Maya Angelou Resource Library: Race/Racism & Diversity

his powerful and disturbing book clearly links persistent poverty among blacks in the United States to the unparalleled degree of deliberate segregation they experience in American cities. American Apartheid shows how the black ghetto was created by whites during the first half of the twentieth century in order to isolate growing urban black populations. It goes on to show that, despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, segregation is perpetuated today through an interlocking set of individual actions, institutional practices, and governmental policies. In some urban areas the degree of black segregation is so intense and occurs in so many dimensions simultaneously that it amounts to "hypersegregation." The authors demonstrate that this systematic segregation of African Americans leads inexorably to the creation of underclass communities during periods of economic downturn.

Describes the racist tendency of Whites to always and forever to center the discussion of virtually any subject on whiteness, and suggests how to get past this worldview.

The signs of progress are everywhere -- white children want to "be like Mike", Oprah chats with millions everyday, Newt Gingrich quotes Martin Luther King. But when we look beyond the rhetoric and symbols, we find a very different reality: 70 percent of black children attend predominantly black schools; a Hispanic or Asian American with a third grade education is more likely to live in an integrated neighborhood than a black with a Ph.D. -- and the list goes on. "By the Color of our Skin" is a provocative, readable analysis of race that argues three things: integration does not exist now, it was never a possibility in the past, and it will never exist in the future

An analysis of racism today and the thoughts on how we can work to bring it to an end.

A collection of 27 readings for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, based on the assumption that the study of racial and ethnic relations should focus primarily on patterns of differential power and intergroup conflict. Many articles demonstrate that racial and ethnic relations cannot be understood apart from a transnational perspective, and all explore aspects of race and ethnicity in the US and address broader conceptual issues. Most selections are presented in their entirety, with introductions. No index.

"With profound insight into the complexities of the human experience, Harvard psychologist Gordon Allport organized a mass of research to produce a landmark study on the roots and nature of prejudice."

This anthology introduces students to how race, class, and gender shape the experiences of diverse groups in the U.S. Introductory essays for each of the four sections stress the interconnectedness of these various types of difference. Each section concludes with some suggestions for further reading. The sixth edition contains 19 new readings dealing with such issues as affirmative action, immigration, and military rank.

This exciting new book is an indispensable guide for teachers, trainers, and anyone interested in fighting racism. Asa G. Hilliard, III, writes in the foreword: "I do not know if the virus of racism/white supremacy can be eliminated. I believe that if I can, it will be in large measure because of the type of work presented here.

Bonilla-Silva (sociology, Texas A&M U.) addresses the reasons that black Americans and other racial minorities lag behind whites in terms of income, wealth, occupational and health status, educational attainment, and other social indicators. Providing a new formulation of what "racism" and "prejudice" are, Bonilla-Silva argues that white supremacy and racial ideology are the most important sociological variables to explain the status of minorities. He finds that since the Jim Crow period, a new racial ideology has emerged in which white privilege continues through subtle institutional--and apparently nonracial--means. He shows how this new "color-blind racism" helps sustain relations of domination, leaving black Americans "at the bottom of the well."

A powerful study of the women's movement in the U.S. from abolitionist days to the present that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders.

There is a moment when every child leaves color-blindness behind & enters the world of race consciousness. At that moment, there are two roads parents, educators, & therapists can take: they can follow the status quo, internalizing racial expectations, & become-consciously or unconciously-part of the problem. Or, they can question stereotypes, &, actively work against racism to become part of the solution. This book provides the tools we all need to become part of the solution.

Suggests that recent trends in social and cultural polarization are neither as unprecedented nor as dramatic as some discontented intellectuals and political figures believe, and shows that a vital center persists in American society, both despite and because of the intensity of social change we continue to experience. Overviews ideas of democratic liberalism and reactions to diversity in the late 20th century, and discusses cultural responses to immigration, racial issues, and family diversity. Looks at changes in the civic role of religion, and examines civil society and the politics of identity and difference in a global context.