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Theory Speaksby Imtiaz Hossain

After twenty years of travelling and inciting disciplines across boundaries, especiallysince arising out of critical legal studies and re-orienting race and gender studies, socialsciences and humanities, Intersectionality once again brought together scholars, activists,academics together to mark its terrain, to work for its future adaptability, functionalityand to interrogate conventional political practices that are at times taken as rule of the day.As the fourth annual Critical Race Studies symposium unfolded at its home in UCLA, anevent that I had been patiently looking forward to for weeks, this robust intellectualexchange at last presented me with compelling ideas and a basket of disparately unitedtheoretical approaches, methodologies, epistemological propositions and praxis for building equity which I couldn’t have envisaged before I stepped into sunny Los Angelesfrom the gloomy early March of New York. Much like the event’s promised intention of challenging theory, reframing politics and transforming movements, an interdisciplinarygathering certain to generate and garnish ideas and actions for a politics of equity, it trulystepped up to map a route for both a theoretical and practical space for conversations andinterventions, the form of dialogue between scholars, activists and the larger world sodirely needed today in face of multiple setbacks in the realm of larger progressive socialtransformations. And it did no less than deliver on its promise of a challenging discourseand creatively engaging in the act of challenging prevalent discourse.Jumping from one plenary to the next in a space of few minutes while browsing my program haplessly through the teasing rich presentations of the concurrent panels placedme in a tight spot. It was as difficult to pick which talk I would be going to next from thefirst day to the last as much it was to leave the discussions that ensued after concluding presentations. Although I secretly wished to abstain from choosing which panels to attendto, at the end of the day I remained unduly satisfied with my respective choice of attendance. Stepping into the middle of the first presentation by Andrea Smith andhearing her talk about the growth of Prison Industrial complex alongside explaining theinterconnectedness of state apparatuses that influence violence and co-opt regulatorymechanisms; I definitely knew I was at the right place. Even though I had never attendedsuch a large scale academic conference before with a crowd of scintillating heavyweightssome of whose works I had only read before, and especially an event celebrating adventof a major theoretical forte like Professor Kimberle Crenshaw’s Intersectionality, I hadfelt somewhat appehensive at first as to how things would unfold. But as each presentation moved on, the various possibilities of research, social and political praxisonly opened up more and alongside my reading list saw addition of more interestingnames and themes. Noticing others take the conversations outside in the hallways with the aid of coffee andsnacks I knew I was part of the bigger group dynamics. One of the first things I noticedas I started looking around the lecture hall scanning heads was the vibrant diversity of thegroup. The black and white talk of the media surreptitiously slipped behind the walls. Theamalgamation of critical minds from different walks of life in The US and all over theworld brought notion of diversity to its full light in contrast to how we take the concept

for granted at times. The situation contrasted in my mind to living in New York Citywhere different creeds and identities are almost a given but where walking alongneighborhoods, one can clearly see the separate ethnic and class lines of the city muchlike the rest of the country. Mari Matsuda in her opening remarks agreed as many other panelists did about the crisscrossing hues of colors viewed from the panelist seat as wellas noting a sense of empowerment and solidarity such physical spaces bring for peopleworking to achieve social equity. I was certainly grateful to the symposium for creatingthat pleasant yet tense space. This was also the first time in terms of academic conferenceorganization I had seen where women occupied a center stage in directing and guidingthe majority of the panels, plenary and discussions. To wrap it all up, the solidarity and ashared vision of the panelists, scholars, activists and participants attending to bring agrounded academic and theoretical understanding to community building and humanrights were essential components of the three delightful days.Articulating, translating and implementing a theoretical apparatus like Intersectionalityand its application in variegated forms is always a tricky business. How to use theories’methodological tools, especially one with multiple frameworks carried byIntersectionality for proper political and social interventions was the main structure for the endless discussions of the conference. As a newborn theory unraveled alonggeographical boundaries and academic disciplines, its continual metamorphosis in other realms of academic activities, disciplines and social activism has become somewhatmuddled; sometimes unintentionally and other times by willful ignorance. Luckily the progenitors of Critical Race Movement themselves were at hand to describe thegenealogy of their work and map the context of their conceptual inception and futureadaptabilities.Critical Race Theory came alive and brought home to me forcefully the notion of praxiswhen Mari Matsuda decried theory for theory’s sake and instead asked us to consider the political genealogy that were born out of struggles for racial, gender and social equality.The collective force that destabilized power and domination of the state since the adventof civil rights movement and the subsequent academic and activist works whichcombated political exigencies were brought to floor again as she asked attendees to maketheory speak and build new social movements. Only by moving to position theory in theservice of movement building does it come alive and make lasting social impact. That ishow at the end of a long road of struggles and bringing to the center the voices of thedispossessed, we address power to listen to the marginalized. The exchange betweenProfessor Crenshaw, Cheryl Harris, Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Patricia Williams in a panel with the task of Advancing Critical Theory illuminated the major contentionsregarding their respective theoretical works and how often they are misappropriated toconsole a particular lens of thinking. What resulted in their dialogues were how othersuse particular theory, like Intersectionality or a historical moment or movement, and peelthem off of its original skin suited to the users’ respective momentary needs; ultimatelyresulting in the lack of the “critical” in critical thinking.Professor Harris for example brought up the issue of how her article Whiteness asProperty was basically misapprehended to represent an anti-essentialist critique of race

and failed to consider her Black grandmother’s plight and flight from degrading racisminscribed in the very spirit of American law and its valorization of property. Professor Crenshaw likewise mapped her genealogy of thinking, writing and theoretical oeuvrewith a medley of her personal upbringing, radical teachings, history and highlighted thelegal context in which her examinations of social justice theory came along. Talkingabout her intellectual roots, it became more clear to me how her anti-racism works aretuned by a particular sensibility of a Black feminist outlook and how that particular position of feminism was created by the anti-racist work she has performed within thespace of the American legal regime. Hearing first hand the perspectives of the peopleinvolved at generating certain currents of thought made me realize the actual context andhistory that a birth of an idea carries and repercussions it must meet as it travels down theline. At times it is not enough to read well and carefully through the arguments. Thesymposium provided me with the opportunity to see how the people who set forthmovements nurtured and disseminated their ideas thereby moving a particular position of thinking and nudging the soporific political and social ambivalence we sometimesaccustom ourselves to.The conversations ranging across disciplines of Law, Social Sciences, Public Policy,Sociology, History, and traversing global boundaries moved me to think about thevarious projects and initiatives we take at The African American Policy Forumconcerning Structural Racism, Affirmative Action, Criminal Justice system, Educationalsegregations, Gender, Sex and Transnational disparities, the rising socio-economic gapetc that threaten our vision to build a sustainable society. The interlocking systems andlogics of domination that keeps us complicit in oppressive structures and the reactionaryexpressions of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and the ilk that is perpetuated throughmedia representations and received silently by the ambivalent society are dangeroustrends, that in order to be combated requires a persistent investigation of reality and acareful reading of theory for meaningful transformations. At The African AmericanPolicy Forum we mainly bring the perspectives and creative tenacity of scholars, activists,students and the civil society to stand up to conventional way of thinking and to nudgethe status quo of indifference through building and modifying existing theoretical andactivist tools at our disposal. Sometimes the issues at work are clearly visible andsometimes they are muddled as the institutions esteemed to hold up justice and equalityhide behind a veil of “impartial” impotence, for example, in regards to educationalsegregation, housing discrimination, hiding behind colorblind arguments or strangulatingthe class gaps in face of greater amassing of wealth by the select few. In the institutionalfailures of other domains, mainly in that of the state and its corporate priorities, I see mywork as part of the Forum’s larger vision to bridge the intellectual gap to foster meaningful public discourse and bring in vision of structural equity. In the veryconditions when meaningful public discourse is lacking in the media, news outlets— Critical Race Studies Symposium brought me the tools and ranges of perspectives toinvestigate my own visions and limitations further. One precise learning moment at theconference stands out as to how we can carry the vision of theory and praxis further, howwe can bridge the activism-academia gap.