Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Anti-Black Racism as Fluid, Relentless, Individual and Systemic

Abstract

ABSTRACTDerrick Bell's thesis, that racism is a permanent feature of society, is frequently misrepresented by detractors as signaling a view of racism as monolithic—bold, obvious, and unchanging. This paper argues that critical race theory reveals a very different understanding of racism as relentless, yet fluid, and quick to morph depending on current circumstances. In this way, CRT offers a new perspective on the view that the more things change, the more they stay the same, the central theme for this issue of the Peabody Journal of Education. This paper focuses on two key issues where the last quarter century has seen considerable superficial change that appears progressive but masks a deeper reality of continued racial injustice: first, the changing contours of the black/white achievement gap in England, and, second, the continuing fascination on both sides of the Atlantic with notions of genetics and intelligence.