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Can anyone give me the name of the best book on critical race theory (CRT)? I have watched two videos on CRT. Now I would like to read at least one book on CRT.
Celerity
(43,408 posts)The foundational work on Critical Race Theorynow under fire from the Trump administration
As of the publication of Critical Race Theory it will be unwise, if not impossible, to do any serious work on race without referencing this splendid collection. Toni Morrison
Why did the president of the United States, in the midst of a pandemic and an economic crisis, take it upon himself to attack Critical Race Theory? Perhaps Donald Trump appreciated the power of this groundbreaking intellectual movement to change the world.
In recent years, Critical Race Theory has vaulted out of the academy and into courtrooms, newsrooms, and onto the streets. And no wonder: as intersectionality theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw recently told Time magazine, Its an approach to grappling with a history of white supremacy that rejects the belief that whats in the past is in the past, and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it. The panicked denunciations from the right notwithstanding, CRT has changed the way millions of people interpret our troubled world.
Edited by its principal founders and leading theoreticians, Critical Race Theory was the first book to gather the movements most important essays. This groundbreaking book includes contributions from scholars including Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Patricia Williams, Dorothy Roberts, Lani Guinier, Duncan Kennedy, and many others. It is essential reading in an age of acute racial injustice.
Nittersing
(6,362 posts)There was a pretty long Twitter thread with a bunch of suggestions, so I thought I would pass this along.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1397620035653455874.html (copy/paste below)
Imani Perry
Ok, here's some of the CRT books that I've taught and read over the years:
Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Shaped the Movement (1995)
Critical Race Theory
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Critical_Race_Theory/lLXTyrlM59MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (1995)
Critical Race Theory
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Critical_Race_Theory/p-DInbMLvhgC?hl=en
Critical Race Feminism: A Reader (1997)
Critical Race Feminism
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Critical_Race_Feminism/8wTvQCDPCswC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Global Critical Race Feminism: An International Reader (2000)
Global Critical Race Feminism
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Global_Critical_Race_Feminism/o0ZYRjYyjmQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Derrick Bell's 1992 Faces at the Bottom of the Well
Faces at the Bottom of the Well
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Faces_at_the_Bottom_of_the_Well/3ZxyDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Derrick Bell And We Are Not Saved (1987)
And We Are Not Saved
https://www.google.com/books/edition/And_We_Are_Not_Saved/waf_qWCJjocC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Critical Race Theory The Cutting Edge (1995) amazon.com/Critical-Race-
Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech and The First Amendment (1993) amazon.com/Critical-Race-
The books I'm not naming authors for are edited collections. Also, everything that Derrick Bell wrote should be on this list.
Neil Gotanda's "A Critique of Our Constitution is Colorblind" ( think 1991, out of print)
When I was a legal academic I participated often in "LatCrit" which was a Latino Critical Race Theory community. There's important publications on their website: latcrit.org/about-latcrit/
Charles Lawrence's foundational 1987 article "The Id, The Ego and Equal Protection" scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/1012
"Crossroads Directions and a New Critical Race Theory" (2002) amazon.com/Crossroads-Dir
Patricia J. Williams The Alchemy of Race and Rights (1991)
The Alchemy of Race and Rights Patricia J. Williams
Patricia Williams is a lawyer and a professor of commercial law, the great-great-granddaughter of a slave and a white southern lawyer. The Alchemy of Race and Rights is an eloquent autobiographical es
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674014718
(also, sorry this is all out of order, my CRT books are at work where I haven't been in what seems like forever)
Patricia J. Willams The Roosters Egg: On the Persistence of Prejudice
The Roosters Egg Patricia J. Williams
To a culture speaking with barely masked hysteria, this book brings a voice of reason and a reminder of the decency that is missing from so much of our public debate. Patricia J. Williams addresses th
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674779433
Ian Haney Lopez White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race (1996) amazon.com/White-Law-Cons
Richard Delgado's The Rodrigo Chronicles which was an engagement with Derrick Bell's critical fictional character Geneva Crenshaw (based on Kim Crenshaw)
The Rodrigo Chronicles
Richard Delgado is one of the most evocative and forceful voices writing on the subject of race and law in America today. The New York Times has described h...
https://nyupress.org/9780814718827/the-rodrigo-chronicles/
Ok, obviously there's a ton more. Other folks hopefully will add. This is just a good share of foundational work. Hopefully useful for those thinking about CRT
And here is the original Tweet:
Link to tweet