Читать книгу Understanding Racism - Hephzibah Strmic-Pawl - Страница 13

Understanding Racism is divided into five parts that aid in organizing the 13 theories through a shared contribution and/or orientation. Part I is “Foundational Theories,” which consists of prejudice and discrimination, White privilege, and White supremacy. Each of these theories addresses overarching dynamics of racism. They are important theories in and of themselves, while they also provide pivotal concepts that are used in other theories. For example, White privilege is a critical theory that describes how Whites receive the benefits of racism, while the concept of White privilege is also utilized in many other theories of racism. Part II is “Micro-Level Theories,” which covers implicit bias and microaggressions. Both of these theories critically explore how individuals participate in racism, intentionally or not. Part III is “Macro-Level Theories,” which includes racial formation, systemic racism, and critical race theory. These three theories focus on how institutions and the social system created and maintain racism. Part IV, “From ‘Old Racism’ to ‘New Racism,’” consists of laissez-faire racism, structure and culture, and color-blind racism, all of which describe how racism evolved from overt, discriminatory laws and practices to the contemporary era where racism, though still active, can be harder to recognize. Part IV, the last part of the book, is “More Than Race,” where the theories of colorism and intersectionality detail how other factors such as skin tone, class, and gender work with racism in the oppression of people of color. Although this organizational structure of five parts is used, it should be noted that some theories could be organized under more than one of these headings. As previously detailed, each of the theories is represented through work by a key scholar or scholars. Throughout each chapter, a point was made to incorporate multiple quotes and to cite important passages in order to give the reader a sense of the theorist’s voice and language.

Each chapter is organized by the same primary headings: “Why This Theory,” “Description of the Theory,” “How to Challenge Racism,” “By the Numbers,” “Evaluation” (with “Methodological Benefits,” “Methodological Limitations,” “Theoretical Benefits,” and “Theoretical Limitations”), “Conclusion,” “Reflect and Discuss,” “Diagram,” “Key Terms,” “Key People,” and “Works Cited and Further Reading.” “Why This Theory” provides the context for the emergence of the theory and the problem it addresses. “Description of the Theory” details the primary facets and concepts of the theory. “How to Challenge Racism” covers how the theory frames a solution, or at least a challenge, to racism, and this section reflects the goal to connect theory to practice. The “Evaluation” section gives a few key methodological and theoretical benefits and limitations of the theory.

There are six special pedagogical features to help the reader reach a more in-depth understanding of the theory. “By the Numbers” provides contemporary statistics on racial inequality that align with that theory’s perspective. These data help the reader connect theory to observations. “Reflect and Discuss” offers three questions to encourage dialogue and learning retention. For those for whom an illustration assists comprehension, a “Diagram” is included that proposes the basic relationships between the theory’s components. The “Key Terms” section gives the definition of key concepts used in the theory, and, whenever available, the terms are in the form of a quote from the theorist. In many cases, theories share key terms, so it is important to recognize how the definitions of these terms vary across theory. “Key People” is a brief biography of the theorist or theorists and where applicable includes the theorist’s personal website and/or Twitter account. “Works Cited and Further Reading” includes the scholarship cited in the chapter and related sources that can be consulted in further investigation. This systematic organization, which is used in every chapter, will aid the reader in learning how to analyze theory and make it easier to compare and contrast the theories.