Understanding Racism: Theories of Oppression and Discrimination

Recipient of a 2022 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) The author is a proud sponsor of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop. Understanding Racism systematically examines the theories and theorists that have contributed the most to our contemporary understanding of racism in its various forms—making it easier for students to understand the multiple dynamics of how racism operates.

In every chapter, activist and award-winning sociologist Hephzibah Strmic-Pawl describes the emergence of a theory and the problem it addresses; discusses the scholars who are most closely associated with the theory; and explores the strengths and limitations of the theory. From foundational theories such as Prejudice and White Privilege to contemporary theories such as Color-Blind Racism, Understanding Racism is the first text to present thirteen approaches for explaining racism in one book.