About This Page

We are not living in the post-racial United States in which the nation is free from racial prejudice and discrimination. We at the HERE Center believe that racism is, unfortunately, still well and alive. Critical Race Theory (CRT) provides us with a helpful lens to understand the persistence of racism in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

This page lists and annotates close to 400 entries within the CRT corpus across nearly 20 disciplines (see the sidebar on the right-hand side of the page). The collection aims to give the CSUN community and other readers a taste of how CRT has been applied in different fields of study. It is our hope that this collection will provide the CSUN community with resources to better serve our students of diverse backgrounds from across disciplines. It is also our hope that these resources will better prepare CSUN to fulfill our civic duty as we engage with the wider society—at local, national, and international levels—on issues of public relevance. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to explore ways to integrate CRT into their research, lectures, inquiries, and practices.

CSUN students, faculty, and staff can access most articles (95%) through the University Library with CSUN user ID and password. Please use the library’s interlibrary loan services if an article of interest is not available.

Critical Race Theory is an intellectual movement that emerged out of law in the 1970s and began to gain currency in the late 1980s and 1990s (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001*). At its heart, CRT interrogates the role of race and racism in power structures in society. Some of its core tenets include:

• the belief that racism is normal or ordinary, not aberrant
• challenge to dominant ideology
• interest convergence
• race as a social construction
• intersectionality and anti-essentialism
• commitment to social justice
• voice or counternarrative
• whiteness as property
• the critique of liberalism

While CRT will not solve the problem of racism, it offers us helpful tools to address the issue. Through past wisdom, collective efforts, and creative visioning, we trust that change WILL take place!

It is commonly known that CRT is applied in law, ethnic studies, and education. But do you know that it is also used in computer science, sports, business, and media? We welcome you to browse through the entries to explore further. If you find the page helpful, please share the website with your friends.

- The HERE Center, Summer 2021

 

Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction (3rd ed.). New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1ggjjn3.12

BUILD PODER offered critical race theory mentor training from 2015 to 2019 which included a 16-hour workshop and three follow-up trainings. Please see this infographic for details.   

 

This work is supported by NIH BUILD PODER (National Institutes of Health Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity: Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research) at California State University, Northridge, RL5GM118975 and UL1GM118976.