Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - D1120011
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED339759 AUTHOR: Essed, Philomena
TITLE: Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary
Theory. Sage Series on Race and Ethnic Relations.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1991
NOTE: 334 p.
AVAILABILITY: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2455 Teller Road,
Newbury Park, CA 91320 ($19.95 paperback;
ISBN-0-8039-4255-9
-$39.95 hardback).
ABSTRACT: This cross-cultural investigation of racism in
the lives of black women explores everyday manifestations
and perceptions of racism. The daily experiences of
individuals are combined with a structured account of
racism in an interdisciplinary framework. Empirical data
consist of verbal accounts gathered in 1985 and 1986 in
non-directive interviews with 55 black women from large
cities in California and the Netherlands. Subjects from the
Netherlands were largely immigrants from Surinam. The more
than 2,000 concrete examples of racism provide a
quantitative base from which conclusions are drawn about
the two cultures. It is apparent that racism is not only
problematic in its extreme manifestations but that racism
permeates the social system in both countries. Black women
also experience racism as structured by notions of gender.
In the Netherlands there is little historical knowledge
about racism. In the United States, many women are
explicitly informed by family members of the history of
race relations. Denial of the existence of racism is
prevalent in the Netherlands, and this denial becomes an
instrument of repression in itself. In both societies,
racism is an everyday experience for black women. There is
a 541-item list of references. (SLD)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Black-History; Coping-; Cross-Cultural
Studies; Foreign-Countries; Immigrants-; Interdisciplinary
Approach; Interviews-; Life-Events; Racial-Discrimination;
Social-Theories; Urban-Areas
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Blacks-; *Females-; *Racial-Bias; *Sex
Bias; *Social-Systems
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