Understanding Everyday Racism : An Interdisciplinary Theory

by Philomena Essed

• ISBN13: 9780803942561
• ISBN10: 0803942567
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-07-25
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc

Summary

While there are numerous studies of racism and racial inequality at the macro-level of analysis, there has been little work done on the experience of everyday racism for black people. Philomena Essed's brilliant work fills this gap. This landmark volume compares contemporary racism in the United States and the Netherlands through in-depth interview data from more than 2,000 experiences of black women. As an interdisciplinary analysis of gendered social constructions of racism, it breaks new ground. Essed problematizes and reinterprets many of the meanings and everyday practices that the majority of society has come to take for granted. She addresses crucial but largely neglected dimensions of racism: How is racism experienced in everyday situations? How do black women recognize covert expressions of racism? What knowledge of racism do black women have, and how is this knowledge acquired? How do they challenge racism in everyday life? To answer these questions, over two thousand experiences of black women are analyzed within a theoretical framework that integrates the disciplines of macro- and micro-sociology, social psychology, discourse analysis, race relations theory, and women's studies. Samples include only black women with higher education. Many of their experiences of racism involve the "elite" among the dominant group. The book seriously challenges both the notion of Dutch tolerance and the idea that U.S. racism is a problem of the past. With this concept in mind, Understanding Everyday Racism is urgent reading. Essed's volume represents a landmark in the study of race and ethnicity and will interest researchers, lecturers, students, and professionals of discourse analysis, policy and women's studies, sociology, psychology, management, psychotherapy, and qualitative methodology. "Without getting bogged down in nit-picking about the definition of racism, the author has succeeded in presenting the true face of racism and has investigated the sociology and psychology of racism. A marvellously subtle and skillful report of everyday racism." --Counselling Psychology Quarterly "In this provocative book, Philomena Essed weaves insights from psychology, sociology, discourse analysis, and women's studies into an original and important new theoretical framework. She combines a phenomenological approach of describing the experiences of individuals with a structural account of inequality." --Contemporary Psychology "Racism remains a contested concept in both popular and scholarly discourse. Typically unaware of the extent of institutionalized racism, whites generally deny that racism exists. People of color typically see things differently and interpret the dominant group perspective as insensitive and insincere. Philomena Essed's groundbreaking volume, Understanding Everyday Racism tackles this ambiguity surrounding both popular and scholarly interpretations of racism and sheds considerable light on the difference between dominant and subordinate group views. . . . Essed's volume makes an extremely important and unique contribution to our understanding of contemporary racism." --Contemporary Sociology

Table of Contents

PART ONE: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATION OF MACRO AND MICRO DIMENSIONS OF RACISM

Racism Today

The Social-political Context

The Netherlands

Some Notes on Contemporary Racism in the US

Women and Racism

Black Women with Higher Education

Conceptualizing Racism as a Process

Racism

A Working Definition

The Notion of Everyday Racism

PART TWO: METHODOLOGICAL QUESTIONS

Introduction

Methodology within Methodology

Accounts

The Interviewees

Interviewing

Method of Analysis

PART THREE: KNOWLEDGE AND COMPREHENSION OF EVERYDAY RACISM

Introduction

General Knowledge and Scenarios of Racism

Comprehending Racism

Subjective and Objective Assessments of the Comprehension of Racist Events

A Procedure for the Assessment of Racist Events

Assessing Real-life Explanations of `Unfair Treatment'

Relating Cognitive to Social Processes of Understanding

The Acquisition of Knowledge of Racism

Reconstructing Black Women's General Knowledge of Racism

PART FOUR: ANALYZING ACCOUNTS OF RACISM

Introduction

Analyzing Accounts of Racism

Knowledge About Racism as an Evaluative Category in Verbal Accounts

Heuristics, Interpretations and Evaluations in Reconstructions of Racist Events

Racist Complications in Job Applications

What happened?

Examples of Real-life Accounts

Conclusions

PART FIVE: THE INTEGRATION OF RACISM IN EVERYDAY LIFE: THE STORY OF ROSA N.

Introduction

Rosa N.

A Fragmentary Representation of Everyday Racism

The Process of Everyday Racism in the Experience of Rosa N.

The Macro Context of Experiences of Racism

Conclusions

Rosa N. and the Shared Experience of Racism

PART SIX: THE STRUCTURE OF EVERYDAY RACISM

Racism as Conflict Maintaining Process

Hidden Agendas

The Dominations of Euro-American Values

The Basic Agenda

Perpetuation of Exclusion and Subordination

The Agenda of the Agenda

Problematizing those who Problematize Racism

The Structure of Everyday Racism

CONCLUSIONS

APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Interview Guide

Appendix 2. General Statements about Racism

Appendix 3. `Rosa N. File'