Racial Inequality in Academia: Systemic Origins, Modern Challenges, and Policy Recommendations

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
Cydney H. Dupree ◽  
C. Malik Boykin
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Scientific Impact ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Recruitment And Retention ◽  
Ideal World ◽  
Future Leaders

In an ideal world, academia serves society; it provides quality education to future leaders and informs public policy—and it does so by including a diverse array of scholars. However, research and recent protest movements show that academia is subject to race-based inequities that hamper the recruitment and retention of scholars of color, reducing scientific impact. This article provides critical systemic context for racism in academia before reviewing research on psychological, interpersonal, and structural challenges to reducing racial inequality. Policy challenges include (a) the cultivation of harmful stereotypes, (b) the education of racially ignorant future leaders, and (c) the dedication of resources to science that informs only a few, rather than many. Finally, recommendations specify critical features of hiring, retention, transparency, and incentives that can diversify academia, create a more welcoming environment to scholars of color, and maximize the potential for innovative and impactful science.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Valls
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Color Blind ◽  
American Society ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

The persistence of racial inequality in the United States raises deep and complex questions of racial justice. Some observers argue that public policy must be “color-blind,” while others argue that policies that take race into account should be defended on grounds of diversity or integration. This chapter begins to sketch an alternative to both of these, one that supports strong efforts to address racial inequality but that focuses on the conditions necessary for the liberty and equality of all. It argues that while race is a social construction, it remains deeply embedded in American society. A conception of racial justice is needed, one that is grounded on the premises provided by liberal political theory.

scholarly journals International Political Theory Meets International Public Policy

2018 ◽  
pp. 480-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Barry
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
International Political Theory

How should International Political Theory (IPT) relate to public policy? Should theorists aspire for their work to be policy-relevant, and if so in what sense? When can we legitimately criticize a theory for failing to be relevant to practice? In this chapter, I argue that it counts heavily against a theory if it is not precise enough to guide policy and reform given certain empirical assumptions, but that theorists should be very cautious when engaging with questions of policy and institutional design. Some principles of IPT can be criticized for being insufficiently precise, but a degree of abstraction from concrete policy recommendations is a virtue, rather than a vice, of IPT. I discuss this issue with reference to John Rawls’s principle of a duty of assistance.

The Pluralist Constellation

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Parens
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Research Institute

I work at a research institute where the staff spends its time thinking about ethical issues that arise with progress in medicine, the life sciences, and technology. After such thinking, we make public policy recommendations. We pride ourselves in the diversity of our staff: there is a doctor, a lawyer, a linguistic anthropologist, a political scientist, a theologian, some philosophers, and so on. Both men and women do research and we are religiously diverse: Catholics, Jews, Protestants, and atheists

The Drivers of Corporate Climate Change Strategies and Public Policy

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Backman ◽  
Alain Verbeke ◽  
Robert A. Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Information Management ◽  
North American ◽  
Climate Change Impact ◽  
Change Strategies ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
Better Than

Effective public policy to mitigate climate change footprints should build on data-driven analysis of firm-level strategies. This article’s conceptual approach augments the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and identifies investments in four firm-level resource domains (Governance, Information management, Systems, and Technology [ GISTe]) to develop capabilities in climate change impact mitigation. The authors denote the resulting framework as the GISTe model, which frames their analysis and public policy recommendations. This research uses the 2008 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) database, with high-quality information on firm-level climate change strategies for 552 companies from North America and Europe. In contrast to the widely accepted myth that European firms are performing better than North American ones, the authors find a different result. Many firms, whether European or North American, do not just “talk” about climate change impact mitigation, but actually do “walk the talk.” European firms appear to be better than their North American counterparts in “walk I,” denoting attention to governance, information management, and systems. But when it comes down to “walk II,” meaning actual Technology-related investments, North American firms’ performance is equal or superior to that of the European companies. The authors formulate public policy recommendations to accelerate firm-level, sector-level, and cluster-level implementation of climate change strategies.

The American State and the Enduring Politics of Race

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond King
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Politics Of Race ◽  
American State

The most important scholarly finding about the American state is how the politics of race and racial inequality have shaped all aspects of the state’s structure and policy outcomes. The American state performs and combines the standard functions of maintaining order, delivering public policy, monopolizing the legitimate use of violence and maintaining revenues, but always with effect on the politics of race. The American state’s embrace of the politics of racial inequality mark it out as a key case in comparative studies for researchers developing and testing arguments about democratic states with complex histories and fragmentary institutional arrangements.

Postwar Protest Movements in Britain: A Challenge to Parties

1987 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony M. Messina
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Value Change ◽  
Structural Explanation ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Popular Support

This article asks why new protest movements have recently emerged in Western Europe by focusing on the British postwar race and anti-nuclear movements. Contrary to “subjective” propositions which have attributed their emergence to inter-generational value change, this article instead proposes a “structural” explanation. It is argued that the failure of the major British political parties to articulate citizen concerns on a number of salient issues has generated extra-party initiatives whose willingness to “voice” citizen anxieties primarily explains their popular support. Once in existence, these groups further politicize the conflict over public policy through various unconventional activities.

scholarly journals Juventude(s) negra e a reprodução das desigualdades raciais no Brasil: políticas públicas de igualdade?

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (17) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Marlene Almeida De Ataide
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Young People ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Black Youth ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Racial Inequalities ◽  
Racial Relations ◽  
Brazilian Government ◽  
Public Rights ◽  
Nature Play

O presente artigo tem como objetivo refletir criticamente acerca da categoria juventude negra que vive em condições precárias e que permanece à margem da sociedade, pois encontra dificuldades para existir como sujeitos de direitos no que se refere à inclusão no âmbito das políticas públicas consagradas de direitos, pois essas atuam de costas para esses jovens. Parte-se do pressuposto de que o racismo e as desigualdades sociais se constituem nos principais fatores que influenciam e que atingem principalmente as juventudes negras e pobres expressas a partir da segregação sócio-espacial, da discriminação racial e da vivência de pobreza. Os jovens afrodescendentes, além de vivenciarem as dificuldades tradicionais impostas socialmente, encontram barreiras adicionais devido às relações sociorraciais brasileiras. Assim, neste artigo, busca-se um espaço de reflexão, partindo do princípio de que as políticas públicas de cunho universalista têm um papel importante na redução da pobreza, porém limitado no combate à desigualdade racial. Em decorrência disso, somente com a adoção de políticas específicas é que se logrará reverter o quadro da iniquidade racial. Um dos grandes desafios que se impõe ao Estado brasileiro é de criar condições mais igualitárias para a inclusão de jovens no âmbito das políticas públicas de direitos que se destinam a eles.Palavras chave: Juventude. Juventude negra. Desigualdades raciais. Políticas públicas.Black youth(s) and the reproduction of racial inequalities in Brazil: public policies for equality? AbstractThis article aims to reflect critically about black youth category living in poor conditions and remain on the margins of society, for they find it difficult to exist as subjects of rights with regard to the inclusion in the scope of the dedicated public rights policies because they operate with his back to these young people. This is on the assumption that racism and social inequality constitute the main factors that influence and primarily affects poor black youths expressed from the socio-spatial segregation, racial discrimination and poverty of experience The young African descent as well as experience traditional difficulties imposed socially; are additional barriers due to the Brazilian socio-racial relations. So in this article, we seek a space for reflection, assuming that public policies of universal nature play an important role in reducing poverty, but limited in combating racial inequality; as a result, only with the adoption of specific policies is that it will achieve reverse the situation of racial inequality. A major challenge that requires the Brazilian government is towards creating more equal conditions for the inclusion of young people within the public policy of rights that are meant to them.Keywords: Youth. Black youth. Racial inequalities. Public policy.

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