as an Analytical Framework for Education Research.” Qualitative Inquiry 8(1): 23–44.

Spring, J. H. 2005. The American School, 1642–2004. Boston: McGraw-Hill.Stanley, C. 2007. “When Counter Narratives Meet Master Narratives in the Journal

Editorial-Review Process.” Educational Researcher 36 (1): 14–24.Stinson, D. W. 2008. “Negotiating Sociocultural Discourses: The Counter-Storytell-

ing of Academically (and Mathematically) Successful African American MaleStudents.” American Educational Research Journal 45 (4): 975–1010.

Stovall, D. 2006. “Forging Community in Race and Class: Critical Race Theoryand the Quest for Social Justice in Education.” Race Ethnicity and Education 9(3): 243–259.

Race Ethnicity and Education 627

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013

Taylor, E. 1998. “A Primer on Critical Race Theory.” The Journal of Blacks inHigher Education 19: 122–124.

Taylor, G. H. 2006. “Derrick Bell’s Narratives as Parables.” New York UniversityReview of Law & Social Change 31: 225.

Taylor, E. 2009. “Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education: An Introduc-tion.” In Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education, edited by E. Taylor,D. Gillborn, and G. Ladson-Billings, 1–16. New York and London: Routledge.

Villenas, S. 1996. “The Colonizer/Colonized Chicana Ethnographer: Identity,Marginalization, and Co-Optation in the Field.” Harvard Educational Review 66(4): 711–732.

West, C. 1994. Race Matters. New York: Vintage.Yosso, T. J. 2005. “Whose Culture Has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion

of Community Cultural Wealth.” Race Ethnicity and Education 8 (1): 69–91.Yosso, T. J. 2013. Critical Race Counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano

Educational Pipeline. New York: Routledge.Yosso, T. J., L. Parker, D. G. Solorzano, and M. Lynn. 2004. “From Jim Crow to

Affirmative Action and Back Again: A Critical Race Discussion of RacializedRationales and Access to Higher Education.” Review of Research in Education28: 1–25.

628 M. Lynn et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

UT

SA L

ibra

ries

] at

11:

54 1

8 O

ctob

er 2

013