Toward a Critical Race Theorization of Cultural Capital for Black Education Studies Research

Cultural oppression, as one manifestation of antiblackness in U.S. education, continues to impede Black Americans’ attainment of educational success and sociopolitical equality. Although Bourdieu’s cultural capital framework (CCT) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) have frequently been used to examine such oppression in Black education, research which has directly investigated the viability, theoretical validity, and potential utility of merging these two frameworks for educational research is scant. This article presents the results of a content analysis which was used to explore how CRT might restructure CCT to establish a more pertinent theoretical framework from which to examine the Black educational experience. I demonstrate that their merger is possible only if important alterations are made to many of CCT’s fundamental notions, and I offer three propositions that arise from this merger. These propositions begin to redress CCT’s colorblindness, offer a more precise explanation of the form and functioning of cultural oppression-based (educational) inequality as experienced by Black students and their communities, and can be used for future research in the emerging field of Black Education Studies. Also, they support key contentions about antiblackness in U.S. education and in Afropessimist thought. Implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research and practice are offered.