Critical Race Theory v. Deficit Models

This article is a response to Amanda Lewis, Margaret Hagerman, and Tyrone Forman's the Sociology of Race & Racism: Key Concepts, Contributions & Debates. Sociology and education, like any scholarly areas, have veins that reinforce racism and some that astutely assess, theorize, and challenge White supremacy. In this article, I explore the history of racial analysis in sociology and education, especially the 1990s and early 2000s, where theorists moved the larger discourse around racism from an issue of individual prejudice to one of structured racial oppression. In particular, I discuss the development and applications of concepts such as color-blind ideology, Critical Race Theory, racial formation, and systemic racism. The argument centers on how critical sociology and education scholars of race/racism are not regularly speaking to each other, despite their fields’ similar developments. The article points to how a deeper engagement with the developments of each, in particular the rebirth of ethnic studies in education, would contribute to the future development of both.