Articles in this section may concurrently be sorted into other fields of study (e.g., Higher Education, Social Sciences). Population tabs were created for this project to highlight the impact of racial discrimination on particular racial/ethnic groups. Sentences that come directly from the article are in quotation marks. CSUN students, faculty, and staff can access most articles through the University Library using CSUN credentials. Please use the library’s interlibrary loan services if an article of interest is not available.

 

Davids, M. N. (2018). “Don’t judge a book by its colour”: Black academic experiences of discrimination in an education faculty at a South African University. Journal of Black Studies, 49(5), 427–447. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934718764094

• This article is a case study assessing transformation in one faculty of education at a South African university. It explores aspects of transformation: equity, ideology, and practices. “CRT is used as an analytical tool to make sense of the paradox of Black experiences of discrimination at the hands of Black faculty leadership and the concomitant entrenchment of Whiteness as dominant in the institutional culture.”

 

Fenwick, L. T. (2016). Blacks in research: How shall we be portrayed? Urban Education, 51(6), 587–599. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915613556

• This article “examines the portrayal of Blacks in research and urges a renaissance among Black intellectuals, specifically calling for Black and progressive other scholars to lead a national movement to present rarely highlighted positive data and research findings about the Black condition—especially those which challenge persistent negative reports and racist notions about Black people.”

 

Gatwiri, K., & Anderson, L. (2020). Parenting Black children in White spaces: Skilled African migrants reflect on their parenting experiences in Australia. Child & Family Social Work, 26, 153–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12799

• This paper employs a CRT perspective to probe the experiences of skilled African migrants parenting Black children in Australia. Participants “demonstrated high levels of awareness of intercultural parenting approaches and a desire to blend the best aspects of African and Australian cultural values in their own parenting practice. A significant paradox was also apparent in the tension between parental desires to inculcate pride in African ancestry and culture, while simultaneously encouraging children to ‘curate’ their blackness to minimize experiences of racialization.”

 

Gold, S. J. (2016). A critical race theory approach to Black American entrepreneurship. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(9), 1697–1718. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1159708

• This paper “reviews three of the most common explanations for black Americans’ low rates of entrepreneurship: the cultural/psychological perspective, the ethnic enterprise perspective and the critical race approach.” It concludes that the critical race view provides the most convincing explanation for Black Americans’ limited entrepreneurial achievements.

 

Hylton, K. (2018). I’m not joking! The strategic use of humour in stories of racism. Ethnicities, 18(3), 327–343. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796817743998

• This study “examines the use of humor by Black football coaches in England as a rhetorical device against racism.” It draws on humor studies and CRT to illustrate signs of humor as defense. The use of techniques of humor “enables feelings of subordination, and humiliation to be transposed into forms of resistance, while its physiological and psychological benefits can lead to inter-racial relief and catharsis.”

 

Johnson, L. N., & Thomas, K. M. (2012). A similar, marginal place in the academy: Contextualizing the leadership strategies of Black women in the United States and South Africa. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 14(2), 156–171. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422311436305

• Black women’s status internationally “at the margins” remains an unexplored leadership style in human resource development (HRD). This article seeks to “present Black women’s unique social and cultural insights in leadership, increase the visibility of their experiences within their academic environments, and inform key educational leaders and HRD practitioners of the persistent barriers Black women encounter.”

 

Joseph, E. (2019). Discrimination against credentials in Black bodies: Counterstories of the characteristic labour market experiences of migrants in Ireland. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 47(4), 524–542. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2019.1620916

• In this article, discrimination in the Irish labor market “is challenged by centering race, and juxtaposing the experiences of migrants of Black African descent against their White counterparts based on information from 32 semi-structured interviews of first-generation migrants from Nigeria, Poland, and Spain.” Joseph presents five characteristic experiences identified by synthesizing migrants' interpretation of their journeys to paid employment. The typologies in these trajectories “reveal whiteness as a hidden resource that advantages Whites. It also illustrates the prevalence of an ascription of deficiency to Black workers and their credentials.”

 

Kerrison, E. M., Cobbina, J., & Bender, K. (2018). Stop-gaps, lip service, and the perceived futility of body-worn police officer cameras in Baltimore City. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work: Innovation in Theory, Research & Practice, 27(3), 271–288. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2018.1479912

• Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are touted as a much-needed remedy to address police misconduct. However, “the push for furnishing patrol officers with BWCs in order to bolster accountability, professionalism, and faith in institutional legitimacy might be a misguided effort.” Drawing from the narratives offered by 68 Black Baltimore City residents who were interviewed after Freddie Gray’s death in 2015, this study “explores what surveilled community members think of BWCs and their disutility, as well as center their suggestions for true and lasting improvements in police-civilian interaction. Theoretical implications for CRT, legal legitimacy, and legal cynicism are also discussed.”

 

Miller, P., & Callender, C. (2018). Black leaders matter: Agency, progression and the sustainability of BME school leadership in England. Journal for Multicultural Education, 12(2), 183–196. https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-12-2016-0063

• Through the lenses of CRT and interpretivism, this study examines “factors that contribute to Black male school leaders’ career progression and sustenance within the teaching profession.” The authors find that “whereas personal agency and determination are largely responsible for keeping these Black headteachers in post, ‘White sanction’… has played a significant role in career entry and early career development.”

 

Nordberg, A., & Meshesha, B. T. (2019). African diasporan experiences of US police violence: An exploration of identity and counter-narratives. British Journal of Social Work, 49(3), 704–721. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy074

• This interpretative phenomenological analytic study seeks to capture and understand the views of African diasporas in the U.S. of police violence through interviews with 10 adult participants. The results offer a counternarrative that complicates normative categorization of race in the U.S.

 

Rabaka, R. (2007). The souls of White folk: W.E.B. Du Bois’s critique of White supremacy and contributions to critical White studies. Journal of African American Studies, 11(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-007-9011-8

• Utilizing W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Souls of White Folk, Rabaka brings Africana studies and critical White studies into dialogue. The author demonstrates “the dialectical nature of Du Bois’ philosophy of race and CRT by comparing and contrasting his groundbreaking critiques of racism in The Souls of Black Folk with his reconstructed and decidedly more radical critique of the political economy of race, racism, whiteness, and white supremacy in ‘The Souls of White Folk.’”

 

Ray, V. E., Randolph, A., Underhill, M., & Luke, D. (2017). Critical race theory, Afro-Pessimism, and racial progress narratives. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 3(2), 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649217692557

• Drawing on CRT and Afro-Pessimism, theoretical perspectives that emerged outside of the discipline of sociology, this paper “urges a rethinking of linear progress narratives.” The authors first elucidate the central tenets of these theoretical paradigms. They then apply them to diversity and labor market research, providing suggestions for how sociology can incorporate these perspectives.

 

Reece, R. L. (2019). Color crit: Critical race theory and the history and future of colorism in the United States. Journal of Black Studies, 50(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934718803735

• The author deploys a critical race framework “to push back against preference as the only, or primary, mechanism facilitating skin tone stratification.” Instead, he uses historical Census data and regression analysis to explore “the historical role of color-based marriage selection on concentrating economic advantage among lighter skinned Black Americans.” He then discusses the policy and legal implications of developing a structural view of colorism and skin tone stratification in the U.S. and the broader implications for how race is conceptualized in this country.

 

Thomas, P. (2016). “Papa, am I a Negro?” The vexed history of the racial epithet in Norwegian print media (1970–2014). Race and Social Problems, 8(3), 231–243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-016-9179-4

• Thomas explores “the portrayal of blacks in Norwegian print media between 1970 and 2014 as refracted through the prism of the epithet ‘Negro’ (neger).” Guided by CRT, 4174 references covering 30 newspapers are analyzed. In contrast to some claims that “Negro” has been employed as a “neutral” biological descriptor in Norway, findings reveal that “the epithet verbally incarcerates blacks in a web of racist stereotypes that tap into topoi of blacks as either the eschewed or exotically essentialized ‘Other.’”

 

Vereen, L. G., Giovannetti, M. R., & Bohecker, L. (2020). A paradigm shift: Supporting the multidimensional identities of Black male youth. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 45(2), 99–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/01933922.2020.1740847

• This article seeks to combat the popular media that portrays Black male youth through a myopic lens as needing to overcome a litany of challenges and struggles. It also explores the notion of listening to learn from the voices of Black male youth prior to implementing group work practices.

 

Waymer, D., & Heath, R. L. (2016). Black voter dilution, American Exceptionalism, and racial gerrymandering: The paradox of the positive in political public relations. Journal of Black Studies, 47(7), 635–658. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934716649646

• The authors interrogate the narrative of American Exceptionalism by highlighting the irony of how South Carolina elected officials use the 1965 Voting Rights Act to assure the election of a Black Democratic member of the House of Representatives, but at the same time, by gerrymandering elected officials, it reduced the likelihood of a second Democratic representative of any race/ethnicity.” Using the paradox of the positive as a critical political public relations framework, the authors highlight the ways that American Exceptionalism is used to impose control “that favors one voting perspective to the marginalization of others in U.S. Southern politics.”

 

West, N. M. (2019). By us, for us: The impact of a professional counterspace on African American women in student affairs. Journal of Negro Education, 88(2), 159–180. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.88.2.0159

• Through semi-structured interviews, West examines outcomes of seven African American women student affairs professionals employed at predominantly White institutions who consistently attended the African American Women’s Summit between 2006 and 2011. Included is a discussion of the concept of professional counterspaces situated in Black feminist thought and CRT.

 

Wilson, K. H. (1999). Towards a discursive theory of racial identity: The Souls of Black Folk as a response to nineteenth-century biological determinism. Western Journal of Communication, 63(2), 193–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570319909374636

• This essay interprets W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk “as a response to nineteenth‐century racial science and the ideology of biological determinism. It argues that Souls inverts the racist claims of nineteenth‐century science through direct analysis, a style that combines art and reason and makes a methodological shift from studying what Black is to studying what being Black means.” Du Bois’ critical practice in The Souls of Black Folk “moved scholarship along with two conceptual innovations—the veil of race and double consciousness toward a discursive theory of race that foreshadowed cultural/minority studies and critical race theory.”