The Effect of Post-Racial Theory on Education

The proliferation of post-racial theory (PRT) in both social and political spheres of dominant American hegemony has illustrated a desire among academic circles to move past race and racial categories in social analysis. However, absent within post-racial rhetoric is critical language on how to abolish racism and racial inequality. (Samad 2009) It is my contention that the application of post-racial theory in social and legislative arenas will fail to eliminate many of the economic or curriculum based inequities within public school education. Furthermore, I contend that the aim of postracial theory to deconstruct race as a tool for social analysis will exacerbate current achievement gaps and guarantee that equity in terms of school funding and quality of non-racist teacher instruction for non-white students may not be achieved or even addressed.