About:

Contemporary Racism, Organizational Inequality and Sustainable Diversity: Challenges for the 21st Century

As we move further into the 21st century, a growing body of social research shows how various conceptualizations of “contemporary racism” have essentially replaced “traditional racism” (e.g. beliefs about biological inferiority, racial hatred and explicit discrimination) in the USA. In this presentation, I argue that these new concepts of contemporary racism are necessary but not sufficient for a deeper understanding of racial inequalities at the organizational, national and international levels. To make my case, I first examine how the core dimensions of three models of contemporary racism – “symbolic racism,” “laissez faire racism,” and “color-blind racism” – help to explain the persistence of both individual racial discrimination and inequality. Second, I highlight how status characteristics models can provide a deeper understanding of informal group processes that perpetuate inequalities in universities, workplaces and other organizations. Third, I describe how asustainable diversity model can help to explain national policy options under which growing racial/ethnic diversity can be more or less sustainable. Fourth, I suggest that contemporary racism continues to combine with informal status processes within organizations to impede the development of sustainable diversity policy at the national level. I conclude my talk by suggesting that this multilevel problem of 21st century racism is not only a challenge for racial/ethnic minorities but also for sustainable development in the USA and other nations in a competitive global economy.

What You CAN’T See Is What you Get: Color, Community and Citizenship in an Aspiringly “Post-Racial” Democracy

This talk will examine the ways in which traditional understandings of race/racism in American society prove less than helpful in the contemporary politico-racial landscape. We will discuss some of what makes the current moment so distinctive, trying to delineate some strategies for more accurately, effectively and inclusively approaching the emergent social moment.

Speakers:

PHILLIP J. BOWMAN

Director, Diversity Research and Policy Program
Professor, Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education
Faculty Associate, Institute for Social Research
National Center for Institutional Diversity
School of Education, University of Michigan

“Contemporary Racism, Organizational Inequality and Sustainable Diversity: Challenges for the 21st Century”

JOHN L. JACKSON

John L. Jackson, Jr., Ph.D.,Dean, School of Social Policy & Practice, Richard Perry University Professor, University of Pennsylvania

“What You CAN’T See Is What you Get: Color, Community and Citizenship in an Aspiringly ‘Post-Racial’ Democracy”