Marxism and Education Series Editor Anthony Green Institute of Education University of London London, United Kingdom
This series assumes the ongoing relevance of Marx s contributions to critical social analysis and aims to encourage continuation of the development of the legacy of Marxist traditions in and for education. The remit for the substantive focus of scholarship and analysis appearing in the series extends from the global to the local in relation to dynamics of capitalism and encompasses historical and contemporary developments in political economy of education as well as forms of critique and resistances to capitalist social relations. The series announces a new beginning and proceeds in a spirit of openness and dialogue within and between Marxism and education, and between Marxism and its various critics. The essential feature of the work of the series is that Marxism and Marxist frameworks are to be taken seriously, not as formulaic knowledge and unassailable methodology but critically as inspirational resources for renewal of research and understanding, and as support for action in and upon structures and processes of education and their relations to society. The series is dedicated to the realization of positive human potentialities as education and thus, with Marx, to our education as educators. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14811
Mike Cole New Developments in Critical Race Theory and Education Revisiting Racialized Capitalism and Socialism in Austerity
Mike Cole University of East London London, United Kingdom Marxism and Education ISBN 978-1-137-53539-9 ISBN 978-1-137-53540-5 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-53540-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016958123 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: jvphoto / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
Series Editor Foreword It is a pleasure to welcome Mike Cole s latest contribution to the Marxism and Education Series. Mike has been the most prolific of any of our Series authors so far. His work is testimony to both his own continuing critical energy and his expertise in depth and breadth, as well as to the relevance and impact of the broad approach of open, dialogical Marxism that the Series represents. With respect to impact, doubly significant is that this book comes hot on the heels of the second edition of his influential Critical Race Theory and Education: A Marxist Response, first published in 2009. The new book is devoted to updating with further developments on the earlier work in the fast-moving and contentious arena of debate and struggle. It reflects and articulates with shifting alignments of political action and critique around race and racialization in relation to and between Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Marxism. As bodies of ideas in action, CRT and Marxism are not simply alternatives to one another as Mike clearly indicates. Thus, despite differences and tendencies, Mike makes positive links with CRT and his observations and elaboration, along with impassioned comradely engagement to demonstrate these. He does so along with arguing for the continued indispensability of the Marxist case and its contribution to realigning political awareness in these emergently interesting times. As Series Editor, on that note, I have observed, for instance, on either side of the Atlantic, that the Obama presidency, despite all its many disappointments for social and political progressives, and the Corbyn and Sanders phenomena, no matter what their immediate political outcomes, can be read as constituting encouraging signs as new younger generations embark on the struggles v
vi Series Editor Foreword across many fronts and as older activists re-engage with renewed vigour in the face of half a century of ever-deepening neo-liberal inequities and the ever-more evident failures of its currently dominating political economy. Concurrently, there are numerous emergent popular forms of critical educative engagement with both capitalism and neo-liberalism across a variety of media, not least cinema, theatre, TV and no end of social media and the emergent renewal of organized labour. And, of course the academic research and debates are as intense as ever. Concurrently, too, the disenchantment with the dominant political, economic and cultural elites competence and capacity to deliver security and all manner of aspirational respect finds other modes of negativity in ultra-liberal as well as populist authoritarian and/or nationalist movements, and worse. In turn, the flow of the recent Latin American Red Tide as well as South American developments are no longer apparently as strong as they have recently been. These are all, in each case, materials to be addressed within the spirit and practices of ongoing openly dialogical educational dynamics of what Marx referred to in 1845 as educating the educators in his Thesis III on Feuerbach; part of our recognizing ourselves in historically constituted struggle in which the educators, ourselves, require education, in, for and as those struggles. That s to say in recognition that The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-changing can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice. The horizon is ever shifting. Read on, think on, act on, reflect, debate and reformulate on, organize for social movement on and on at each and every level. There are endless emergent individual and collective modes of empowerment for democratic socialism available as renewal of Marxist legacies for building a better future! Then some more! Anthony Green April 2016
Preface This book is a sequel to my 2009 book Critical Race Theory and Education: A Marxist Response, also published by Palgrave Macmillan. Prior to the publication of this book, that book, to my knowledge, was the only booklength Marxist critique and appraisal of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and education. The rationale for this new book is fourfold: first, to assess what has happened theoretically on both sides of the Atlantic in the realm of CRT and Marxism since 2009; second, to evaluate these theoretical developments; third, to relate them to political and economic developments in racialized neo-liberal capitalism and imperialism specifically in the new era of austerity in order to assess to what extent CRT and Marxism can inform such developments; and, fourth, to examine CRT s and Marxism s respective visions of the future. Given the major response and reaction to Critical Race Theory and Education: A Marxist Response, a second edition of it is being published simultaneously with this volume. Mike Cole April 2016 vii
Acknowledgements I would like to thank Noel Ignatiev for his generous support and help in the writing of chapter 3 of this volume and for his permission to reproduce his published response to Garvey, J. (2015) No More Missouri Compromises Insurgent Notes 11 (Ignatiev, 2015); Dave Hill for his comments on chapter 4; and Alpesh Maisuria for his comments on chapter 5. Special thanks to Charlotte Chadderton, Richard Delgado and John Preston for their quick responses to my queries about Critical Race Theory and to Tony (Anthony) Green for his detailed comments on the penultimate draft of the book, which considerably sharpened up the arguments. ix
Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Critical Race Theory and Education: A Marxist Response Summary, Critique and Retrospective 11 3 Critical Race Theory, Race Traitor and Marxism 41 4 Transatlantic Theoretical Developments: The Case of BritCrit 71 5 Transatlantic Theoretical Developments: CRT in the USA 97 6 Racialized Neoliberal Capitalism and Imperialism in the Era of Austerity and Immiseration 137 7 CRT and Marxist Visions of the Future 153 8 Conclusion 179 References 183 Index 201 xi