The roundtable on systemic racism that the Chair held on the 8th of September was my first in-person event—seeing more than just the heads and shoulders of the speakers felt strange and exciting. Rather than staring at a zoom screen, I sat in my fancy clothes and listened to our panelists speak openly and powerfully about how racism is woven throughout our education systems.

The next chapter serves as the opening for Part III: Systemic Racism and Social Change. Dr. Chandra V. Reyna’s contribution titled “Pursuing Racial Justice on Predominantly White Campuses: Divergent Institutional Responses to Racially Palatable and Racially Conscious Students,” examines the campus culture and administration of a predominantly white university through interviews with undergraduate students. Her findings indicate that using diversity as a talking point does little to change the behavior and climate of the student body or administration. Indeed, using equity as marketing without committing to meaningful action can bring more students of color to an academic institution where they are treated poorly, feel excluded, and are unsafe.

In their chapter “Seeing Our Most Vulnerable Homeless Students: The Impact of Systemic Racism on the Education of Black Homeless Youth in the United States,” authors Dr. Earl J. Edwards and Dr. Pedro Noguera seek to rectify the ways in which the racial dynamics of homelessness have been overlooked in social policy and research on homelessness, youth development, and education. Since 1980, black people have made up around 40 percent of the homeless population, yet they are only 12.5 percent of the total American population. Despite the disproportionate impact of homelessness on black Americans, scholarship and society tend to ignore how homelessness is intertwined with systemic racism.

The next chapter by Dr. Odis Johnson Jr. is titled “Why did the Convergence of the Achievement Gap Stop? Macroeconomic Change, Policy, and Racial Avoidance.” It discusses the seemingly contradictory phenomena of the brief period in the 1970s and 80s of reduced educational inequality and increased spatial disequilibrium. He argues that we must look beyond the most popular explanation, which lies solely in economic change. While macroeconomic transformation did play a significant role in shaping education during this period, the analysis must include desegregation measures and reactions by the population to and against these policies.

Beginning Part II, the section titled “Systemic Racism and Education Inequality,” author Prudence L. Carter discusses the many challenges in addressing educational inequality. Her chapter called “Systemic Racism in Education Requires Multidimensional Solutions” analyses the multitude of sources of the “achievement gap” as well as offering a global approach to considering solutions. 

Students of color across the country do not have the same access to the same opportunities, resources, or securities. Interventions, therefore, cannot exist in only one area of their lives. Steps towards equity need to be taken in their school and extra-school environments, addressing everything from housing, community, wages, and healthcare, to underfunded schools, disproportionate suspensions and expulsions, and student and teacher discrimination. 

“Make America White Again: The Racial Reasoning of American Nationalism” by Matthew W. Hughey and Michael L. Rosino explores why white people are so enamored with Trump and his racial reasoning. In 2016 he received 58 percent of the white vote. Despite this, there are many who deny the relationship between Trump’s election and racially based backlash against the Obama presidency.

Dr. Aldon Morris highlights W.E.B. Du Bois’s often overlooked contributions to the foundations of scientific sociology in his chapter “W.E.B. Du Bois at the Center: From Science, Civil Rights Movement, to Black Lives Matter.” He argues that it was Du Bois who founded the first school of American Scientific Sociology at Atlanta University. Morris demonstrates the ways that denying Du Bois’s work and influence in favor of a white narrative has impoverished the practice and teaching of sociology from the beginning. 

The next chapter in the edited volume is titled “The Problem of Racism in “Post-Racial” America” and is written by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Liann Yamashita. They address the current systemic nature of racism and how it differs both from past forms of racism and from white people’s current false perceptions of racism. 

Section I: Systemic Racism and Sociological Theory begins with a chapter by Hoda Mahmoudi titled “The Past in the Present: Slavery’s Long Shadow.” It has been over 150 years since slavery was outlawed in the United States, yet we still deal with racism as a society. Discrimination against non-white populations is extremely prevalent, yet each group faces prejudice that takes on nuanced differences and forms. The discrimination against African American people in America is unique, and a major factor is the long history of race-based chattel slavery and its deep-rooted integration into the foundational documents, ideals, and structure of this country. 

The structures and institutions of America are not neutral; they advantage certain groups and disadvantage others. These are not failures but features of our systems. Policies ostensibly designed to address inequalities have often failed or even made inequity worse. The impact of ingrained racism is cumulative, and we must closely examine the causes and effects if we want to generate truly beneficial solutions. 

I can't believe another semester has come and gone. I have been with the Chair a year and have settled into our office. This semester, I hit the sweet spot of feeling comfortable but still challenged and excited. Each week with the chair brings opportunities for exposure to new ideas, new intellectual discussions and writing, and new ways to use my mind and library education in diverse ways. 

If you have been following along with me, we have reached the fourth and final part. In this section, titled “Coda,” Michael H. Allen, Kate Seaman, and Hoda Mahmoudi introduce us to the ideas of the Coda in “Coda Introduction: Pushing Toward the Future.” They note the wide distance we have traveled throughout this book and the diversity and range of perspectives and topics we have encountered. They begin with a simple yet powerful statement no reader could disagree with after reading this volume “complexity can be overwhelming,” (Allen et. al., 2022, p. 293). It’s true that so much of understanding the challenges we face, especially on such a large scale, can be daunting. I have attempted to convey my thoughts and processes as I grappled with the big questions and subjects presented over the course of my reading. Here is validation that the authors also know that these topics require contemplation, questioning, and processing and are not easy to clearly define nor dissect.