Recent Book Publications
As an African American female
growing up in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights period, I
have always had a strong consciousness about race and racism. While
growing up I realized that race determined occupation, income,
standard of living, success or failure, as well as the type and
quality of social interactions and relationships. As a professor of
anthropology, I developed a course on Race and Anthropology
at the University of Houston where I looked at the concept of race
from an historical perspective. But, when teaching about race and
racism, I did not capitalize on my past experiences in Birmingham to
help explain how power and history interplayed in defining
black-white race relations, as we know it today. When I tried to
discuss it, I felt my voice change and it seemed that the air was
thick. I realized I had work to do on dealing with my past. This
book is an attempt to step out of the silence and into discourse.
I hope the readers will step with me and
begin their own search for the truths in their lives. My readings on
the history of the race concept, training in biological
anthropology, and growing up in the south during the Civil Rights
period provide a unique context for the present discussion on race.
In POWER, RACE AND CULTURE: THE EVOLUTION OF A BLACK
ANTHROPOLOGIST,
I draw on not only my childhood experiences, but also
the experiences of friends and colleagues and intertwine these
experiences with my reading of the literature to discuss race and
how these factors impacted my development as an anthropologist.
In THE COEXISTENCE OF RACE AND
RACISM: CAN THEY BECOME EXTINCT TOGETHER?, I show how race and
racism are interconnected historically and in the modern world. This
connection is related to changing social, political, and economic
conditions that impact how we think of others and ourselves. Race
and racism are also connected to biological discoveries that
justified how we think of others and ourselves. The main focus of
this book is the examination of these connections. It is argued that
while both race and racism are social constructions, the
justification for racism changed as the definition and attributes of
races were modified to correspond to new developments in biology and
genetics. Whereas biological discoveries are one side of this
construction, changing social situations represent the other side.
That is, racism also responded to changing social, political, and
economic conditions that altered its justification. In addition,
scientific constructions of race were impacted by social factors
that served to direct the “scientific discourse” on human diversity.
These factors form the context for the intricate relationship
between race and racism. My readings on the history of the race
concept, training in biological anthropology, and growing up in the
south during the civil rights period provide the context for the
present discussion on race and racism.
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