Black Psychology’s Relationship With Critical Race Theory

Recently I was asked by USA Today to write an op-ed defending critical race theory (CRT). The op-ed was part of a series of articles providing contrasting views on critical race theory and was juxtaposed with an opposing viewpoint by Christopher Rufo, one of the most outspoken critics of critical race theory.

I was flattered by the invitation, although I was a little curious why I was asked. I do not consider myself to be a critical race theory expert. I had written other op-eds for USA Today on hot-button racial issues, including the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS ) movement and the phrase Black Lives Matter. Hence, the editor likely assumed that I would support critical race theory and could write a compelling and persuasive defense of it. She was correct that I support the teaching of CRT, but by my own admission in the op-ed, I indicated that I had never explicitly taught CRT. It was not part of my formal training as a psychologist; however, I did indicate that I teach about how the systemic racism of American society and the perpetuation of anti-Black messages helped create the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi).

How Black Psychology Informed CRT

As a long-time member of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi), my socialization as a Black psychologist, while not explicitly linked to the intellectual idea of CRT, has been very much consistent with the tenets of CRT. In my op-ed, I described CRT as positing that racism is not simply acts of individual bias or prejudice but embedded in institutions, policies, and legal systems.

Derrick Bell, one of the legal scholars credited with creating critical race theory in the 1970s, wrote in his book Faces At The Bottom Of The Well that “racism is an integral, permanent, and indestructible component of this society.” Influenced by Frantz Fanon, Bell evinced a pessimism about the total eradication of racism, yet like Fanon, he urged resistance.

Unknown to many people is Black psychology's role in Derrick Bell’s thinking about critical race theory. In the introduction of his book, Bell referenced and cited the book Understanding an Afrocentric World View: Introduction to an Optimal Psychology, written by the prominent ABPsi Afrocentric psychologist Linda James Myers.

Citing Myers, Bell tells us that we must try to fathom

the mentality of a people that could continue for over 300 years to kidnap an estimated 50 million youth and young adults from Africa, transport them across the Atlantic with about half dying unable to withstand the inhumanity of the passage, and enslave them as animals.

After describing how European Americans almost annihilated Native Americans, forcing the survivors onto reservations after stealing their land and then portraying White people as heroes and Native Americans as savage villains in American history, Bell continues to quote Myers:

What can be understood about the world view of a people who claim to be building a democracy with freedom and justice for all, and at the same time own slaves and deny others basic human rights?

If you are familiar with the history of Black psychology and the Association of Black Psychologists, you should easily see the connection to CRT. The history and raison d’etre of ABPsi is one of resistance against racism and White supremacy. The ethical standards of ABPsi declare the legitimacy of Black psychology as a discipline and define it as “the study and practice of individuals who are fully committed to the liberation of the African mind from the influence of centuries of racial oppression.”

Black Psychology, CRT, and Social Change

As a Black psychologist, my lived experience as a Black man is central to my professional identity as a psychologist. After recently being called an ignorant n-word just for writing the op-ed in support of CRT, and after receiving numerous other racist emails because of my op-eds on issues related to race and racism, how would it be possible to separate my lived experience of being Black from my professional identity as a psychologist? The acknowledgment of the relevance of my lived experience to my scholarship as a Black psychologist is one of the key tenets of CRT. Thus, I cannot separate being a psychologist from being Black.

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Amos Wilson reminds us that Black psychology is openly and consciously political. This means that Black psychologists grounded in Black psychology are expected to seek political and social change actively. This is similar to the origins of CRT, which emerged from Critical Legal Studies, where it was argued that the law was not objective or apolitical.

There is a synergy between Black psychology and CRT. For example, cultural mistrust, which is a prominent construct in Black psychology, is the culmination of experiences of racism not only at the individual level but also at the institutional level. CRT’s key tenet that racism is embedded in institutions aligns with how cultural mistrust is partly a result of systemic racism at the institutional level. Black psychology requires us to analyze the way that institutions and systems operate to perpetuate anti-Black racism that is harmful to the mental health and well-being of Black people.

The criticisms of CRT would likely also be applied to Black psychology (as well as the existence of other racial/ethnic psychologies). It is not a leap in logic to see how criticisms of CRT as “promoting race essentialism” and “assuming racism is present in everything” would also be applied to Black psychology. Critics of CRT have strong negative reactions to any criticism of the United States being a racist country. There is no shortage of criticisms of systemic racism and White supremacy by proponents of Black psychology.

As an ambassador of Black psychology, I support any intellectual efforts that seek to bring attention to and disrupt policies and practices that perpetuate deficit-oriented notions about Black people and anti-Black racism. That has been the legacy of Black psychologists, as exemplified when past ABPsi President Robert Williams created the Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity and used findings to challenge beliefs about Black people’s intelligence and show that test bias plays a role in producing racial gaps in IQ scores.

As stated in the ethical standards of Black psychologists, Black psychology is the study and practice of individuals who are fully committed to the liberation of the African mind from the influence of centuries of racial oppression. Supporting the teaching of CRT that focuses on how racism is embedded within systems and institutions and produces racial inequality is consistent with the beliefs held by proponents of Black psychology. A rejection of CRT is also a rejection of the legitimacy of Black psychology. For this reason, I will continue to support the goals of CRT.