Yossos Critical Race Analysis

1. Read chapter 1 of Yosso’s Critical Race Counterstories text and respond to it in at least 250 words. Your response should be critical in nature. In other words, rather than summarizing the text or saying how you liked/disliked it, discuss some element of the text and analyze how that element impedes, complements, or otherwise affects your interpretation of the text.

2. Carefully read through the questions below. Select at least 2 questions to answer. Your answers should be thoughtful and comprehensive.

Questions:

1. Thinking back to our individual activity working with the 5 tenets of CRT, examine CRT’s first tenet. Yosso notes that “CRT starts from the premise that race and racism are permanent and endemic in U.S. society.” Does this passage strike you as surprising? Why does Yosso say that racism is “permanent?” If racism is truly permanent, what does this mean for those of us committed to eliminating racism in the United States? Explain.
2. In tenet 4, Yosso explains that CRT scholars “analyz[e] ‘data,’ including oral traditions, corridos, poetry, films, actors, and humor” in order to reveal the experiential knowledge of non-majoritarian groups. Why does the discipline of CRT rely on such non-traditional sources as opposed to traditional scholarly sources? Why do you think Yosso might distrust traditional scholarship to provide the information she needs?
3. In tenet 2, Yosso seems to cast aspersions at the very notion of standardization in education. How can standardized testing, for example, be racist? Explain.