Critical race theory has been the dominant educational theory for understanding how ‘race’ and racism are reproduced and contested in education. However, the tenets of critical race theory were developed to understand and challenge how ‘race’ and racism operate within the context of the United States. And while critical race theory has been translated for educational contexts in other nations, there remains a pressing need to develop a more global orientation to critical race theory. As decolonial scholars have pointed out, ‘race’ and racism are endemic and deeply constitutive of modernity. Taking a global and historical approach, we address the ways in which educational systems throughout the world reproduce-and contest-a global system marked, not only by racial discrimination, segregation, and exclusion, but also by racialised death and elimination.