How Can Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality Promote Critical Thinking and Empathy?
Panel | Friday, May 19, 2023 | 1:15pm – 2:15pm
View the panel recording HERE
Critical Race Theory as Unearthing History with Wonda Powell
CRT reveals how casual indiscriminate use of historical materials can lead librarians, teachers, Librarian and Information Studies programs, and teaching institutions to an incomplete understanding of historical truth. For patrons and students to apply critical thinking, they must learn and be able to study in depth analyses by CRT scholars, of legal systems and institutions to expose injustice and systemic racism. CRT does not introduce racism into society. Rather, by unearthing history and confronting the distortion of historical facts, it opens paths to justice and accountability. I will examine Kendall Thomas’s rereading of the constitutional history of the Angelo Herndon case, in his article “Rouge Et Noir Reread,” as an example of using the methodology of Critical Race Theory.
How Librarians Can Clarify Key Concepts in CRT with Dr. Lisbeth Gant-Britton
While Ethnic Studies is a broad array of information about the diverse populations that make up the U.S., Critical Race Theory is a more narrowly focused critique of how racism is used in systemic ways in U.S. institutions. Librarians are in a prime position to discuss these complexities by introducing patrons to books, films and other media. Talk includes a toolkit to help do this.
How Can Audre Lorde’s Philosophic Articulation of Intersectionality Help Librarians in Teaching CRT with Frieda Afary
This paper will take up some of the ideas of poet/writer and librarian, Audre Lorde, on identity, difference, critical thinking and empathy. I argue that, before Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality as an expansion of Critical Race Theory, Lorde developed a philosophical articulation of the concept of intersectionality. Lorde pointed out the intersection of class, racial and gender oppression and called for overcoming internalized relations of domination within the struggle for liberation itself. She offered a dialectical concept of the relationship of identity to difference that went beyond the limits of pluralism and instead articulated a radical humanism. I will end my talk with ideas for librarians to explore the contributions of Audre Lorde to humanism and Critical Race Theory. I will also compare and contrast her work to other humanist philosophers such as Frantz Fanon and G.W.F. Hegel.
View Frieda Afary’s slides / Workbook for Socialist Feminism: : A New Approach
[This panel will be recorded live.]
Presenters: Wonda Powell, Dr. Lisbeth Gant-Britton, and Frieda Afary
Wonda Powell is an African American Griot and Professor Emerita of History from Los Angeles Southwest College. She is an alumnae of the University of Michigan and UCLA (Masters in Ethnic ‘studies). She has worked in the Los Angeles Academic Community for decades to build an understanding of historical knowledge that serves the public in their everyday lives, which led to service in several library outreach programs. She is a poet and author of Girl, Find Me a Safety Pin.
Dr. Lisbeth Gant-Britton is the author of African American History (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (digitized 2018). She is an adjunct professor of African American Studies in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) and California State University Northridge (CSUN), and former Student Affairs Officer and adjunct faculty member in the African American Studies Department at UCLA.
Frieda Afary, Philosophy M.A., M.L.I.S., is an Iranian American public librarian, translator, writer, activist, and author of Socialist Feminism: A New Approach (Pluto Press, 2022). She is also the 2023-2024 co-chair of PEN America’s Translation Committee