ABSTRACT
Critical stances require that scholars and educators wrestle with the thorny issue of race. Race scholars caution against color-blind ideologies that can lead to what King calls dysconscious racism, “an uncritical habit of mind that justifies inequity and exploration by accepting the existing order of things as a given”. Despite the preponderance of evidence debunking the biological basis for the conception of distinct human races, race wields monumental power. Many scholars, spanning the fields of genetics, law, social sciences, and humanities wrestle with the complex and often contested meanings of race. Progressive analysis of race formations and relations allows scholars and educators to explain that the concept of race is traceable to the beginning of European colonization and capitalist expansion. Schools are excellent sites for exploring how racism and prejudice impact school experiences for students, particularly given that when it comes to immigration, race, color, and linguistic, practices indeed matter.
