Where

Do We Go From Here?: Toward A Critical Race English Education

Abstract: Drawing on his memory and journey to Ferguson, Missouri, during the 2014
Ferguson Uprising, the author articulates how this particular experience impacted him not
only as a Black male and as a Black son but also as a Black English educator. The author
illustrates that the physical violence that unfolds in the streets bleeds into English
language arts (ELA) classrooms. That is, when Black youth receive distorted curriculum
and traditional pedagogy that misrepresent their prior knowledge, experiences, language,
and literacies, teachers are enacting a curriculum of violence, which stems from anti-
blackness ideologies pertaining to Black life. In this article, the author charges the field
of English education to consider and to ponder the following questions: (1) How do
Black lives matter within ELA classrooms? and (2) How are white supremacy and anti-
blackness re-inscribed through educators disciplinary discourses and pedagogical
practices? As a result, in this piece, the author proposes Critical Race English Education
(CREE) as a theoretical and pedagogical construct that tackles white supremacy, race,
and anti-black racism within English education, ELA classrooms, and beyond. In
addition, CREE centers the Black literacies that educators can use to disrupt the violence
and curricula and pedagogical inequities against Black youth in schools.

In the wake of racial violence, the U.S. has witnessed the tragic deaths of Black

lives unfold across multiple geographical landscapes. From the Gullah Sea Islands of

South Carolina to the concrete jungles of New York Cityfrom the rolling hills and

plains of Ohioto the windy city of Chicago and to the hills and Bay Area of California:

Walter Scott (SC); Eric Garner (NY); Tamir Rice, John Crawford III,

Malissa Williams, Timothy Russell, and Tyre King (OH); Rekia Boyd,

Laquan McDonald, and Paul ONeal (Il); Terence Crutcher (OK); Oscar

Grant (CA); Aiyana Stanley-Jones (MI); Philando Castile (MN); Alton

Sterling (LA)

These names are a small pocket of victims who have been murdered by the police. I say

the name of each victim as a way to humanize their existence and not to objectify their

life story as a statistic. As such, these callous murders are rooted in deep-seated

stereotypes that portray Black children, youth, and adults as particularly, dangerous,

impervious to pain and suffering, careless and carefree, and exempt from empathy,

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solidarity, or basic humanity (Taylor, 2016, p. 3); therefore, this great nation will

continue to say the names of Black people (Bettie Jones, Tiara Thomas, Keith Childress

and many more) as long as stereotypes, fear, and hate continue to reside in peoples

hearts and minds. The U.S. has a devoted relationship with racial violence against Black

lives; and, for centuries, we have experienced Americas deception and betrayal. We see

this play out with the Declaration of Independence which stated all men are created

equal yet enslaved Africans and African Americans for over 300 years. The

Emancipation Proclamation declared that all enslaved people were free, yet policies such

as Black codes were created to maintain a system of slavery and the oppression of Black

people. Brown vs Board of Education ruled that segregation in public schools was

unconstitutional, yet today, constitutionally speaking many public schools remain

separate and unequal. All of these historical movements inform the United States current

racial landscape and highlights the disdain and disregard for Black lives. Concomitant

with the historical (mis)treatment of Black lives, the current racial violence directed at

Black people in America has heightened and has led this country to a new historical

insurgence known as the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

It would be disingenuous of me to discuss #BlackLivesMatter without paying

homage to the contributions, labor, and love of three Black queer women who created the

movementAlicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors. They created

#BlackLivesMatter after George Zimmerman was acquitted for murdering 17-year-old,

unarmed Black male teenager, Trayvon Martin (http://blacklivesmatter.com/about/).

#BlackLivesMatter is an action-oriented movement that exposes and unveils the

operation of white supremacy and works to dismantle a system that has a deep history

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with state sanctioned violence (Dumas & ross, 2016). According to the founders of the

movement,

When we say Black Lives Matter, we are broadening the conversation

around state violence to include all of the ways in which Black people are

intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. We are talking about

the ways in which Black lives are deprived of our basic human rights and

dignity (Garza, Tometi, and Cullors).

The essence of the founders argument is a response to the anti-black racism that

infiltrates our society and a call to action to challenge society to join the movement to

dismantle all forms of Black oppression (i.e. race, gender, sexual orientation, class,

nationality, and disablility). Furthermore, it is important to realize that not only does

#BlackLivesMatter focuses on the physical violence that transpires against Black bodies

but also I believe this movement enumerates the symbolic violence that damages the

humanity of Black people. As such, one of the pivotal components of this particular

movement is that it sheds light on honoring and seeing the humanity that resides within

Black lives (Black Lives Matter, 2014). In this light, #BlackLivesMatter hones in on the

human aspect of mattering by rejecting dehumanization and anti-black racism. As such, I

extend Black Lives Matter movement to education, ELA classrooms and English

Education because we, as educators, cannot allow these pressing issues to go

unaddressed. #BlackLivesMatter is not inseparable from the educational inequities that

intentionally marginalize Black youthfrom systemic policies and practices that limit

and deny Black youth educational resources (Anderson, 1988; King, 2005; Foster, 1997),

to the lack of culturally relevant and culturally sustaining language and literacy practices

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(Boutte, 2015; Ladson-Billings, 2014 Paris, 2013), and to the over-surveillance and

punishment of Black bodies through maladministration policies and procedures (Dumans

& ross, 2016; Kirkland, 2013; Winn, year). With this being said, #BlackLivesMatter

compels educators to ponder and to consider the mattering of Black lives within

educational contexts. More specifically, #BlackLivesMatter compels the field of English

education to ponder and to consider the mattering of Black lives within ELA classrooms.

To further illustrate this point, the recent killings of Trayvon Martin, Jordan

Davis, Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Rekia Boyd, and Aiyana Stanley-Jones have

sparked a much needed conversation between national educational organizations such as

the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the broader field of English

education. NCTE has challenged the field of English education to (re)consider how

English education is implicated in the tragic killings of Black lives. NCTE Black Caucus

(2015) released a statement that sheds light on the unjust murders against Black and

Brown bodies and to affirm their humanity. The Black Lives Matter statement declares,

In this light, we call upon English educators to use classrooms to help as

opposed to harm, to transform our world and raise awareness of the crisis

of racial injustice. We call upon English education researchers to commit

time to studying and disrupting narratives of racism rendered complexly in

the substance of our profession.

In making this statement, NCTE Black Caucus urges the field of English education to

(re)imagine the ELA curriculum as a revolutionized space that actively works against

hegemonic language and literacy pedagogies and practices that further oppress and wreak

violence against the bodies of Black and Brown students in classrooms. America has

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reached its tipping point. The blood of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown,

Renisha McBride, Rekia Boyd, and Aiyana Stanley-Jones (we must say their names)

have been spilled in the streets and hearts of the United States and in ELA classrooms.

Simply stated, while Black children and youth are dying in the streets at the hands of

police and civilians, in classrooms, they are also dying spiritually in the hands of

teachers.

For instance, when Black students are taught from a curriculum that stifles their

experiences, voice, and knowledge, this is what Love (2017) calls spirit-murder. Spirit-

murder is the psychological and emotional death that Black children, youth, and adults

experience due to living in a world that embraces anti-black racism. when Black students

are taught from a curriculum that stifles their experiences, voice, and knowledge, To

enumerate, Groenke et al. (2015) ask the field of ELA to (re)imagine classrooms as

spaces that disrupt whiteness and eurocentric conceptions of adolescents. The authors

document and explain their frustration with societys dominant visions of Black

adolescents and how these distorted visions lead to the real murder or the emotional

murder of Black youth. Within societys social imagination, Black adolescents are often

viewed as a menace to society, thugs, and/or subhuman. Groenke et al. state that,

The work of contemporary researchers focused on adolescence reminds us

that those privileged in definitions of adolescence are also privileged in

frameworks of education; those who are ignored in those definitions are

also ignored in school. But who gets to be an adolescent and who

doesnt? Whose adolescence matters in school and in life? Perhaps more

importantly, who gets to live? Who gets to be human? (p. 35).

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As educators, we must understand that we are still living in a time where Black children,

youth, and adults are viewed as inhumane. Along the same lines, the authors point is

that in order to better prepare and serve Black students, the field of English education

cannot become complacent in the continuation of racial violence that occurs within

society and classrooms. By extension, complacency leads to English education being

implicated in the perpetuity of racial violence. As a result, in this piece, I propose Critical

Race English Education (CREE) as a theoretical and pedagogical construct that tackles

white supremacy, race, and anti-black racism within English education, ELA classrooms,

and beyond. Uniquely, CREE is a form of Black resistance that counteracts the violent

practices of education. In the following section of this paper, I share the epistemological

underpinning of CREEs inception through my own positionality by critically reflecting

on my journey to Ferguson, Missouri during the 2014 Ferguson Uprising after the unjust

killing of a young unarmed Black male teenager, Michael Brown. I then discuss the

symbolic violence that stems from the absence and (mis)reading of Black people through

educators pedagogical and curricula decisions. In the proceeding section, I provide the

genealogy of CREE and explain the pre-existing theories that undergird this concept. In

closing, I leave the field of English education with the following question of where do

we go from here? as a way to charge the field to (re)imagine ELA classrooms and

curricula not as they currently are but what they have the potential to become.

My Journey to Ferguson

Uniquely, my journey to Ferguson is a memory that informs CREE. Hence, my

positionality shines through within my trip to Ferguson. This journey was a moment in

time where my positionality mattered in spacesimply stated, who I am mattered in that

6
exact moment. While narrating this memory, I will articulate how this particular

experience impacted me as a Black male, a Black son, and a Black English educator.

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old Black teenager, was

brutally murdered by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, in Ferguson,

Missouri. According to Michael Browns friend and key witness, Dorian Johnson,

Brown and Johnson were walking on the street just a few feet from their destination when

Darren Wilson exclaimed, Get the fuck on the sidewalk or get the fuck out the street

(Jefferson-Griffen, 2015, p. 45). According to Johnson, he and Brown responded that

they were only a minute away from their final destination (CNN, 2014). Many believed,

Wilson was not pleased with the youths responses, simply because they did not respond

to him, a white law enforcer, in what society deems a respectful manner (CNN, 2014;

Fasching-Varner et al, 2015). Consequently, Wilsons dehumanizing request and

language only exacerbated the situation.

Immediately, Wilson became physically aggressive with the young men, which

led to the murder of Michael Brown (Fasching-Varner et al, 2015). I am in agreement

with Stovall (2015) when he states, the officers response is not to discharge the weapon

to stop or frighten Michael Brown. The intent is to put the target down. Brown is no

longer human. He is the target. He is state property. If he cannot be contained, he is to

be killed (p. 68). Although the reports leading up to the death of Michael Brown are

unclear, no one should lose his or her life for walking in the street. Browns body lay in

the stifling summer heat for over four hours. His death sparked new civil rights urgencies

in Black communities. The city of Ferguson became a united front as much of the Black

community and other races came together in solidarity to speak back and against police

7
brutality. For example, we saw this kinship, revolutionary struggle and act of solidarity

between Ferguson protesters and Palestinian activists and citizens. The pain and

suffering experienced, as a result of (racism, mass incarceration, prison industrial

complex, displacement of land, etc.) was illustrated through Palestinians words of

encouragement, empathy, and solidarity such as the references made to tear gas produced

in the U.S. (see Figure 1). Social media and Twitter provided an interactive view onto the

streets of Ferguson. As Twitter notifications of #Ferguson flooded peoples timeline,

another stream of tweets began to circulate comparing the streets of Ferguson to the

Palestinian uprising that were simultaneously unfolding. It is beyond the scope of this

paper to unpack the ongoing history of Palestinian oppression and the conflict between

Palestine and Israel (see Davis, 2016); however, it is important to note prior to the 2014

Ferguson uprising, Palestinians resisted control, repression, and violence through

peaceful protests and marches. Many times, these uprisings were disrupted by military

troops and police officers who welcomed Palestinian protesters with battle tanks, tear gas

and weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, Palestinians utilized social media and

Twitter to create and express international solidarity for and with Black and Brown folks

who were uprising in Ferguson.

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 On September 27, 2014, I took a journey to Ferguson, Missouri. After the unjust

killing of Michael Brown, the city of Ferguson had become a space where Black bodies

continued to be rejected through the enforcement of national guardsmen and

militarized police officers who shot rubber bullets and released tear gas at protesters;

however, during this historical moment, the nation witnessed the city of Ferguson stand

firm in the quest for racial justice. As I walked through the community, I took pictures of

memorial plots, protest signs, and of the Michael Brown paraphernalia that hung from the

windows inside of homes. One such sign encapsulated much of the sentiment in the city,

stating, R.I.P. Mike Brown; They can burn, shoot rubber bullets, throw tear gas, but

you cant stop us!!; No Justice, No Peace; and Arrest Darren Wilson. (see Figure 2).

<Insert Figure 1.2>

One particular spot ignited a whirlwind of emotions within me (see Figure 3).

There were red, white, and blue balloons that, to me, symbolized the United States; teddy

bears and stuffed animals that symbolized childhood and innocence; a graduation picture

of Brown that represented young, Black males and the pursuit of education. Furthermore,

9
these symbolic images were resting on, R.I.P. MIKE BROWN written on the concrete

in black and red spray paint over the remnants of his preserved blood.

<Insert Figure 1.3>

As a Black male, I knew that Brown was not murdered by a single police officer

as much as he was killed by the system in the United Statesa place that had taken away

his dignity and humanity while mentally and physically holding him captive to the plight

of racism. In addition, I am reminded of the children, youth, and adults who have

actively engaged in the pulling apart of Browns humanity and dignity through the

adaptation of racist stereotypes and oppressive ideologies as they view(ed) his murder as

just another Black male teenager who was the source and root of his own death. To

further complicate the tragic death of Michael Brown, Browns body signifies the

struggle of living and of moving freely in a society where Black lives are deemed less

than worthy of human life. In many ways, his body illustrates the past and present

dehumanization of Black lives. To this end, I understand there is no distance between

Michael Brown, other Black Brothas and myself. I call them Brothas because it comes

from the soulful and rich language of African and African American peopleit

10
intricately connects us with family, community, and personal identity. I call them

Brothas because I, too, am a Black male whose flesh has been scarred by the pain and the

wounds of racism throughout and within educational spaces and society-writ-large. I call

them Brothas to illustrate that I am in the struggle with them and as an attempt to honor

our humanity. As such, I understand that my Black male body is not exempted from the

physical and the symbolic racial violence that runs rampant throughout society. That is,

even when Black males sit in privileged positions (i.e. tenure-track appointments,

department chair, dean, president, etc.) our bodies are still subjected to racial violence

(Johnson and Bryan, 2016).

Symbolic Violence in ELA Classrooms

When educators marginalize the voices of Black youth, misrepresent their

culture, and misinterpret their language, all of these (mis)readings perpetuate the working

of symbolic violence in secondary ELA classrooms. I define symbolic violence as a

metaphorical representation of racial abuse, pain, and suffering against the spirit and

humanity of Black people. To be clear, symbolic violence can lead to the spirit-

murdering of Black peoples humanity just as physical violence can lead to the absence

of the body.

Returning to my journey to Ferguson, as I was surrounded by the palpable

presence of police brutality, I began to question how the field of English education might

be implicated in what happened there. The racial violence and police brutality during the

2014 Ferguson Uprising capture the working of white supremacy. white supremacy is a

violent and dehumanizing system that has been put into place to maintain racial hierarchy

through sustaining rules, policies, and practices that privileges eurocentric ways of

11
existing and being. Indeed, white supremacy is at the root of the racial violence that

erupted in Ferguson. In short, this reflection led me to ask the following questions: How

is white supremacy re-inscribed through our disciplinary discourses and pedagogical

practices? When we think about the curriculum, whose identities are included? How is

the curriculum inclusive of Black and Brown youth? And, are we, as educators, thinking

about Black and Brown youths life histories and experiences? The evolution and

development of white supremacy and racial violence are linked to the manner in which

English language arts is taught and learned (Motha, 2014). What I find striking is that

novels such as The Scarlett Letter, Animal Farm, Huckleberry Finn, Odyssey, Lord of the

Flies, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men dominate the past and current landscape

of many middle-school and high school ELA classrooms; and, they are considered to be

the literary canon. The canon reflects a predominately white, male, and eurocentric

English curriculum (Boutte, 2015) while marginalizing the voices of women and people

who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. white domination in

literature in secondary ELA classrooms is well known in the academic literature and

English educators and ELA teachers have discussed what novels are taught in schools

across the nation (Haddix and Price-Dennis, 2013; Kirkland, 2013; Boutte, 2015);

however, it is noteworthy that what is omitted in these conversations is how the

traditional ELA curriculum and texts are a form of symbolic violence that impede on the

humanity of Black children.

With this in mind, Cridland-Hughes and King (2014), echoing Motha (2014),

argue the English curriculum is intimately tied to the racial apparatus meant to propel and

sustain racial oppression and hegemony: The English curriculum, through the canon of

12
literary knowledge and history, privileges narratives that classify whiteness as

epistemologically valuable, while non-whites stories are treated as a novelty in

classroom spaces (Cridland-Hughes & King, 2014, p. 99). To further illustrate this point

of symbolic violence, in Prentice Halls (2010) textbook, Literature the American

Experience, a nationally adopted textbook in many high school ELA classrooms, the third

unit of the textbook, A Nation Is Born, includes the speeches and literary works of

Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine. The voices of

oppressed and marginalized groups during this particular time period are silenced. To

complicate this notion of a growing nation, the textbook could include the voices of

prolific Black orators and poets. For example, David Walkers (1729) Appeal to the

Coloured Citizens of the World is a political document that interrogates the authors of the

Declaration by confronting the issues of racism, religion, and chattel slavery. Within this

unit, there is one text by Phillis Wheatley, a Black poet during the pre-nineteenth

century. However, it is pivotal to understand that neither sprinkling the voices of Black

writers throughout the textbook nor omitting Black people from the storylines disrupt the

majoritarian narrative. Racial violence is also the absence of who and what educators

include in classrooms. To this end, I surmise that failure to disrupt the majoritarian

narrative with the texts we teach and within the curriculum we serve further sustain the

symbolic violence that many teachers inflict upon Black students.

Baszile (2005) surmises that U.S. schools serve as violent sites that alienate and

oppress Black and Brown students, which she calls criminal acts committed by the hands

of the American educational system in the name of good education through hegemonic

policies and practices. With this notion of schools serving as violent sites, ELA teachers

13
and literacy educators must understand that choosing eurocentric texts that omit the lived

realities of Black people or misrepresent the multiple ways of being Black lead to anti-

blackness and the devaluation of Black life. In like manner, educators have to consider

the countless Black students who experience racial fatigue, weariness, and spirit

murdering from sitting in classrooms where Black students are typically invisible yet

hyper-visible as well as begin to consider pedagogies and practices that actively stand

against the physical and symbolic violence against Black bodies. Baker-Bell,

Stanbrough, and Everett (2017) call for ELA classrooms to become sites of healing that

move to heal the racial wounds and pain caused by racial violence and injustice inflicted

upon Black and Brown youth. A key point about the authors conception of pedagogy of

healing is that it is not a band-aid nor a remedy that heals physical or psychological

violence; rather, the pedagogy of healing serves as a tool to name, recognize, and analyze

the wound and to speak back to the racial abuse by using humanizing tools that work to

revolutionize the structure(s) that led to the wound. In struggle to heal the physical and

spiritual wounds of Black students, NCTE (2015) Black Lives Matter Statement asserts

that in efforts to eradicate the physical and spiritual bleeding that transpires from racial

injustice, ELA classrooms could offer triagethat is, if teachers begin to center those

who are the most injured, ELA classrooms would do a better job serving the diverse

needs of all children, in this particular case Black children.

It is not a revelation that Black and Brown youth are entering and exiting ELA

classrooms with racial wounds that stem from educators onto-epistemologies saturated

in westernized and Euro-American ideologies and beliefs. These beliefs are the dominant

and standard ideologies in which Black students are judged, which causes the racial

14
wounds. Building upon this argument, in their special themed issue, From Racial

Violence to Racial Justice: Praxis and Implications for English (Teacher) Education,

Baker-Bell, Butler, and Johnson (2017) assert that our world is on fire and that the

students who are sitting in ELA classrooms are thirsty and in need of water. The authors

write,

As coeditors of this issue, we think about what our society (on fire) and

classrooms (thirsty) need. For us, both need to unlearn and engage in

transformative conversations about anti-Blackness, homophobia, and other

forms of xenophobia. To this, we offer what Lamar is calling Critical

Race English Education, or CREE (as water) (p. 123).

The authors suggestion of CREE rings true to me because it allows ELA teachers and

English educators to build revolutionary curricula, policies, and practices WITH Black

youth so that the existence, resilience, struggle, triumphs, and humanity of Black lives are

honored.

The Genealogy of Critical Race English Education

Epistemology is linked intimately to worldview. Shujaa (1997)

argues that worldviews and systems of knowledge are symbiotic

that ishow one views the world is influenced by what knowledge

one possesses, and what knowledge one is capable of possessing is

influenced deeply by ones worldviewGloria Ladson-Billings

Throughout this article, I have purposefully centered the -self to better illustrate the

various knowledges that contribute to my conceptualization of Critical Race English

Education or CREE as a developing theory. Boutte (2015) reminds me that theory is

15
derived from our personal experiences and is based upon assumptions that are

constructed when one thinks about a particular topic. For example, in this piece, the ideas

and concepts that are provided are based on the following interconnected and organized

assumptions:

Racism is nicely etched within social institutions (e.g., educational, healthcare,

business, and political structures) and explicitly and implicitly impacts the

academic and social experiences of Black children and youth.

In order to disrupt and dismantle racism, the structures, policies, and procedures

that uphold racism must be named and unveiled.

Educators should engage youth in humanizing racial dialogue around issues of

race, anti-blackness racism, white supremacy, and power. Matias (2016) states

that humanizing racial dialogue, shifts the standards of humanity by providing

space for the free expression of peoples thoughts and emotions that are not

regulated by the discourse of safety (p. 129). On the contrary, many educators

are afraid to engage youth in humanizing dialogue around race and racism

because of their own lack of knowledge, fear, and discomfort.

These interconnected and organized assumptions, as I have come to understand them, are

based upon my raced, classed, and gendered formations (see Baszile, 2006) that guide my

curricular and pedagogical decisions in the classroom. Furthermore, I recognize that

these interconnected assumptions are rooted in a set of ideologies and beliefs that impact

how I teach ELA to secondary students and how I prepare pre-/in-service teachers to

teach ELA for Black and Brown students. That is, if white teachers teach ELA FOR

Black and Brown youth, even in predominately white spaces, white students and

16
communities will benefit from this knowledge. Additionally, if educators are not

intentional about teaching Black texts from a critical standpoint, showcasing Blackness in

a positive light, and having humanizing conversations about critical race issues and other

intersections (e.g. sexuality, class, ethnicity, nationality, and, religion), white people will

not unlearn their racist ideologies or beliefs nor disrupt their own whiteness and privilege.

As a former secondary ELA teacher, all too often, I witnessed numerous department

meetings and professional development workshops where western rationality and Euro-

American theories and beliefs were infiltrated throughout many ELA courses. In return, I

also witnessed how many of the past/current ideologies and theories that are/were present

in ELA classrooms hold Black students hostage in exchange for their humanity (Haddix,

2016; Kirkland, 2013;Ladson-Billings, 2016). As such, it is my contention that CREE

can assists educators to better understand why and how racism and white supremacy have

a deep history with ELA and to disrupt anti-blackness racism in ELA classrooms. I now

turn to the genealogy of CREE and discuss how Critical Race Theory, BlackCrit, and

Critical Race Pedagogy inform and undergird CREE. (see Figure 1.3)

17
 Critical Race Theory (CRT) informs most of my curricular and pedagogical

decisions and research because, contrary to popular belief, race still matters and racism is

still alive and well. Decades ago Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995) introduced CRT to the

field of education. The authors argued that race was under-theorized in education; as

such, CRT would be an analytic tool to explicate race, racism, and white supremacy and

how these constructs contribute to the oppression of minoritized groups. In doing so,

they also utilized CRT to examine curriculum, instruction, assessment, policy, and school

funding (Ladson-Billings and Tate, 1995). Echoing the sentiments of Ladson-Billings and

Tate, Solorazano and Yosso (2002) contend that:

Critical race theory advances a strategy to foreground and account for the

role of race and racism in education and works toward the elimination of

racism as part of a larger goal of opposing or eliminating other forms of

subordination based on gender, class, sexual orientation, language and

national origin[It] is a framework or set of basic insights, perspectives,

methods, and pedagogy that seeks to identify, analyze and transform the

structural and cultural aspects of education that maintain subordinate and

dominant racial narratives in and out of the classroom (as cited in Baszile,

2008, p. 261).

Furthermore, due to people of color personal encounters with racial oppression,

Solorazano and Yosso (2002) emphasize that a key component of CRT is the

centralization of the voices and lived experiences of people of color. This experiential

component is crucial because it gives rise to the voices that are often unheard and

silenced throughout U.S. schools by allowing marginalized people to speak their pain and

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to tell their racialized stories which run counter to the dominant narratives, ideologies and

beliefs that permeate classrooms about students who come from racially and

linguistically diverse backgrounds.

While CRT serves as an analytical tool to critique and respond to institutionalized

racism and white supremacy, however, it is not above questioning or critique. To move

the conversation of CRT forward, Dumas and ross (2016) explicate that CRT fails to

explicitly address the Black experience and the racial oppression of Black people. That

is, CRT does not address anti-blackness racism, which is disparate from white

supremacy. However, it is important to note that BlackCrit is a response to CRT and

other critsspecifically, LatCrit, AsianCrit, and TribalCrit which have all developed in

response to CRT as attempts to better identify and tackle the racial oppression of

Latino/as, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Indigenous groups (Brayboy, 2005; Chang,

1993; Hernadez-Truyol, 1997). Building on the tenets of CRT, Dumas and ross (2016)

propose BlackCrit as a theory to better understand the Black experience and how anti-

blackness racism is located in laws, policies, and the everyday lives of Black people.

Furthermore, the authors state,

Advancing BlackCrit helps us to more incisively analyze these more

detailed ways that blackness continues to matter, and in relation to CRT,

how blackness matters in our understanding of key tenets related to, for

example, the permanence of racism and whiteness as property. And, in

conversation with the critique of multiculturalism offered by Ladson-

Billings and Tate, BlackCrit helps to explain precisely how Black bodies

become marginalized, disregarded, and disdained, even in their highly

19
 visible place within celebratory discourses on race and diversity (2016, p.

3).

BlackCrit in education can assist educators in understanding how social structures,

policies, and practices are influenced by anti-blackness. Moreover, this anti-black

violence that derives from anti-black policies and practices, which continue the pain and

suffering of Black children and youth in schools. Weiston-Serdan and Daneshzadeh

(2016) state that anti-blackness, is not merely about hating or penalizing Black people.

It is about the debasement of Black humanity utter indifference to Black suffering, and

the denial of Black peoples right to exist (Diverse Issues in Higher Education).

Reflecting upon this definition of anti-blackness, I contend that many teachers probably

wouldnt identify themselves or the educational system as anti-black, yet their curricular

and pedagogical practices mirror classrooms that omit the lived experiences and silences

the voices of Black youth, which becomes an avenue for erasing blackness and the

humanity of Black students. Furthermore, although CRT and BlackCrit are used in

higher educational spaces and research (see Baszile, 2008; Bell, 1992; Haddix, 2016;

Johnson and Bryan, in press; Kirkland, 2013; Lynn and Paker, 2006; Stovall, 2005;

Taylor, 1998), however, the implementation of CRT and BlackCrit as theoretical and

action-oriented frameworks to explicate race and anti-blackness racism and to critique

white supremacy is lacking and under-utilized in P-12 spaces (Johnson, 2016; Matias,

2013; Lynn, 1999).

Dumas and ross (2016) state that, particularly in an age where technology often

renders brutal antiblackness visible as public spectacle, and calls of Black lives matter

echo in the streets, we must ask, what are the theoretical tools that will assist us in an

20
examination of the Black experience emphasis added (p. 14). For these reasons, in P-12

classrooms, educators must create spaces to challenge racial inequities within the context

of schooling in the U.S. Thus, infusing CRT and BlackCrit provide a lens that enable

educators to operationalize these theories. Building on the intellectual terrain of CRT,

Lynn (1999) proposed Critical Race Pedagogy. Critical Race Pedagogy strives to

understand the racial and hegemonic repressive structures that are in place to

disenfranchise students of color. Lynn defines Critical Race Pedagogy as, an analysis of

racial, ethnic, and gender subordination in education that relies mostly on the perceptions,

experiences, and counterhegmonic practices of educators of color (p. 615). As such,

Hughes and North (2012) explain that Critical Race Pedagogy is a promising route for

educators to utilize when confronting their knowledge about living, learning, and

teaching race. Although the work of Lynn (1999) and Hughes and North (2012)

underscores the importance of addressing power, racism, and white supremacy in P-12

classrooms, however, Critical Race Pedagogy omits a critique of anti-blackness racism.

As a secondary ELA teacher and a survivor of the traditional model of school, I knew I

had to incorporate a critically raced curriculum that dismantled the conventional

curriculum and standards, objectives, and instructional practices that permeate many ELA

classrooms. We know all too well that the traditional ELA curriculum mirrors

westernized perspectives; and, it does not provide us with the resources or tools to

discuss race and racial disparities in manners that are beneficial and liberating to those

who are oppressed by racism.

To illustrate an example of critical race pedagogy, I strategically infused a critical

race analysis of whiteness, power, and white supremacy throughout my daily lessons and

21
instructional practices. For example, like most secondary-aged students, To Kill a

Mockingbird (Lee, 1960) was a required text; and, this is still reflected in the current

ELA curriculum. Although this book engaged the topic of race, it focused on race from a

traditional stance. For example, the character of Atticus Finch could be viewed as a

white saviorthe heroic upper middle-class white male who saves the innocent Black

male who is on trial for allegedly raping a white woman. The savior mentality blocks

white people from being conscious of their own privilege and systemic oppression

(Matias, 2015). Knowing that the discussion of the white savior complex is often absent

in many secondary ELA classrooms, I believed that it was essential for me to

problematize Atticus Finchs character and how the savior complex perpetuates racial

subjugation and the omission of voices of Color. Here are a few sample discussion

questions from the lesson: (1) After watching clips from popular culture films such as

The Blind Side and Freedom Writers, explain how Atticus Finch possess the savior

complex; (2) Does the geographical context of the South affect his development as a

character?

Thus, in preparing a lesson on character analysis in the novel To Kill a

Mockingbird, the students and I read an excerpt from Matias (2014) about the white

savior complex. In addition, I showed them clips from the movies The Blind Side (2009)

and Freedom Writers (2007). In Hollywood films, The Blind Side and Freedom Writers,

white women are portrayed as saviors or missionaries who have come to rescue

youth from low impoverished Black communities. After critically reading the multiple

texts, the students and I discussed whether or not if Atticus Finch was truly a protagonist

and the hero. In South Carolina, where I taught high school English, standard 8.1

22
indicates that students must analyze how characters or a series of ideas or events is

introduced, connected, and developed within a particular context (South Carolina State

Standards, 2014). It is important to note that I created critical race objectives because

they were not included in the original standard objectives. Matias (2013) states that

critical race objectives, strategically and directly link the content objective to an

overarching CRT analysis of how oppressions of race, class, and gender are operating

within that content itself (p. 191). For example, if the content objective is that students

will be able to analyze characters, settings, and ideas as they unfold and intersect across a

particular context, then from a critical race English educators stance, which builds on the

state standards is that students will be able to critically discuss the role that the white

savior complex plays in the character development of Atticus Finch and how the

geographical context of the South during the 1930s impacts his development as a

character. In short, because the curriculum purposefully omits race, thus, continuing the

ordinariness and permanence of whiteness and anti-blackness, critical race objectives are

needed and creates a contested space within ELA classrooms that work to counter the

normativity of whiteness and racism in the curriculum and standards while promoting

racial dialogue, justice, and healing.

In the previous section, I provided a detailed example of Critical Race Pedagogy.

Although CREE and Critical Race Pedagogy center and critique race and racism in P-12

contexts, CREE provides a tenet that highlights Blackness by welcoming the Black

literacies Black youth bring to the classroom, which I will explain in the section below.

Where Do We Go from Here?

23
 My approach in this article is not intended to be a how-to guide or a cookie-

cutter demonstration on how to do CREE. Oftentimes, when it comes to equity-based

pedagogies such as culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995); culturally

responsive teaching (Gay, 2001); and culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2014), many

educators want step-by-step instructions on how these pedagogies look in

practice. However, this is not to say that empirical research or practitioner examples of

equity-based pedagogies and methodologies are not essentialbecause they are. My

intent for this particular article is not to provide an empirical or practitioner example of

CREE because in order to understand or fully comprehend how CREE looks, I surmise

that ones state of being, heart, and mind has to change. I am in agreement with Palmer

(1998) that teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from ones inwardness for

better or worse (p. 2). As we teach, we cast predispose ideologies, beliefs, and values

onto our students, our content, our instructional practices, and our ways of being

together. I contend that we are doing a disservice to all children, in particular Black and

Brown children, when we attempt to teach from culturally relevant ways but our

knowledge base of other peoples children (Delpit, 1995) remains static. In addition,

Haddix (2016) argues that forward-thinking ideas such as multicultural education,

culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy can fail to address issues of racism,

whiteness, white supremacy, and power. As a result, this is why we need more

intentional frameworks and pedagogies in English education and literacy that directly

tackle race and anti-black racism. To be clear, there needs to be a difference in name and

stanceif educators are not intentional about foregrounding race and racism, these social

constructs can get lost in coded language and can be misperceived. Under these

24
circumstances, educators must recognize how pathologizing notions of race and racism

are imbued throughout traditional school ideologies, curricula, and policies and critique

their own perspectives and instructional practices to assure they do not perpetuate

prejudicial, stereotypical, and/or racial behavior.

So, where do we go from here? In a time of racial chaos where Black and Brown

people are losing their lives at higher rates than any other racial and ethnic groups at the

hands of state sanctioned violence, white supremacy, and anti-blackness and anti-

browness racism, what is English education to do? With these questions in mind, I am

reminded of Caribbean poet, educator, and scholar, June Jordans 1982 keynote address

to the National Council of Teachers of English, when she queried, What to do? What to

do? English education in America is trouble. English education acts as a

gatekeepercloses down opportunitiesnarrows rather than opens possibilities of social

meaning and social action (as cited in Winn, 2013 p. 132). With this intention, Jordan

proposed a plan to eradicate the current English curriculum and courses and to start anew

(Stuckey, 1990). Decades later, the questions of what to do and where do we go from

here still linger in the field of English education. To illuminate, as a counter-hegemonic

tool, Morrell (2005) proposes that the field of English education need to increase its

emphasis on critical English education in order to be explicit about the role of language

and literacy in conveying meaning and in promoting or disrupting existing power

relations (p. 313). Further, critical English education is intentional about the role that

language and literacy play in the meaning making process based upon ones sociocultural

context. In addition, it is explicit about the deconstruction of existing power structures.

In like manner, Kirkland (2013) proposes New English Education. In the hope that the

25
field of English education could become a landscape that could assist young adolescents

in shaping and creating the world that is not yet, New English Education welcomes

multiple languages, literacies, and modalities that are reflective of societal

alterations. Furthermore, Kirkland states that, the New English Education also updates

the teaching of English in ways that correspond with and are socially, politically, and

culturally relevant to the lives of young adolescents (p. 42). Morrell and Kirkland both

call for literacy scholars, English educators, and ELA teachers to develop new ELA

curricula and to update ELA pedagogies that dismantle injustice and oppression, which

calls for English education to be (re)invented and (re)imagined.

Reflecting upon this question of where do we go from here compels me to

(re)imagine English education. In the aforementioned, the names of Black youth who lost

their lives to police brutality were stated and these horrendous deaths have indicated that

it is time for a revolution, specifically a revolution that transforms education, policy,

laws, etc. For these reasons and more, the historical legacy and the continued state of

racial violence have led me to propose CREE. Building on existing theories such as

Critical Race Theory (Bell, 1992); Critical Race Pedagogy (Lynn, 1999); BlackCrit

(Dumas and ross, 2016); Critical English Education (Morrell, 2005); and New English

Education (Kirkland, 2013) inform my conception of CREE. To further illuminate, in the

wake of racial violence, educational institutions and classrooms need to transform into

revolutionized spaces that work to combat racial injustice. CREE is a developing theory

and pedagogy that:

Explicitly names and addresses issues of violence, race, whiteness, white

supremacy, and anti-black racism within school and out-of-school spaces.

26
 Explores the intimate history and the current relationship between literacy,

language, race, and education.

Seeks to dismantle dominant texts (i.e. canonical texts, art, and media texts) while

also highlighting how language and literacy can be used as tools to uplift and

transform the lives of people who are often on the margins in society and P-20

spaces.

Builds on the Black literacies that Black youth bring to classrooms. Black

literacies affirm the lives, spirit, language, and knowledge of Black people and

Black culture. In addition, Black literacies are grounded in Black liberatory

thought which support and empower the emotional, psychological, and spiritual

conditions of Black people throughout the Diaspora. Further, Black literacies

move beyond the traditional understanding of texts (Kirkland, 2013; Haddix,

2015) and may include tattoos, poems, novellas, graphic novels, technology/social

media sites, oral histories/storytelling, body movements/dance, music, and prose.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that this particular component of CREE

counters anti-blackness by showcasing an unapologetic, unashamed, and

unconditional love for Blackness and for Black lives.

Although CREE highlights anti-black racism and speaks to the experiences of

Black lives, I want to make clear that this is not to negate anti-brown racism, the

experiences of other minoritized groups, or other lines of inquiry around Latinx, Asian,

Pacific Islander and all Indigenous youth. The unjust killings of Jessica Jessie

Hernandez (CO); Jonathen Santellana (TX); Pedro Villanueva and Anthony Nunez (CA)

illustrate that racial violence can be extrapolated across other minoritized groups. In

27
short, I aim to offer CREE as a way to sharpen our understandings about Black struggle

and freedom, to shed light on the humanity that resides within Black lives through

already developed constructs that work to better educate Black bodies, and to extend the

conversation about what is English educations role in the struggle for racial justice in a

time where Black lives and bodies are continuously dejected and disrespected. Returning

to the special themed issue, From Racial Violence to Racial Justice: Praxis and

Implications for English (Teacher) Education, the pieces in this special volume illustrate

what CREE looks like in English education and ELA classrooms (Baker-Bell, Butler, &

Johnson, 2017). For example, in The Stories They Tell, Baker-Bell, Jones Stanbrough,

and Everett (2017) explicate how the white dominated media reinforces white supremacy

and continues the legacy of anti-black racism. The authors offer critical media literacy

and pedagogies of healing as tools for Black youth to probe, dismantle, and rewrite the

distorted narratives that the white dominated media uses to oppress them. In

#Say[ing]HerName as Critical Demand, Butler (2017) explains how English educators

can engage in the action-oriented work of the #SayHerName movement within ELA

classrooms. Butler contends Black womens autobiographies are missing in educators

curricular decisions and instructional practices. She argues Black women bodies are

being, assaulted, murdered, and erased (Baker-Bell, Butler, & Johnson, 2017, p. 124),

and I agree because their bodies are always under attack, particularly when living in an

imperialist white supremacist capitalistic patriarchal society. To honor the humanity,

lives, and literacies of Black women, Butler charges educators to include and center the

autobiographies of Black women in ELA classrooms. In Imagining a Language of

Solidarity for Black and Latino Youth, Martinez illustrates the linguistic violence that

28
Black and Latinx youth encounter in schools and in out-of-school spaces. The author

explains how ELA teachers should build upon Black and Latinx students linguistic

chemistry in classrooms to create Black and Brown solidarity.

As I conclude this section, I am reminded of the physical and symbolic violence

that continue the dehumanization of Black people. On August 7, 2016 in Raleigh, North

Carolina, 20-year-old Black male, Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas was shot and killed

by a white male neighborhood watchman, Chad Copley. On September 16, 2016 in

Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officers brutally shot and killed, an unarmed Black male,

Terence Crutcher. Four days later, on September 20, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina,

Keith Scott, an unarmed Black male, was shot several times by Charlotte Mecklenburg

Police Officer Brentley Vinson. I am also reminded of the symbolic violence that

continues to work in conjunction with the physical violence that plagues our society. On

Wednesday, November 9, 2016, in Detroit, Michigan at Royal Oak Middle School just a

day after Donald Trump was elected President, a video of white students screaming,

Build that wall! went viral on social media. On that same day, in Wellsville, NY, a

dugout at Island Park was marked with the following words: Make America White

Again along with a large swastika symbol (cite). Two common threads that ebb and

flow throughout all of these incidents are the devalue of Black lives and the erasure of

Black people. I am in agreement with the sentiments expressed by poet Warsan Shire:

I come from two countries

one is thirsty

the other is on fire

29
 both need water (as cited in Baker-Bell, Butler, and Johnson, 2017, p.

123).

In an effort to move from racial violence to racial justice, I charge English educators and

classroom teachers to consider implementing CREE in their classrooms.

Whats Love Got to Do with It?: Epilogue

We (as a society) all need to be taught how to see and how to love Blackness as a

precondition to humanity. This love for Blackness must be poured into the curricular

decisions in ELA classrooms and English education courses. Furthermore, this deep-

seated love can move us toward humanization and away from oppression and

marginalization. hooks (2003) illuminates love as a pedagogical tool and action that

should be expressed in classrooms. However, it is pivotal to understand that it takes

commitment, solidarity, tears, anger, rage, and vulnerability to radically love on Black

people.

As such, I envision English classrooms where the stories of the oppressed are

storied through liberatory literacy practices such as movement, media, art, song, dance,

and poetry. I envision English classrooms or literacy classes where the educators love the

multiple ways people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds express their pain and

act of liberation through the means of legitimizing expression. I imagine English

classrooms where Black children are being taught to love every ounce of their Blackness.

A space that illustrates that Africas children are born from generations of kings and

queens, scientists, writers, mathematicians, resilience, and determination. I imagine ELA

classrooms where educators believe in the possibility of Black children and youth

classrooms where Black students know their Black skin, education, health, spirit, voice,

30
life, and humanity DO matter. And, if Black children do not believe their lives matter,

then, who will? Lastly, I imagine English classrooms, literacy classes, and English

education courses where the teachers and students all have riots in their souls (Baszile,

2006) and not afraid to join the revolution in a time of racial chaos by making a

commitment to racial justice and to see it as a commitment to your cause, our cause and

the cause for liberation and human freedom.

Notes

I have purposefully and intentionally chosen to capitalize Black and other racialized

language to show a radical love (see hooks, 2003) for Black and Brown people who are

constantly wounded by white supremacy. In conjunction, I have chosen to disassemble

white supremacy in my language by lowercasing the w on white and white supremacy

as well as the e on eurocentric. Furthermore, see Cheryl E. Matiass (2016) White

Skin, Black Friend: A Fanonian Application to Theorize racial Fetish in Teacher

Education.

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Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

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 35