Week Two: Critical Race Theory

The readings on Critical Race Theory (CRT) this week were very interesting and insightful. My understanding of CRT at this time is probably best defined in a way that is similar to how it was described on the Owl Perdue Website. They initially talk about CRT as an interpretive model that looks at racism in a dominant cultures media, and messages. The Owl Perdue page on CRT continues to look at how individuals using CRT look at the impact of these messages and how they might combat these views. In the article “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?” by Derrick A. Bell he looks at CRT in a few different ways. The first one being the results of a standardized IQ test. In the last few years I remember being a part of a conversation about how standardized testing should be appropriate to the culture. For example, if the test was written in Spanish, I would be unable to complete the test due to the language barrier. In this situation an IQ test that was based on a white person’s perspective, is not a fair representation of someone from another culture. When the IQ test was adjusted, it showed that black people were smarter than white people. In many ways this represents another form of oppression and misrepresentation of the African American people.

Another aspect of the article “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?” by Derrick A. Bell that stood out to me was the summary of his story The Space Traders where aliens want to take all of the black people back to their home planet, for guarantees of riches to the white people inhabiting the planet. In my eyes this is a comment on the exploitative role that white people have played throughout history. When offered riches they exploit whatever possible to reach that goal. This has been proven time and time again with out nation’s history of colonization. When talking about the critiques of his story Derrick A. Bell states “Some even condemned me as a racist for daring suggest that white Americans would ever trade away any American lives for profit and well-being.” It is hard to believe considering white Americans track record that anyone could make this assumption.

The video of Travis Turner talking about his new role in an animated show where he is the voice of a black character is painful. He is struggling to complete a thought that screams racism, while trying to not be racist. He is trying to use several collaborations with black artist, and his experience living in motels to somehow right his wrongs. The most difficult part of this video for me was comparing his experience living in an Urban environment to that of another person. Everyone will experience similar circumstances differently. He is making a broad assumption that he can now relate to everyone that has every lived in a motel, and more specifically black people. In my eyes this is pretty much assuming that all black people have lived in motels. He also goes on to say that it would be racist if there was someone else better suited to play the role, there are so many people that would be a more appropriate voice actor for a black role in an animated series. One of the other main points of this interview that stood out to me was his voice acting bit. When you hear someone use a New York accent, you have an image that pops into your head. The same goes for someone with a deep southern accent, or an English accent. People speak differently throughout the world, when using an accent in a role that will be seen by thousands of children, is only advancing racial stereotypes. This video was cringe worthy in so many ways.