Call for Contributors: Teaching “CRT” in an Age of White Backlash

Anyone paying attention to the protests and death threats at school board meetings over the last year would be forgiven for wondering if they had time-travelled to the segregationist insurgencies in the wake of the 1954 Brown ruling. From language rendering white supremacy as patriotic to conservative paranoia about socialist and communist agitators, many of the ideas voiced by “anti-CRT” protestors draw on the white reactionary movement of the Massive Resistance era. White reactionaries denounce basic information on race and racism in the U.S. as “CRT,” banning it in eight states (and counting) while punishing teachers who dare to engage America’s actual history.

Whether we accept their ridiculous claims about what constitutes “Critical Race Theory” or its goals, Republicans are correct that teaching America’s actual history carries massive implications for present and future generations. It is because they recognize white supremacy as the basis of their power that white conservatives seek to silence those studying and teaching about its impact on our lives. For that reason, we must thwart their efforts and expand public understanding of racist systems and their effects.

For our Winter 2021 issue, The Activist History Review invites essays that consider how we teach “CRT”—the umbrella term white conservatives apply to any teaching critical of white supremacy—amid a white backlash movement that seeks to outlaw our work.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• White misinformation.
• Antiracist pedagogies.
• Teacher pay and equity.
• Racism and school discipline.
• “School choice” and funding. 
• Teaching and civic culture.
• Education, public narrative, and democracy.
• Desegregation efforts.
• The role of HBCUs.
• The relationship between red baiting and race baiting.
• Claims about schools and interracial sex.
• Racist theories of education.

Proposals should be no more than 250 words for articles from 1250-2000 words, and should be emailed to horne.activisthistory@gmail.com by November 22nd at 11:59 PM. Please also include a short bio of no more than 100 words.