The American Sociological Association (ASA) has released a sociological guide that explains concepts of race and racism and the importance of antiracism educational efforts.
This comes amid public debates over teaching about race and racism and the increasingly common usage of terms such as ‘systemic racism’ and ‘critical race theory.’
“Recent social and civil protests against structural racism in the United States urge action, but none of us can change what cannot be faced,” the guide noted. “Reckoning with systemic oppression requires a frank discussion of the nation’s history. Public debates over teaching about race and racism and concepts like privilege and “white fragility” have raised provocative questions such as: Why is this so controversial? What do “systemic racism” and “critical race theory”—terms used loosely in the news—really mean? And why should we care?”
The guide – released January 2023 and written by the ASA Task Force on the State of the Art in Sociological Scholarship on Race – discusses the history and sociology underlying racism in various areas including housing, healthcare, law enforcement, and education.
