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Critical Race Realism: Intersections of Psychology, Race, and Law. By Gregory S. Parks, Shayne Jones, andW. Jonathan Cardi, eds. New York: The New Press, 2008. Pp. 340. $60.00 cloth.
In 2002, Temple University Press published Crossroads, Directions, and a New Critical Race Theory (Valdes et al. 2002). The book of essays, edited by critical race scholars Francisco Valdes, Jerome McCristal Culp, and Angela Harris, generated a stream of thoughtful commentary about the challenges facing critical race theory. Critical Race Realism: Intersections of Psychology, Race, and Law builds on a theme of this commentary: Critical race theory would benefit from greater attention to other disciplines, particularly sociology and psychology, but also economics and organizational behavior (Carbado & Gulati 2003; Moran 2003).
Like Crossroads, Critical Race Realism is an edited volume. It consists of a foreword by critical race theory pioneer Richard Delgado, a brief introduction, and 19 chapters written by law professors and social scientists (Chapter 1 serves as an extended introduction). Unlike Crossroads, which was meant to evaluate the first 10 years of critical race theory's development, Critical Race Realism aims to inaugurate a movement. The editors introduce critical race realism as a methodology that synthesizes critical race theory, empirical social science, and public policy. This methodology would use social science to "(1) expose racism where it may be found, (2) identify its effects...