All Around the World Same Song: Transnational Anti-Black Racism and New (and Old) Directions for Critical Race Theory in Educational Research

TLDR

Anti‑Black systemic racism is a transnational phenomenon rooted in global White supremacy, with hemispheric parallels in collective resistance and state‑sanctioned violence across the Americas. The study aims to advance a transnational theorization of critical race theory in education that interrogates coloniality, modernity, and White supremacy, repositioning CRT from its U.S. heritage to a Black Diaspora perspective and charting new and old directions for CRT in educational research. The authors employ transnational anti‑Black racism in Latin America as a starting point, reconceptualizing CRT through a Black Dias.

Abstract

As demonstrated through the disregard for Black humanity and respondent Black social movements throughout Latin America, anti-Black systemic racism is a transnational phenomenon birthed from global White supremacy. Across the Americas, the hemispheric parallels undergirding collective resistance to anti-Black racism and state-sanctioned violence lend themselves to multifaceted interdisciplinary scholarly examinations. Using transnational anti-Black racism in Latin America as a point of departure, we advance a theorization of critical race theory in education capable of interrogating racist structures of coloniality, modernity, and White supremacy that operate globally to suppress Black humanity and humanness in general. To that extent, we draw from and reposition critical race theory (CRT) from its sociohistoric heritage in the United States and instead conceptualize transnational anti-Black racism vis-à-vis a Black Diaspora reading of CRT. Finally, we return to education as a key site of contestation for transnational anti-Black racism and draw implications for the meaning of this global theorization of CRT in urban education, praxis, and educational research. We end by charting new and old directions for CRT in educational research.