Racism in the Post Civil Rights Era: Now You See It, Now You Don't (Suny Series in Afro-American Studies)

By Robert C. Smith

Book Overview

Convincingly demonstrates that racism continues to exist in contemporary American society twenty-five years after the civil rights revolution.

This is the first book to assess in a systematic and theoretically informed way the course and status of racism in the post-civil rights era. It convincingly demonstrates that racism continues to exist in contemporary American society twenty-five years after the civil rights revolution. Smith clarifies the concept of racism through a historical analysis of the doctrine and practice of white supremacy. Then, drawing on a variety of data-surveys, court cases, the academic literature, government and privately collected statistical reports and studies, and personal experiences-Smith traces the present-day manifestations of racism ideologically, attitudinally, behaviorally, and institutionally. The final chapter presents a detailed critique of the literature on the black underclass and of William Julius Wilson's thesis on the declining significance of racism in explaining the underclass. In the process, it presents a persuasive argument that the persistence and growth of the underclass is itself major evidence of the prevalence of racism today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791424383
• ISBN13: 9780791424384
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher