Critical Review of The Critical Race Theory
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March 8, 2021.
Critical Review of The Critical Race Theory
Introduction
A group of activists formed the Critical Race theory to establish the relationship between race, law, and power. The idea offers critics the established legal structure on addressing critical issues from an artistic point of view. It establishes an argument that racism rules when it comes to laws and traditional institutions and is not influenced by biologically grounded or natural aspects. The theory purports that society’s view is a concept used to enhance racism by a superior race to govern and promote their political interest while undermining the people of color. The Critical Race Theory is presented along with themes such as racial microaggression through racism acts, structural violence within societal laws, or even borderlands and political governance systems (Peno 2017).
Statement of Purpose
This critical review aims to analyze the Critical Race Theory with racism, violation of the law, and political decisions within a country. The study will explore the concept of Critical Race Theory for various articles by considering each piece’s theme, value, and opinions. The narration of each item offers a conclusive point of analysis supported by the idea of the author.
Analysis of Articles
Article title: Borderlands La Frontera
‘La conciencia de la mestiza’
The title is translated as “towards a new consciousness.” The author aims to explain the importance of all races’ inclusivity by embracing what the author refers to as “a cosmic race’. The cosmic race consists of four significant races coming together to form a fifth superior race. The author uses an analogy, ‘progeny in mutation’ at the ‘cross over’ stage of genetic chromosomes that join together, despite their differences, to form a ‘hybrid.’ The hybrid presents a mixture of races well endowed, rather than inferior. This prospect calls form for creating a new mestiza consciousness that values the differences of diversity across racial lines and establishes the consciousness of Borderlands (Perales 2013).
The theme of new consciousness contradicts the theory of pure Aryan and white American practices of racial purity. It offers a fresh perspective that people of different cultures and races can co-exist harmoniously, aware of their ‘borderlines’ but unbothered by them. Regarding racism, the hybrid aspect creates unity among different people united by their differences. It diminishes the concept of viewing some races as inferior to others and offers each race’s relevance through the cross-over mutation analogy. The author writes, “because I, a mestiza, continually walk out of one culture and into another, because I am in all cultures at the same time.” This implies the author’s visionary when the cosmic race is established where a person can identify themselves with all cultures, despite being of a particular culture. The representation of the unity of races will establish harmony within the country’s borders within which they exist (Perales 2013).
Article title: Seesaws Straddle the Mexico Border, and Smiles Shine Through.
The article written by New York Times Magazine features seesaw straddles place on wall border rails that separate Mexico and the U.S. at the Texas Border. The seesaws were set up during Trump’s Administration to enhance racial cohesion amongst people in separate border lines. The simple playground equipment allows children to play together despite being in different countries. The wall architects wrote a review that, ‘what happens on one side affect what happens on the other’ to explain its meaning (“US-Mexico Border: Building A Smarter Wall Through Strategic Security” 2020).
For many years Mexicans have been regularly deported due to a lack of proper immigration documentation. According to the Critical Race Theory, this has led to racial profiling, stereotyping, and even cases of mistreatment of immigrants by border patrol police (Peno 2017). Immigration policies and regulations allow visas for non- U.S. residents for people who are unlikely to become a public debt; hence immigrants who can sustain themselves are issued with residence visas. Many people who come from developing countries such as Mexico try to enter the country illegally, searching for better jobs to improve their living conditions, but the living standards in the U.S. are very high; hence they are likely to become a public burden. This enhances racial discrimination regarding wealth status and borderlands (“US-Mexico Border: Building A Smarter Wall Through Strategic Security” 2020).
The increased cases of illegal migration through the Mexican border affected the border patrol police’s policies and regulatory laws. The slates through the seesaws allow children to see each other as they play. Although the slates act as a wall bordering the two countries, it offers the freedom of peaceful interactions and within the immigration law’s legal requirements. The playground aims to eradicate critics of Trump’s administration on discrimination that associate races with unlawful acts such as illegal immigration. In my opinion, the playground is a good gesture, but it may not solve the issue of racial profiling that associates Mexicans with unlawful immigration. Hence law enforcement officers may continue to treat Mexicans as illegal immigrants, despite policies and regulation reviews (“US-Mexico Border: Building A Smarter Wall Through Strategic Security” 2020).
Article title: New Immigrant Youth Interpreting in White Public Space
According to the authors, monolinguists’ interpretation of dialogues differs from that of linguists (Reynolds and Orellana 2009). The evidence can be explained using a journal written in English by a young immigrant girl. The English used is not as perfect as a child who only learned English as the first language because it is directly translated. The bilingual difference is also evident in places of work or roles issued to different people. There is a tendency that the positions are given according to the level of understanding. In this case, the bilingual person is given low-level roles as they are viewed as people who don’t understand.
The representation of immigrants in the white space shows high levels of racism, stereotyping and inferiority complex presented that people of color face in day-to-day operations. The differences are evident even in the way children are treated according to their racial differences, even in school systems (Reynolds and Orellana 2009). The empowering of the white races makes other races seem inferior hence encouraging racial profiling. In my opinion, the efforts to eradicate racial disparities should be initiated at young aged children to grow up as adults that can overcome and rise above the racial lines.
Article: The managed violence of the borderlands: Treacherous geographies, police ability, and race politics.
This article discusses how border and migration governance changes fueled the politics of race and violence as far as Mexico and the United States are concerned. The author attributes the consequences of migration and border governance to negative political power that led to death, violence, and other injustices to humanity. In the 19th Century, the United States conquered and colonized approximately half of Mexico. They organized war discursively in racial terms. Mexicans had intermarried with indigenous people and were strongly associated with the enslaved black population (Rosas 2006).
When a shift in migration and border governance occurred in U.S. and Mexico in the 1990s, it brought about changes such as the deployment of intense policing on the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The author of this article describes political power as a tool capable of quickly fueling racism by influencing an environment in which certain races thrive and others die. Such political power operates within as well as outside the domains of the state. The main control elements of such political power in fueling racism include healthcare, education, sexuality, welfare, and employment. “Letting a race die” implies denying the inadequate provision of these needs that are indispensable (Rosas 2006).
In his article, the author has clearly illustrated the adverse effects of political power in fueling racism and oppressing the less powerful race. Mexicans were colonized by the Americans, who viewed them as less superior due to their intermarriages and intimacy with the black population.
Article: Queer Narratives of Migration and Sobrevivencia in the “Ordinariness” of State Violence.
This article documents the difficulties of a family trying to survive in the United States in a racist regime. The family encountered violence based on race, gender, and sexuality. Living in the United States was such a hard time for them because of the radicalization of societies. Such radicalization proved to bear adverse health effects on racial groups. These groups received inadequate supply and, at times, completely no access to government medical supplies from a government determined to kill them slowly (Bhagat 2018).
Article: Queering the Borderlands
In this article, The author exhibits frustrations with historical archives and texts of racial practices and injustices to humanity. He is not directly about colonialism but the use of power to deploy policing over land and eventually claiming it. For example, Native Americans became as much the Spanish property through colonization (Perez 2004).
The consequence was that Americans developed a colonial mindset instilled in them by the Spanish. After they were liberated, Americans adopted the colonial-mindset that believed in race, language, gender, culture, and sexuality. Historians have explored race, class, gender, nation, region, and sexuality in the United States to study the influence of the colonial mindset. In this article, the author presents that historians who dealt with sexuality published detailed information that examined women and men’s lives in cities of New York, Buffalo, London, San Francisco, and South. Victorian England made a space in which the deviant sexualities were repressed and could increase on the other hand. The mixed scheme of morality spread through the borders between Mexico and the United States. After the war between Mexico in 1846-1848, the white Anglo-Saxon Protestants introduced an ideology of heteronormality. Since then, sexuality became a basis of discrimination (Perez 2004).
Generally, this article describes how historical practices date to the racism that started with discrimination based on sexuality. This article has in common the theme of radicalization because of adverse political power. It is familiar to the theme of critical race theory, which dates to colonization and political differences.
Conclusion
The key finding is that political power had a more considerable influence on racism and racial discrimination. There is a direct relationship between negative political dominance and racial discrimination. With political power, laws and regulations could be quickly enacted to apply more weight to racial discrimination matters. Sexual-based discrimination is not prevalent as the racial one, which had far-reaching and dire consequences on racial groups. This was the first cause of suffering for immigrants. Mexicans’ cultural practices dating to intermarriages with indigenous groups is a notable instance that aggravated racial discrimination from Americans. What is missing is the question of lawmakers’ credibility and humanity who pass laws that defend racial injustices rather than fostering equality and human rights. Researchers can explore this gap.
Bibliography
Bhagat, Ali H. 2018. “Queer Necro politics Of Forced Migration: Cyclical Violence in The African Context.” Sexualities 23 (3): 361-375. doi:10.1177/1363460718797258.
Peno, Michał. 2017. “Critical Race Theory (CRT) And the American Criticism of The Philosophy of The Law.” Acta Iuris Stetinensis 17: 59-76. doi:10.18276/ais.2017.17-06.
Perez, Emma. 2004. “Queering the Borderlands: The Challenges of Excavating the Invisible and Unheard.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 24 (2): 122-131. doi:10.1353/fro.2004.0021.
Perales, Monica. 2013. “On Borderlands/La Frontera: Gloria Anzaldúa And Twenty-Five Years of Research on Gender in The Borderlands.” Journal of Women’s History 25 (4): 163-173. doi:10.1353/jowh.2013.0047.
Reynolds, Jennifer F., and Marjorie Faulstich Orellana. 2009. “New Immigrant Youth Interpreting in White Public Space.” American Anthropologist 111 (2): 211-223. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01114. x.
Rosas, Gilberto. 2006. “The Managed Violence’s of The Borderlands: Treacherous Geographies, Police ability, And the Politics of Race.” Latino Studies 4 (4): 401-418. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.lst.8600221.
“US-Mexico Border: Building A Smarter Wall Through Strategic Security.” 2020. Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability 15 (1). doi:10.33423/jsis. v15i1.2735.