What is MusCrit?
Critical Race Theory has enabled a discourse in education that allows for conversation centered around acknowledgment of oppression and systemic injustice. It allows for crafting unique theoretical spaces that honor and validate the lived experiences of marginalized populations. MusCrit offers us a micro-framing that boldly acknowledges that the Muslim American experience is distinct and therefore requires its own niche (Ali, 2022)." Counter-narratives of Muslim American Women Creating Space for MusCrit |
MusCrit posits that due to a racialization of religion and an assigned "groupness", the Muslim American experience is often seen as monolithic. This population continues to experience oppressive inequities ranging from microaggressions to outright actions of violence, bigotry, and discrimination.
MusCrit is centered around six tenets that include:
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The Muslim American experience when explored through a CRT framework can provide keen insight into the unique realities of this demographic. Within scholarship it is critical that we extend beyond Shield’s (2004) call of confronting avoidance and silence, and instead craft a new discussion in CRT, that is not only academically theoretical, but one that pivots and engages in an accurate production of counter-narratives of the very people it seeks to study (Ali, 2022)." |
Counter-narratives hold profound significance for a sharing of the Muslim experience. Stories about Muslims are susceptible to getting sabotaged and hijacked by a white telling. In many cases stories about the Muslim experience are untold by Muslims themselves, and in others, voiced over by a white perspective. This leads to an unauthentic and underrepresented rendering of narrative. A white telling of the Muslim narrative portrays them as either oppressed or oppressive. We also notice that literature by (and of) Muslims that gets popularized in the white world is often one that conforms to a white telling (Ali, 2022)."
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