The following definitions are taken from Racial Equity Tools Glossary
Race - For many people, it comes as a surprise that racial categorization schemes were invented by scientists to support worldviews that viewed some groups of people as superior and some as inferior. There are three important concepts linked to this fact:
Race is a made-up social construct, and not an actual biological fact.
Race designations have changed over time. Some groups that are considered “white” in the United States today were considered “non-white” in previous eras, in U.S. Census data and in mass media and popular culture (for example, Irish, Italian, and Jewish people).
The way in which racial categorizations are enforced (the shape of racism) has also changed over time. For example, the racial designation of Asian American and Pacific Islander changed four times in the 19th century. That is, they were defined at times as white and at other times as not white. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, as designated groups, have been used by whites at different times in history to compete with African American labor.
SOURCE:
1–2. PBS, “Race: The Power of an Illusion” (2018–2019 relaunch of 2003 series).
3. Paul Kivel, Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice (Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers, 2002), page 141.
Ethnicity - A social construct that divides people into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as shared sense of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interests, history, and ancestral geographical base.
Examples of different ethnic groups are: Cape Verdean, Haitian, African American (Black); Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese (Asian); Cherokee, Mohawk, Navaho (Native American); Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican (Latino); Polish, Irish, and Swedish (White).
SOURCE: Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook, edited by Maurianne Adams, Lee Anne Bell, and Pat Griffin, Routledge, 1997.
Culture - A social system of meaning and custom that is developed by a group of people to assure its adaptation and survival. These groups are distinguished by a set of unspoken rules that shape values, beliefs, habits, patterns of thinking, behaviors and styles of communication.
SOURCE: Institute for Democratic Renewal and Project Change Anti-Racism Initiative, A Community Builder's Tool Kit, Appendix I (2000).
Source for Terms: Racial Equity Tools Glossary. (2020). https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary
Constructing Race and Ethnicity in America by
What do we mean in the U.S. today when we use the terms "race" and "ethnicity"? What do we mean, and what do we understand, when we use the five standard race-ethnic categories: White, Black, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic? Most federal and state data collection agencies use these terms without explicit attention, and thereby create categories of American ethnicity for political purposes. Davora Yanow argues that "race" and "ethnicity" are socially constructed concepts, not objective, scientifically-grounded variables, and do not accurately represent the real world. She joins the growing critique of the unreflective use of "race" and "ethnicity" in American policymaking through an exploration of how these terms are used in everyday practices. Her book is filled with current examples and analyses from a wealth of social institutions: health care, education, criminal justice, and government at all levels. The questions she raises for society and public policy are endless. Yanow maintains that these issues must be addressed explicitly, publicly, and nationally if we are to make our policy and administrative institutions operate more effectively.
Narrative, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States by
Narrative, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States, edited by James J. Donahue, Jennifer Ho, and Shaun Morgan, is the first book-length volume of essays devoted to studying the intersection of race/ethnicity and narrative theories. Each chapter offers a sustained engagement with narrative theory and critical race theory as applied to ethnic American literature, exploring the interpretive possibilities of this critical intersection. Taken as a whole, these chapters demonstrate some of the many ways that the formal study of narrative can help us better understand the racial/ethnic tensions of narrative fictions. Similarly, the essays advance the tools of narrative theory by redeploying or redesigning those tools to better account for and articulate the ways that race and ethnicity are formal components of narrative as well as thematic issues. Recognizing that racial/ethnic issues and tensions are often contextualized geographically, this volume focuses on narratives associated with various racial and ethnic communities in the United States. By engaging with new developments in narrative theory and critical race studies, this volume demonstrates the vitality of using the tools of narratology and critical race theory together to understand how race influences narrative and how narratology illuminates a reading of race in ethnic American literature.
Race, Sports, and Education by
Race, Sports, and Education highlights the myriad ways in which organized collegiate sport has both positively contributed to and negatively detracted from the educational experiences of Black male college athletes. Specifically, John N. Singer examines the educational experiences, opportunities, and outcomes of Black males who have played NCAA Division I football and/or basketball at historically White colleges and universities. Singer is intensely aware of the ways in which many Black athletes have been shortchanged by the collegiate sport system. He describes how the colleges and universities have exploited athletes for the institutions' financial gain and deprived them of basic educational opportunities that ought to be enjoyed by all students. At the same time, Singer argues that sports do in fact offer genuine educational opportunities and benefits for many of these athletes. He is acutely attuned to the fact that these athletes love their sports, and that their participation in these sports makes unique educational experiences available to them. As Singer shows, to understand the situation and to chart realistic, fruitful reform measures requires a full appreciation of the complexity-indeed, of the many competing and contradictory elements-that characterizes intercollegiate sport and the experiences of Black athletes at the present time. The book brings to the fore the voices, stories, and perspectives of twelve Black male college athletes via a case study of teammates from a big-time college football program and individual reflective vignettes of athletes across several different college programs. Through his analysis of the system and his attention to student views and experiences, Singer crafts a valuable, nuanced account and points in the direction of reforms that would significantly improve the educational opportunities and experiences of these athletes. At a time when collegiate sports have attained unmistakable institutional value and generated unprecedented financial returns-all while largely failing the educational needs of its athletes-this book offers a clear, detailed vision of the current situation and suggestions for a more equitable way forward.
Race in Mind by
These essays analyze how race affects people's lives and relationships in all settings, from the United States to Great Britain and from Hawaiʻi to Chinese Central Asia. They contemplate the racial positions in various societies of people called Black and people called White, of Asians and Pacific Islanders, and especially of those people whose racial ancestries and identifications are multiple. Here for the first time are Spickard's trenchant analyses of the creation of race in the South Pacific, of DNA testing for racial ancestry, and of the meaning of multiplicity in the age of Barack Obama.
Racism in America by
Racism in America has been the subject of serious scholarship for decades. At Harvard University Press, we've had the honor of publishing some of the most influential books on the subject. The excerpts in this volume--culled from works of history, law, sociology, medicine, economics, critical theory, philosophy, art, and literature--are an invitation to understand anti-Black racism through the eyes of our most incisive commentators.Readers will find such classic selections as Toni Morrison's description of the Africanist presence in the White American literary imagination, Walter Johnson's depiction of the nation's largest slave market, and Stuart Hall's theorization of the relationship between race and nationhood. More recent voices include Khalil Gibran Muhammad on the pernicious myth of Black criminality, Elizabeth Hinton on the link between mass incarceration and 1960s social welfare programs, Anthony Abraham Jack on how elite institutions continue to fail first-generation college students, Mehrsa Baradaran on the racial wealth gap, Nicole Fleetwood on carceral art, and Joshua Bennett on the anti-Black bias implicit in how we talk about animals and the environment.Because the experiences of non-White people are integral to the history of racism and often bound up in the story of Black Americans, we have included writers who focus on the struggles of Native Americans, Latinos, and Asians as well. Racism in America is for all curious readers, teachers, and students who wish to discover for themselves the complex and rewarding intellectual work that has sustained our national conversation on race and will continue to guide us in future years.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by
The #1 New York Times bestseller and a USAToday bestseller! A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism--and antiracism--in America This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race. The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited. Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas--and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives. Download the free educator guide here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Stamped-Educator-Guide.pdf Now available for younger readers: Stamped (for Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You
Theories of Race and Ethnicity by
How have research agendas on race and ethnic relations changed over the past two decades and what new developments have emerged? Theories of Race and Ethnicity provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge collection of theoretically grounded and empirically informed essays. It covers a range of key issues in race and ethnicity studies, such as genetics and race, post-race debates, racial eliminativism and the legacy of Barack Obama, and mixed race identities. The contributions are by leading writers on a range of perspectives employed in studying ethnicity and race, including critical race feminism, critical rationalism, psychoanalysis, performativity, whiteness studies and sexuality. Written in an authoritative yet accessible style, this volume is suitable for researchers and advanced students, offering scholars a survey of the state of the art in the literature, and students an overview of the field.
Two Faces of Exclusion: The Untold History of Anti-Asian Racism in the United States by
From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the Immigration Act of 1924 to Japanese American internment during World War II, the United States has a long history of anti-Asian policies. But Lon Kurashige demonstrates that despite widespread racism, Asian exclusion was not the product of an ongoing national consensus; it was a subject of fierce debate. This book complicates the exclusion story by examining the organized and well-funded opposition to discrimination that involved some of the most powerful public figures in American politics, business, religion, and academia. In recovering this opposition, Kurashige explains the rise and fall of exclusionist policies through an unstable and protracted political rivalry that began in the 1850s with the coming of Asian immigrants, extended to the age of exclusion from the 1880s until the 1960s, and since then has shaped the memory of past discrimination. In this first book-length analysis of both sides of the debate, Kurashige argues that exclusion-era policies were more than just enactments of racism; they were also catalysts for U.S.-Asian cooperation and the basis for the twenty-first century's tightly integrated Pacific world.
What We Now Know about Race and Ethnicity by
Attempts of nineteenth-century writers to establish "race" as a biological concept failed after Charles Darwin opened the door to a new world of knowledge. Yet this word already had a place in the organization of everyday life and in ordinary English language usage. This book explains how the idea of race became so important in the USA, generating conceptual confusion that can now be clarified. Developing an international approach, it reviews references to "race," "racism," and "ethnicity" in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and comparative politics and identifies promising lines of research that may make it possible to supersede misleading notions of race in the social sciences.
Witnessing Whiteness by
In Witnessing Whiteness, Kristopher Norris explores the challenges that lie at the intersection of race, church, and politics in America and argues for a new ethics of responsibility to confront white supremacy. Norris provides in-depth analysisdescriptions of the ways whiteness, as a processof social/identity formation, is fueling racial division within American Christianity and the inadequacy of efforts at racial reconciliation to fully address the challenges posed by white supremacy poses. Seeking deeper theological reasons for racial injustice, he focuses on two of the mostimportant thinkers in American religion of the past half century, Stanley Hauerwas and James Cone. Examining the current manifestations of racism in American churches, exploring the theological roots of white supremacy, and reflecting on the ways whiteness impacts even well-meaning, progressivewhite theologians, this book diagnoses the ways in which all of white theology and white Christian practice are implicated in white supremacy. By identifying the roots of white supremacy within the Christian church's theology and practice, it argues that the white church has a particular, andfundamental, responsibility to address it.Witnessing Whiteness uncovers this responsibility ethic at the convergence of two prominent streams in theological ethics: traditionalist witness theology and black liberationist theology. Employing their shared resources and attending to the criticisms liberation theology directs at traditionalism,it proposes concrete practices to challenge the white church's and white theology's complicity in white supremacy.
Academic encyclopedias and reference sources.
EBSCO’s Collection Development Librarians evaluated high-quality e-books on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Gain access to titles from over 230 publishers, including Choice Outstanding Academic Titles (OAT) and DRM-free selections.
This link opens in a new windowEthnic NewsWatch is available in two resources. Ethnic NewsWatch™ covers 1990 to present and includes newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, including Ethnic NewsWatch: A History™ covers the years 1959-1989.
As the most comprehensive resource available in its field, Humanities Source provides full text—plus abstracts and bibliographic indexing—for the most noted scholarly sources in the humanities.
Academic encyclopedias and reference sources on multicultural, diversity and gender studies.
This resource showcases three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, including speeches, reports, surveys, and analyses by Charles S. Johnson, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.
This unique collection documents American History from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century. It is sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the finest archives available to study American History.
A website focused on Black Freedom, features select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history. Our intention is to support a wide range of students, independent researchers, and anyone interested in learning more about ongoing racial injustice in the U.S. and the fights against it.
The following definitions are taken from the United States Census and they are by no means exhaustive
American Indian or Alaska Native – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
Asian – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Black or African American – A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
White – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
The following definitions are taken from the United States Census and they are by no means exhaustive. The United States Census distinguishes race from ethnicity in that ethnicity differentiates Hispanic/Latinx from non-Hispanic in addition to race.
Hispanic / Latinx - The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires federal agencies to use a minimum of two ethnicities in collecting and reporting data: Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanic or Latino. OMB defines "Hispanic or Latino" as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race
