Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education

Abstract

The above statement was taken from Hilliard’s (2003) chapter “No Mystery: Closing the Achievement Gap” in Young, Gifted and Black. We open with this quote because Hilliard’s problematizing the societal narrative concerning the “achievement gap” between blacks and whites draws attention to the way that racism functions in a conspicuous manner by, on the one hand, differentiating between whites’ and non-whites’ cognitive ability through a supposed objective measure (achievement/IQ test) (Arbuthnot, 2011; Gould, 1996; Steele & Aronson, 1995), while, on the other hand, simultaneously forwarding what we will refer to as a “seemingly expansive but inherently restrictive” discourse about racial hierarchies and relations. This discourse conflates the root cause of the dismal educational outcomes of African American children in U.S. schools with numerous issues, from biological considerations of intelligence (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994) to discussions of the inherent dysfunctionality of black families, communications styles, or communal beliefs about education (Asante, 2009; Delpit, 2008). Dominant narratives about the educational outcomes of African American students all but ignore the historical fact that our current educational system (established only decades after slavery and still 50 years removed from Brown) was designed in an era when the educability and actual humanity of African Americans was at issue (Watkins, 2001). This discourse also ignores the social, political, and moral debts levied against underrepresented students (Ladson-Billings, 2006). Our assertion is that this phenomenon is exacerbated by the fact that typically educators are socialized in a manner that hinders their ability to conceptualize their own racialized identities; we see understanding racial identity as an indispensable skill for building pedagogical relationships steeped in cultural knowledge and understanding about African American learners amongst and across racial barriers (Lewis et al., 2008).