Running Head: APPLYING CRT TO ADULT EDUCATION

Applying CRT to Adult Education Giovanni Espinal University of South Florida

APPLYING CRT TO ADULT EDUCATION

Pitts (1995) provides this quote from former Speaker of the House Newt Gringich,if youre black, you have to work harder, and if youre black and poor, you have to work twice as hard (as cited in Tate, 1997, p. 203). There are many ways to look at this quote and try to understand the real essence of it. What is really behind the thought where the Speaker believes that he is able to box all Blacks as a group of people who have to earn their right into society? The mere fact of being an American does not work. If the sentence were to read, if you are American, you have to work hard (to succeed), and if you are a poor American, you have to work twice as hard. In his mind, American means white, Black and Latina/o mean the others. What the Speaker was simply trying to say was that if you want to be like me, you must show me you are worth it. Statements of this caliber can produce two kinds of reactions. An individual might hear them and think, the Speaker really knows what he is talking about. While others, hopefully, can stop, think and analyze what is behind those loaded words. How the Speaker, a white affluent male, has received so much empowerment from the simple fact of being white, and how he uses this power to perpetuate the superiority mindset of many white Americans is evident at every level. Understanding that this kind of statements are not a thing of 200 years ago, and that our current society has in no way move away from discerning its citizens based on the color of their skin, gives Critical Race Theory (CRT) an area to explore because it allows CRT individuals to read between the lines; to not swallow assertions like those given by the speaker without questioning or inquiring what is really being meant. According to Delgado and Stefancic (2012), CRT movement is a collection of activists and scholars interested in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power (p. 2). There are two very important aspects to highlight from this definition. The first one is that CRT was given birth and raised by activists

APPLYING CRT TO ADULT EDUCATION

(lawyers) and scholars. Activists, people who believed that without real action things could never change and hence were convinced that it was necessary to promote a movement where immediate change was promoted not only through the court system in a snail mode, but rather by having a more hands on approach that would incite immediate action and reaction. Additionally, scholars by nature would serve a double function. The first one was to teach their pupils to see race and racism as real and alive in just about every aspect in Americas society. The second goal was to create future CRT scholars who would in turn spread the word to expand the fight. These beliefs aligned with the ideals of Derrick Bell who formed CRT under these premises. Promotion of intellectual discussions about race in America and second the promotion of political activism (Tate, 1997). The challenge then becomes how to present CRT to society without being labeled as an anti-white and racist movement. In a color-blind society as the American one pretends to be, talking about race bluntly and without barriers is just an expression of envy and a way to find excuses for the current situation of minorities in America. In a nutshell, in America, race can and only should be discussed when it is being used to explain minorities negative behavior, and how they should behave more white like. Johnson-Bailey and Cervero (2000) echoed this sentiment by saying, When we speak of the lazy black, the hot blooded Latino, the model Asian, and the Alcoholic Native American, a white person stands in contrast to these images as the good and true norm (p. 149). The important thing to keep in mind from this analysis, it is that these feelings of superiority by the white majority are imbedded in every aspect of our society. Take for instance Adult Education. Schooling in America is impregnated by the belief that minorities are allowed to have educational opportunities that would serve as a bettering of their lives, but only to a point where they do not really reach the American Dream, but where is far enough to

APPLYING CRT TO ADULT EDUCATION

give them hope. The ads read, Get a better life, go to school. In reality, what the ad is saying is we (the White American Society) need Assistant Nurses, AC repair men and women, Cooks and Electricians but no Doctors, Lawyers, CEOs, we (white males) have got those. Adult Education, especially in places like the community college, is then designed to maintain and preserve the norm. Students are taught that we are a nation of immigrants, and, as a result, African American, Indigenous, and Chicano students are left with the guilt of failing to rise above their immigrant status like every other group (Ladson- Billings, 1998, p. 18). Still, in this field of immigrants, Latinas/os are the ones who feel and have been made to believe that community colleges at their current condition are the best way to gain a place in society other than cleaning or working at restaurants. According to Solrzano (2005) that when it comes to enrollment of Latinas/os in community colleges, in the last 20 years the number of enrolled students has tripled. What is telling about this fact is that in no way this means that Latinas/os are graduating more and hence transferring to four year colleges. Solrzano (2005) provides an extremely vivid testament of this through some hard data in order to demonstrate what he denotes as the educational pipeline of Latinas/os: Of the 100 Latina/o students at the elementary level, 48 drop out of high school and 52 continue on to graduate. Of those 52 who graduate from high school, about 31, or 60% continue on to some form of postsecondary education. Of those 31, about 20, or 65%, move on to community colleges and 11, or 35%, will go to a 4 year institution. Of those 20 in community colleges, only 2 will transfer to a 4-year college. Of the 11 students who went to a 4-year college and 2 who transferred, 10 will graduate from college with a baccalaureate degree. Finally, 4 students will continue on and graduate from graduate or professional school and less than 1 will receive a doctorate. (p. 277)

APPLYING CRT TO ADULT EDUCATION

This kind of research is what promotes change. CRT allows the researcher to be able to see beneath the surface and produce a deeper analysis of his or her findings. If the researcher were to read the numbers from a colorblind approach, the investigator would start to question why Latinas/os are so apathetic towards education. Instead of asking questions on how race has played a role in the progression of the discovered data, the researcher would focus on why the Latina/o population is pleased with their second class citizenship. The inquiry would concentrate on the responsibility and the lack of involvement of family and how the only plausible explanation for such a dramatic drop of enrolled students to actual graduates would be the utter unwillingness to work hard and just grasp what is waiting for every American who is willing to get it. Therefore, CRT becomes undeniably essential to rediscover what the data is really telling. A CRT researcher would scrutinize these results based on the understanding that CRT expresses skepticism toward any legal assertion that achievement in the American society stems from a neutral, objective, colorblind system where meritocracy (Dixson and Rousseau, 2005) makes or breaks the individual. The challenge then becomes to fulfill Derrick Bells initial thoughts about CRT. How can one bring CRT from theory to practice? Just as Bell challenged Harvard University for not hiring female professors of color, CRT researchers have a duty not only to identify what is wrong with the system but also to go into action mode. One of the best ways to do this, it is through one of the main tools used by CRT which is using counter-storytelling. The main purpose of counterstorytelling is to create stories that challenge the majoritarian storytelling (Love, 2004) and show that when individuals look at history, race relations, and education only through the lenses of how the dominant group describes it, they start to believe the white is the norm and that anything different is second class and needs to adhere to the controlling group. Additionally, and in direct

APPLYING CRT TO ADULT EDUCATION

relationship to education, the majoritarian storytelling creates the myth of meritocracy (Love, 2004). Ladson-Billings and Tate, (1995) describe how this myth can only exist within the theoretical framework of the notions of neutrality, colorblindness, objective standards of performance, fair methods of assessment and evaluation, neutral and objective reporting performance of results and the allocation of merit to those whose performance meets the standard specified (as cited in Love, 2004, p. 230). All of the previous notions related to education serve as evidence that there is a systematic approach from the powers of be to guarantee their existence and overall domination of the means of production and general ideologies. In conclusion, CRT brings to light the many injustices and disparities the current American judicial, educational and societal system has. It is the job of future Adult Education scholars and professionals to be able to create tools and resources for the discussion of race to be constant and in no way fade away from academic discussion. Jay (2003) reinstates it as, a goal for educational researchers in either field would be to uncover the ways in which the hidden curriculum functions in the daily routines, curricular content, and social relations in school to prevent challenges (p. 8). The biggest pitfall the current educational system, especially the field of Adult education, could fall into would be to accept the things are the way they are because the individuals (people of color) have wanted them that way. To remove the immense influence endemic racism (Closson, 2010) has on the outcome of individuals of color is nave and somehow irresponsible. In order to achieve the goals set forth by the pioneers of CRT, everyone interested in being an agent of change, must accept the role of researcher and activist where no matter what type of approach is taken, quantitative or qualitative, at the end, they are able to impact the current status quo.

APPLYING CRT TO ADULT EDUCATION

References Closson, R. B. (2010). Critical race theory and adult education. Adult Education Quarterly, 60(3), 261-283. Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2012). Critical race theory: An introduction. NYU Press. Dixson, A. D., & Rousseau, C. K. (2005). And we are still not saved: Critical race theory in education ten years later. Race ethnicity and education, 8(1), 7-27.Johnson-Bailey, J., & Cervero, R. M. (2000). The invisible politics of race in adult education. Handbook of adult and continuing education, 147-160. Jay, M. (2003). Critical race theory, multicultural education, and the hidden curriculum of hegemony. Multicultural Perspectives: An Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education, 5(4), 3-9. Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field like education?. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1), 7-24. Ladson-Billings, G. (2009). Critical Race Theory in Education. The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Education, 110. Love, B. J. (2004). Brown plus 50 counter-storytelling: A critical race theory analysis of the majoritarian achievement gap story. Equity & Excellence in Education, 37(3), 227-246.

APPLYING CRT TO ADULT EDUCATION

Slorzano, D. G., Villalpando, O., & Oseguera, L. (2005). Educational inequities and Latina/o undergraduate students in the United States: A critical race analysis of their educational progress. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 4(3), 272-294. Solorzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2001). Critical race and LatCrit theory and method: Counter-storytelling. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 14(4), 471-495. Tate, W. F. (1997). Critical race theory and education: History, theory, and implications. Review of research in education, 22(1), 195-247.