Anti-Black Racism in America: Is It Declining?

Over the last century, the United States and much of the world broadly has seen massive social change with respect to attitudes and beliefs about anti-Black racism. But change alone does not ensure a decline in racism. In Anti-Black Racism in America, renowned race relations scholar Thomas F. Pettigrew undertakes a comprehensive assessment of the key trends in racism against Black Americans, drawing on a wide range of scholarship and his own decades of experience in the field. The book describes the advances made in recent years that promise a decline in anti-Black racism--especially in politics and education, but it also highlights where American racism remains firmly entrenched--in economics, housing, and the justice system. Employing significant insights from social psychology, such as understanding implicit prejudice and the importance of intergroup contact, Pettigrew lays out a theory of racism centering the importance of segregation in housing for its perpetuation, and makes the case for reparations funded by billionaires.

Thomas F. Pettigrew is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Social Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He also taught at Harvard (1954-1980) and the University of Amsterdam (1986-1991). His hundreds of books and articles have been cited more than 70,000 times. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Senior Fulbright Scholar, and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, and Stanford’s Research Institute of Comparative Studies in Race. Harvard presented him its Centennial Medal and the University of California gave him its Panunzio Distinguished Emeritus Award. Pettigrew has also received lifetime achievement awards from six psychological and sociological organizations.