Introduction

A problem with grit is that it frames students’ individual efforts as primary in terms of their educational achievement. This chapter critiques dominant foci on individual explanations for inequities in students’ educational attainment outcomes. Layers of structural inequities shape students’ opportunities, and none have to do with a lack of students’ effort and passion. The chapter summarizes contributing authors’ arguments regarding how the use of grit and other merit-based lenses shape and sustain systems and structures of white privilege and white supremacy in the United States.