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As our nation continues to experience and suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow, it is increasingly important that we look more deeply into what causes the enormous racial disparities that exist in income, wealth, education, housing, employment, health, crime—throughout our society. Understanding and then wielding the concept of structural racism is an essential starting point if we are to succeed in changing those realities, and we are pleased to offer this set of essays by some of its leading theorists and practitioners. We thank Hiram José Irizarry Osorio of the Kirwan Institute for his assistance in assembling and shepherding this forum.
The upcoming Supreme Court hearing on challenges to two local school systems’ attempts to consciously take race into account in order to counter the achievement gap very much relates to this issue, and we are also pleased to print, as a complement to the structural racism forum, excerpts from two of the amicus briefs that have been filed with the Court.
- “Why Structural Racism? Why a Structural Racism Caucus?” by Anne C. Kubisch
- “Toward a Structural Racism Framework” by Andrew Grant-Thomas and John A. Powell
- “Retooling Community-Building for Racial Equality” by Keith Lawrence
- “Youth Organizing Tackles the ‘Racism You Can’t Name'” by Julie Quiroz Martinez
- “Structural Racism and Rebuilding New Orleans” by Maya Wiley
- “Race vis-a-vis Class in the U.S.?” by John A. Powell and Stephen Menendian
Stephen Menendian is Senior Legal Research Associate at The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Ohio State University. steve.menendian@gmail. com
Further Readings
Alesina, Alberto & Edward L. Glaeser (2004). Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (1997). “Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation.” American Sociological Review, Vol. 62, No. 3.
Brookings Institution (2005). New Orleans after the Storm: Lessons from the Past, a Plan for the Future.
Brown, Michael et al. (2003). White-Washing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society. Univ. of California Press.
Cashin, Sheryll (2004). The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream. NY: Public Affairs Press.
Center for Social Inclusion (2006). The Race to Rebuild: The Color of Opportunity and the Future of New Orleans, www.centerforsocialinclusion.org/PDF/racetorebuild.pdf
Conley, Dalton (2001). “The Black-White Wealth Gap.” The Nation, March 29.
Couto, Richard A., with Catherine S. Guthrie (1999). Making Democracy Work Better: Mediating Structures, Social Capital, and the Democratic Prospect. Chapel Hill: Univ. of No. Carolina Press.
Ford, Richard Thompson (1995). “The Boundaries of Race: Political Geography in Legal Analysis.” 107 Harvard Law Review.
Frye, Marilyn (1983). “Oppression,” The Politics of Reality. Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press.
Kerrine, Theodore M. (1980). “Mediating Structures: A Paradigm for Public Policy.” Soundings, 62:3 Winter.
Massey, Douglas & Nancy A. Denton (1993). American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.
Pastor, Jr., Manuel et al. (2000). Regions That Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
Quiroz-Martinez, Julie, Daniel HoSang & Lori Villarosa (2004). Changing the Rules of the Game: Youth Development & Structural Racism. Washington, DC: Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, www.racialequity.org
Rawls, John (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press.
Rusk, David (1999). Inside Game/Outside Game: Winning Strategies for Saving Urban America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Sen, Amartya (1999). Development as Freedom. New York: Anchor Books.
Unger, Roberto Mangabeira (2001). “False Necessity: Anti-Necessitarian Social Theory in the Service of Radical Democracy” from Politics A Work in Constructive Social Theory. London/New York: Verso.
Young, Iris Marion (2001). “Equality of Whom? Social Groups and Judgments of Injustice.” The Journal of Political Philosophy, Volume 9, Number 1.
