critical race theory Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...

, the black–white binary is a

paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. Etymology ''Paradigm'' comes f ...

through which racial history is presented as a linear story between White and Black Americans. This binary has largely defined how civil rights legislation is approached in the United States, as

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

led most of the major racial justice movements that informed civil rights era reformation. The paradigm conceptualizes Black and White people as the two predominant racial groups, viewing all racism accordant to anti-blackness, and the Black–White relation as central to racial analysis. According to critical race scholars, the binary acts to govern racial classifications and describe how race is understood and approached politically and socially throughout American history. While the black–white binary defines how racism has been widely approached in the United States, many scholars of color have scrutinized the concept for contributing to the marginalization of non-Black people of color, and omitting them from American

civil rights history Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

Richard Delgado Richard Delgado (born October 6, 1939) is an American legal scholar considered to be one the founders of critical race theory, along with Derrick Bell. Delgado is currently a Distinguished Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law ...

and Jean Stefancic propose a criticism of the black–white binary in an introductory book on critical race theory, arguing that because

anti-discrimination law Anti-discrimination law or non-discrimination law refers to legislation designed to prevent discrimination against particular groups of people; these groups are often referred to as protected groups or protected classes. Anti-discrimination laws ...

is designed with African American civil rights in mind, it fails to address the forms of discrimination that non-Black people of color experience. This legal blind spot, they argued, leaves non-Black racial minorities less protected by civil rights laws. Non-Black and non-White racial groups, such as

Asian Americans Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

and Native Americans, are understood as being positioned in relation to blackness and whiteness. The measurement of non-Black, non-White racial groups through this binary led to the concept of white adjacency, which refers to racial groups considered adjacent to whiteness. The application of white adjacency to Asian Americans through the

model minority myth A model minority is a minority demographic (whether based on ethnicity, race or religion) whose members are perceived as achieving a higher degree of socioeconomic success than the population average, thus serving as a reference group to outgr ...

further marginalizes Asian Americans under the black–white binary, measuring them by their perceived proximity to whiteness, and their subsequent positional opposition to blackness. To address the issues that stem from the black-white binary, it is important for a "coalition of forces" to work towards racial justice. It is through this multi-dimensional approach that a fuller understanding of racism and other intersectional factors affect people's lives and inform what action is needed to address racism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black-white binary Legal history Critical race theory Postmodernism