critical race theory 3rd edition Richard Delgado

Section 1 and 2: Purpose of the critical book review midterm assignment

Section 1: Purpose of the book

Summarize the aim or purpose of the book. Ask yourself why the book was written and who are expected to be its intended readers.

The purpose of the book is to outline and identify the reasons for our country to be divided. In this book the argument unfolds with the injustices that each minority group still faces, which all stems from racism and intersectionality. This book was written for the purpose of revisiting the previous movements to realize the much-needed new theories and strategies to combat racism that is still gaining ground. “Critical race theory scholars share that the country, more or less simultaneously, that the heady advances of the civil rights era of the 1960s had stalled and, in many respects, were being rolled back” (22). This book’s intended audience are students, teachers, politicians, lawyers, legal scholars, legislature, judges, and mainly all of our minority groups that may have a future with government or already in government.

Outline the author/s thesis statement

First, Racism, ordinariness, means that racism is difficult to address or cure because it is not acknowledged (25).

Second Color-blind, or “formal,” conceptions of equality, expressed in rules that insist only on treatment that is the same across the board, can thus remedy only the most blatant forms oof discrimination, such as mortgage redlining or an immigration dragnet in a food-processing plant that targets Latino workers or the refusal to hire a black Ph.D. rather than a white college dropout, which stand out and attract our attention (25).

Third, Race is a “social construction” thesis, holds that race and races are products of social thought and relations. “races are categories that society invents, manipulates, or retires when convenient.

Section 2: Summary of contents
1. Discuss the content by providing a concise overview of the author’s main themes.

-First, “A recent United Nations report showed that African Americans In the United States would make up the twenty-seventh-ranked nation in the world on a combined index of social well-being; Latinos would rank thirty-third. Studies using the Implicit Association Test show that a large percentage of American citizens harbor negative attitudes toward members of groups other than their own. Why all this is so and the relationship between racism and economic oppression-between race and class-is what I will discuss.” (28)

-Second, Color blind, “Studies show that and Blacks and Latinos who seek loans, apartments, or jobs are much more apt than similarly qualified whites to suffer rejections, often for vague or spurious reasons. Even highly placed black or Latino Lawyers or executives may attract suspicion while riding a commuter train or upon arriving at their offices earlier than usual.” (28)

-Third, social construction, not objective, inherent, or fixed, they correspond to no biological or genetic reality; rather, races are categories that society invents, manipulates, or retires when convenient.

1. Provide a broad sweep of the issues discussed in the book.
Examples of racism in everyday life? “The prison population is largely black and brown; chief executive officers, senators, surgeons, and university pr9esidents are almost all white. Poverty, however, has a black or brown face: back families command, on average, about one-thirteenth of the assets of their white counterparts.” 28

“The twin themes of intersectionality and ant essentialism. It also considers cultural nationalism and its opposite, the idea that minorities should attempt to assimilate and blend into mainstream society. Do immigrants weaken American solidarity and identity?” (29)

Lastly, “This book touches on issues with hate speech, criminal justice, racial profiling, affirmative action, poverty and immigration.” (29) As well as some predictions on the country’s racial future.

Section 3: Critical Analysis

1. Delgado sheds the light on Racism and how it is our day to day life. Racism is challenging to address because it is not acknowledged. Which points at another one of Delgado’s Tenets, Social construction, which puts people into categories that society invents or takes away when convenient. According to Critical Race Theory (CRT), “race” is a social construction. I.e., race is something that human beings invented. We invented race as a way of dividing up people from different ethnic backgrounds so that we could give special rights and privileges to some and deny them to others. The racial categories we create, moreover, do not correspond to true biological and genetic differences among human cultural populations. They are socially constructed.
2. Delgado’s book is persuasive and informative because they confront the beliefs and practices that enable racism to persist while also challenging them to find freedom from a systematic racism. Delgado argues, illustrates, defends and uses people’s experiences in order to emphasize the importance of examining and attempts to understand the socio-cultural forces that shape how, and we perceive, experience and respond to racism.

3. The discipline of sociology is interested in processes of racial, gender and class exclusion. It awakens at a deeper level the race and ethnicity research that already has been examined by sociologists. There definitely is a groundbreaking study that will open new doors for us in the field because hearing it firsthand through minorities, will give us a drive to better serve our communities.

4. I do agree with Delgado when he says that the children will one day see a deconstructed race, no more poverty and have a part in mainstream life as well as education. This doesn’t seem too far-fetched, since minority seem to be a larger number than whites. Plus, biracial has also increased in the last couple of years and that in itself should begin to shift the world into a direction of acceptance and the world may begin to see the many groups that were once segregated now be the front row to the new diverse American life.

Section 4: Conclusion

1. Give a general opinion of the work.
The movement is created by many activist and scholars that are researching and transforming a stronger bond among racism, power and race. Critical race theory examines race and has a more profound understanding of racism. I believe that Delgado has done a great job collecting data from many scholars and activist that in turn will begin to shape the way many people perceive minorities. Possibly even open the subconscious of those that may fall in the colorblindness and also those that have not yet realized that contributing to the media, movies and what the world sees, or reads is what is keeping many with the misconcepts.
2. Summarize you’re critique with a statement about the work’s import to your understanding of African America Politics. In doing so, please also provide your personal opinions and experiences, if applicable.
By recognizing how race and racism shape our institutions, principals and teachers can find innovative ways to help families, prioritize children, elevate the voices and experiential knowledge, adopt culturally responsive teaching practices and historically accurate U.S. history curriculum, and embrace the traditions of the communities in which they work. Without this framework, principals and teachers may be committed to racial justice but be unable to translate their commitments into action. It all begins at Home they say but I believe it also goes hand in hand with or educators which are the first to socialize with us.