Cheryl A. Canino
Students should be treated equitably. However, structural and experiential inequities can create racial injustice. Racism and its intersections with gender, class, language, and immigration status may hinder educational experiences. Stereotypes and assumptions may lead to marginalizing policies limiting exposure to advanced curriculum causing Latinx students to be disproportionately represented in low level academic tracks.
LatCrit enhances Critical Race Theory’s focus on inequality due to race, class, gender, and sexuality by integrating additional lenses such as oppression stemming from immigration status, language, ethnicity, and culture. LatCrit builds on and specifically addresses situations in which Latinx find themselves. Both CRT and LatCrit frameworks share several core tenets: a) permanence of racism, b) interest convergence, c) color blindness, and d) counter storytelling14. However, the tenet of permanence of racism sometimes applies differently to Latinx in that the federal court have ruled that in some instances Latinx should be considered white. However, language and racial linguistic ideologies continue to subordinate Latinx. Both CRT and LatCrit challenge the objectivity, meritocracy, racial equality and color blindness of the dominant ideology and its educational discourses.15
The telling of counter narratives serves to demonstrate the role of voice. Teachers assist students by providing a space for students to name their own reality and provide an outlet to create unique experiences. In this manner, teachers assist students to discover that concepts like race are socially constructed. Educators can assist students to discover ways to circumvent barriers associated with underrepresentation.16