ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to borrow William Tate’s notion of “paradigmatic kinship,” reading “invertedly” to discuss the “paradigmatic kinship” between Bellian critical race theory and Afropessimism. It argues that Bellian racial realism and Afropessimism’s social death constructs share an intellectual connection. In William Tate’s review of critical race theory in education he provides a genealogy of critical race theory and its application in the law. Beyond an expression of the historical and theoretical foundations of the theory, Tate explains the law’s connection to education. The perpetual pattern of white violence is what connects the social death concept to a Bellian racial realist perspective. Both racial realism and social death may prove to be difficult theoretical and conceptual positions for scholars to take up. Bellian racial realist contend that “racial equality is, in fact, not a realistic goal”. Racial realism and social death take as a central starting point that racism, as a form of domination, is malleable and never-ending.
