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.
- ISBN10 0791424383
- ISBN13 9780791424384
- Publish Date 22 April 1996 (first published 10 July 1995)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint State University of New York Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 224
- Language English