Crossroads and Blind Alleys: A Critical Examination of Recent Writing About Race

32 Pages Posted: 8 Jul 2008

See all articles by Richard Delgado

Richard Delgado

Seattle University School of Law

Date Written: 2003

Abstract

In recent years, idealist approaches and discourse analysis have moved to the fore. Perhaps inspired by Continental philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, and by trends in literary criticism and theory, many contemporary critical race theorists work almost entirely in the realm of discourse. Although the occasional realist work does make an appearance, Critical Race Theory today is almost entirely dominated by the analysis of text, discourse, and mindset. The study of "race" has supplanted the study of race.

A new collection illustrates this shift. Crossroads, Directions, and a New Critical Race Theory, edited by three members of the new generation of critical theorists, brings the ascension of discourse analysis into bold relief. With essays on narrative, voice, the heroic, essentialism, anti-essentialism, and the black/white binary paradigm of race, Crossroads, which grew out of a recent Critical Race Theory conference at Yale Law School, constitutes a major, implicit statement in favor of discourse analysis and against the materialist/realist approaches of the movement's founding figures.

This Essay begins in Part II by outlining the history of Critical Race Theory and showing how a little recognized split between the two types of theories developed. Part III summarizes Crossroads and shows how it falls almost entirely on the side of discourse analysis. Part IV explains the limits of this approach and how it fails to even explain changes in the very racial consciousness it seeks to understand. Part V offers a materialist explanation for the recent turn. Part VI describes a radically different book written recently by Derrick Bell, one of the movement's founding figures; and Part VII concludes by sketching some issues that the next major volume of critical race writing should address.

Keywords: civil rights, human rights, civil liberties, racism, racial discrimination, critical race theory, Derrick Bell, socioeconomic, prejudice

Suggested Citation

Delgado, Richard, Crossroads and Blind Alleys: A Critical Examination of Recent Writing About Race (2003). Texas Law Review, Vol. 82, p. 121, 2003, U. of Pittsburgh Legal Studies Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1154775

Richard Delgado (Contact Author)

Seattle University School of Law ( email )

WA
United States

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