Half Title Page
Voices of Change
Title Page
Voices of Change: Race, Racism, and Colonization in Accounting
Edited by
Anton Lewis
Governors State University, USA
Adam J. Saatkamp
Illinois Central College, USA
And
Joanne Sopt
San Francisco State University, USA
United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China
Copyright Page
Emerald Publishing Limited
Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL
First edition 2025
Editorial matter and selection © 2025 Anton Lewis, Adam J. Saatkamp and Joanne Sopt.
Individual chapters except chapters 6 and 9 © 2025 The authors.
Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.
Chapter 6, The Evolution of Accounting Science: COVID-19 Pandemic Lessons on Anti-Black Racism and Chapter 9, Rebutting PESTS: The Five Most Common Rationales Against Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, copyright © 2025 Akolisa Ufodike, are Open Access with copyright assigned to respective chapter authors. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited.
These work are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of these work (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-83753-031-1 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-83753-030-4 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-83753-032-8 (Epub)
Foreword
During my doctoral studies, when I was tearing through texts on the history of accounting and the experience of African Americans, trying to deconstruct the newly discovered bits of whiteness that framed my understanding of the world and the profession, I wish the interlibrary gods had sent me this book. As the prototypical pale and male accountant, I was wrestling with questions about the profession's identity and the experience of folks who weren't like me. The data, limited though it were and are, revealed that only 2% of CPAs at US firms were Black or African American. I wanted to know why.
As in any research endeavor, I searched for someone who had the answer. Unsurprising to those who have sought the same, I happened upon the revelatory work of Theresa Hammond. Rather than providing the answer to my question, A White-Collar Profession: African American Certified Public Accountants Since 1921 pointed to a multitude of answers for the profession's persistent racial imperviousness. To comprehend our present reality, one must understand the historic exclusion and racial opportunity costs faced by accountants of color, the diversity of values contained in various cosmologies or ways of being, and the disconnect between inclusion and accounting education. If you're like me and possess an imperfect understanding of each, this book is a gift – a source of edification and enlightenment. If you're not like me – if you have an intimate understanding of racial issues – this book is for you, too, a source of encouragement and an exhortation to keep fighting for change.
The individuals whose words fill the chapters of this text, while writing from Australia and Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom, Canada and the Caribbean, use their experience and position to collectively call for change – a global initiative.
When I was asked to serve as co-editor, alongside the influential Anton Lewis and the assiduous Joanne Sopt, I was, admittedly, unsure I'd measure up. And yet, what I've learned from my fellow editors and from each of our contributing authors, and what you, too, will likely take away, can be summed up in the words of James Baldwin: ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced’. This book represents a part of the change being sought. It stands as a witness of those who are facing what must be changed and calling others to join them. It offers a glimpse at how resistance can be overcome, how unchangeable things can be changed, no matter how much one knows or how they feel they measure up to the task.
It is by no means premature to celebrate the ripples of change this book will produce. Some of the ripples will be small – a curricular change here or a pedagogical change there – and some of the ripples may be larger, changes in perspective or changes in policy or practice. Whether big or small, and regardless of impediments or obstructions, the ripples of change will be positive, leaving in their wake a new or renewed willingness to face what must be changed.
Adam J. Saatkamp
