Critical Race Theory: Why it’s Banned and Why it Matters

This course seeks to break down the controversies surrounding Critical Race Theory. We begin by defining the many terms that have moved out of scholarly circles and into the headlines, social media, and school board and legislative debates: critical race theory/studies, structural racism, white supremacy, white privilege, anti-blackness, settler colonialism, racial hierarchy, Islamophobia, etc. We then dig more deeply into the research and evidence for structural racism, examining case studies on the criminal justice system, drug policies, mass incarceration, police violence, health, education, the environment, housing, the economy, and the job market. Lectures and readings will focus on racial inequality and its impact on African Americans, Latinx peoples, Asian Americans, Indigenous people, and Arab Americans in the US context, but international examples will be discussed as well.