In the Pursuit of Justice: Moving Past Color-Evasive Efforts

In this issue, titled “In the Pursuit of Justice: Moving Past Color-Evasive Efforts” we focus on educational efforts that were conceived of to improve and expand equity in U.S. public schools, but rather than interrupting injustice, they have often resulted in harm. Our orientation to this tension is grounded in Critical Race Theory, and its central tenet of racial realism (Bell, 1992), meaning the awareness that race and racism are omnipresent even when unnamed. Our work with educators in various spaces and roles has deepened our awareness that educators are, writ large, deeply committed to their students’ well-being. However, the impact of their commitments is variable and vulnerable to the sway of racist systems––especially when educators do not attend to the role of race and racism; or, even worse, when they deliberately obscure or evade the constructs of race and racism.