 In this video, we'll take a look at critical analysis through the lens of ethnic and race studies, specifically through the lens of what's called critical race theory. So let's get into what we're looking at here. Critical race theory examines artifacts using a framework that considers the effects of systemic racism in all modes of expression and how cultural perceptions of race are represented in the various artifacts. So again, we're looking at both the ideas of systemic racism and how that affects the way we express ourselves in various modes of medium and how the cultural perceptions of race are represented in the various forms and various artifacts that we present. So a little bit of history, not a great deal of depth here to go into, but just a little bit of history on critical race theory. It was really developed in the mid-70s by scholars and legal minds and legal scholars who felt the progress was moving too slowly following the civil rights movement in the 1960s. So they felt like the progress that was made in the 60s had really gotten bogged down by the mid-70s and was not progressing very quickly or at all during that time. So they developed critical race theories a way to examine how they could move that forward more effectively. Combines really the elements of critical legal studies, which is a large part of where it came from was looking at how race is reflected in the legal system in the United States. So combines elements of the critical legal studies with feminist theory, because there's a lot of crossover there in how those areas would be viewed and so anyway, the critical lens of critical race theory comes from that combination of critical legal studies and feminist criticism that had been developed previously. Major premises of critical race theory, there are five what's called the basic tenets of critical race theory that were presented by, you know, really effectively by Sol Arzano and Yasuo in their work in 2000. So they became what became to be known as the five basic tenets of critical race theory. The first is the centrality and intersectionality of racism. This basically says that racism exists everywhere in American life. It is pervasive in American life from our internal thoughts and our individual actions to the embedded systemic inclusion in our institutions, our systems and in our culture. So again, this is something that is just ingrained in American culture and has been since really prior to the founding of the United States of America, this really distinct type of racism, which is hard to sometimes recognize or reconcile to see within ourselves, but really is just a pervasive thing in each of our individual thoughts, actions and then all the way up through our institutions of government and in our culture as a whole. Another major premises is the challenge of the dominant ideology. Critical race theory seeks to challenge the dominant ideology, challenges things like in the United States, like the belief that we have the ability to be truly neutral and objective and colorblind. Those things are myths, neutrality and objectivity and colorblindness really are myths. They are impossible given the embedded nature of racism in American culture. The fact that it is not just service level, this is something that is ingrained within us in a sense that makes those things really impossible and part of the first ability for us to overcome these types of things is to recognize that those things are impossible at this point, that they are not realities for us. So critical race theory seeks to challenge that dominant ideology, that those things exist and help us recognize that they don't. Critical race theory also has a commitment to social justice and they recognize in critical race theory, it recognizes that oppression is not just limited to race. So critical race theory then seeks to extend its efforts of social justice beyond just race. So it includes social injustice toward the different genders, toward people of different nationalities and ethnicities and just any group of people that would be oppressed, critical race theory seeks to kind of end the injustice there and they have a commitment to social justice for all people. Critical race theory also underscores the importance of experiential knowledge. They underscore the importance of expressing lived experiences in understanding the realities of racism and other forms of oppression. That these are things that need to be expressed both for the health of the people who experienced them and their ability to kind of speak their truth, so to speak, as to what happened to them and the experiences that they've had and for others to recognize those experiences and see them as real, see them as things that do happen here in our culture and our country and so they underscore the importance of that experiential knowledge and expressing that and sharing that with the public at large. In critical race theory, the fifth tenant here is the use of an interdisciplinary perspective. So critical race theory recognizes that the path to eliminating oppression will require knowledge and action from multiple disciplines, multiple areas of influences, so the framework pulls from many diverse and different fields. So it pulls from the legal field, it pulls from feminism, it pulls from philosophy, it pulls from religion, it pulls from governmental affairs, it pulls from all these areas and it also pulls from different areas of life, not only the individual experiences but government agencies, government experiences, institutional experiences like education and things like that are drawn in here. So the recognition is there that this is not just a single perspective that's going to draw from one area, it's going to require work and information and innovation from all of these different areas coming together in order to provide the kind of social justice that critical race theory seeks. So some common questions that come up just in general as we explore critical race theory. What is the significance of race in contemporary American society? So what significance does that play in our society in general? Where and what ways and to what ends does race appear in dominant American culture and shape the ways that we interact with one another? What types of texts and other cultural artifacts reflect dominant cultures' perceptions of race? How can scholars convey that racism is a concern that affects all members of society and not just those groups that are feeling oppression but all members of society? How does racism continue to function as a persistent force in American society? How can we combat racism to ensure that all members of American society experience equal representation and access to fundamental rights? And how can we accurately reflect the experiences of victims of racism? So again, acknowledging the importance of expressing that lived experience, how can we accurately reflect these experiences of the people who've experienced that? Now again, these are more broad questions that come from critical race theory and that we should seek to ask ourselves now. As we're looking at ethnics and race studies as a critical lens, there are some more application-oriented questions that we can consider as we seek to apply these concepts to specific artifact or artifacts. There are some critical application questions that we can ask that are a little more practical, a little less broad for just societal considerations and a little more specific application to artifacts here as we would look in critical aspects. So first, what are the power relationships between the people of different races or ethnicities? How is that power relationship expressed in the artifact or whatever it is that we're examining here? Is there a power relationship between people of different races or ethnicities? And if so, what is that? How are the racial and ethnic rules defined? So is there some stereotyping going on? Is there some cultural stereotypes about races and ethnicities happening in this artifact? Or is everything being whitewashed in a sense to make it seem like race and ethnicity is not at all a consideration or a factor because really the truth is the middle ground there. They're somewhere in the middle. So how are these racial and ethnic rules being defined in this artifact? How do characters embody these traits? How are the different racial and people of racial and ethnic backgrounds portrayed? How are they embodied in this work, in this artifact, and how are they represented? Do characters take on traits from people of other races or ethnicities? How so and how does this change the other's reactions to them? In other words, are people of color given attributes and characteristics that would be more common to white people and or vice versa? And are they taking on traits of other people? And if so, how and then how does that affect the way that they interact with the others? How do you think that affects the relationships that exist within that artifact? What does the work reveal about the operations, either economically, politically, socially or psychologically of systemic racism? So what does this tell us? You know, how does this fit into our knowledge of systemic racism? Does it recognize that? Does it does it try and cover over that? Does it try and minimize the the thoughts or impact of systemic racism? Does it does it really play into these things? And just thinking about all of those things, how does this? What does this reveal about systemic racism in our society? So again, these are things we need to think through. We need to process as we're viewing different artifacts. If we take on this lens, we need to have these questions in mind and be able to see from different perspective how this artifact might be interpreted, how it might have been created for such a purpose, how it might be interpreted by others and what it might do to either halt or expand the acknowledgement of racism in our society and the significant attributes and differences between people of different ethnicities and races in our society. So these are things we need to think about and process as we view these things and then come to conclusions, be able to express and share these conclusions. If you have any questions about critical race theory or any other sort of critical framework that we've examined in this in this video series, please don't hesitate to email me. I'd love to chat with you via email. In the meantime, go out there and again, use this as one more tool in your toolbox to examine different artifacts and and really have those different perspectives, use those different lenses to give you more and broader perspective of the way that the way that different aspects and attributes of the world are represented in the media that we view.