‘COUNTING BLACK AND WHITE BEANS’: WHY WE NEED A CRITICAL RACE THEORY OF ACCOUNTING

Abstract

This article calls for accountancy in academia and industry to examine the role of racialized processes in the field using the perspective of Critical Race Theory (CRT). In the United States few Black CPAs exist in proportion to their white peers and only a handful ever reach the level of partner in large accounting firms. A problem that has been left largely unproblematized. Instead assumptions of racial neutrality and an unshakable faith in accountancy as a value free technocracy, untouched by social reality abound. A core belief in accountants exists that sees issues of equality as the work of human resource professionals and sociologists rather than addressing it as a central structural force in the field. This leaves the area of race in accountancy under-theorized and under-researched. A CRT critical framework (re) problematizes poor Black entry and progression, seeking the formation of new strategies to challenge the stratified reality of a gendered and raced profession.