EP.48 The Great Divide Racism in America
Today, many Americans observe Juneteenth, a long-celebrated holiday in the Black community that commemorates when the news that slavery had been abolished reached Galveston, Texas in 1965, two years after Abraham Lincoln first issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
This year’s Juneteenth celebration comes at a time when race occupies the forefront of our national consciousness. Scholars are working to help us understand how racism has come to dominate our society and what we can do to change it.
A prime example of this work is a sweeping new review article "The Psychology of Racism," scheduled to be published this year in American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association. In it, the authors compile a wide range of academic literature to identify seven factors that contribute to racism today in the U.S.
“People often define racism as disliking or mistreating others on the basis of race. That definition is wrong,” Steven Roberts, a Stanford University psychologist and lead author of the paper, told Stanford News. “Racism is a system of advantage based on race. It is a hierarchy. It is a pandemic. Racism is so deeply embedded within U.S. minds and U.S. society that it is virtually impossible to escape.”
