Racism is an emotionally charged concept that represents different things to different people. At its core, it is the practice of prejudice and discrimination based on perceptions of race. It is complex and contextualized to many facets of our existence, be it social, cultural, historical, psychological, political, philosophical and legal, to name a few. Racism is such a massive topic that any work examining it will be hopelessly fragmented and disjointed without a clear, predetermined focus. In, Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic, the foci are geographic and social. Available in four volumes in print, the work, here reviewed in its e-book version, is an encyclopedia of racism and race in the USA with emphasis on racism as a social construct. Editors Charles Gallagher and Cameron Lippard, US-based academics who study social inequity and race relations, describe contemporary America as a country in denial of its ever-shifting racist attitudes and practices. They make it clear in their preface that they are attempting to fulfill a timely and urgent need by “[…] detail[ing] how the concept of race emerges in the 1600s as a cultural or geographic designation and slowly morphs into a wholly fabricated scientific category only to de reframed, defined, and understood in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as a grouping that is socially and politically constructed” (p. xxxiv).
The editors provide compelling arguments that there is a critical need for a deeper awareness of racism in the USA. They cite a 2011 Gallup poll which suggests that many people living in the USA believe that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s has effectively neutralized the tide of racism, so much so that an African American president, Barack Obama, can be a two-term president and, according to poll respondents, eight of the top ten most-admired people are from racial minorities. Gallagher and Lippard juxtapose this rosy picture against 2012 FBI data indicating that race-based hate crimes are on the rise, and that the cultural rhetoric of the Jenna Six, New Jim Crow and the Dream Act indicate that racism is as insidious a force as it was decades ago, but in a different, contemporary context. This is the central thesis behind the encyclopedia, that racism in the USA is a social construct that has undergone, and will continue to undergo, a process of change.
There are two types of entries: 700+ encyclopedia articles and 66 primary documents. Each primary source document is prefaced with a brief introductory paragraph that places it in its historical context. A full citation to the primary document is provided for the researcher and abundant see-also links attached to each entry cross-reference it to other parts of the encyclopedia. Excerpts that are a part of larger primary source material are clearly noted as such. These primary documents range from pieces of legislation, court records, statutes, US presidential papers and association reports to newspaper articles and eyewitness accounts in letters and memoirs. The article entries are written predominantly by academics based in North America, but also by independent scholars, as well as academics based in the UK and Spain. These articles describe a mosaic of racism on historical and contemporary subjects that help to support the editors' thesis. Some of these entries feature sidebars with additional information. Most include see-also links to other parts of the encyclopedia and a list of citations for further reading.
Entries are listed in alphabetical order and these alphabetical listings are broken down into the four separate print volumes. This traditional navigation system is enough to allow the reader ample opportunity for locating relevant information on known issues and topics. However, readers who are unfamiliar with key issues and concepts related to racism in the USA can use three additional finding aids internal to this resource: a list of titles to the entries broken down by 18 broad topic categories; a comprehensive, crossed-referenced subject and name index; and a list of titles to the primary source documents included in the encyclopedia. These provide other points of access in addition to the online, quick search feature offered by the publisher. The 18 topic categories help to bundle seemingly disparate entries under major themes. These are: Civil Rights; Criminal Justice; Economics; Education; Extremist Groups and Hate Crimes; Government and Politics; Health and Science; Housing; Ideas and Concepts; Identity; Immigration and Migrations; Movements and Activism; Popular Culture; Race Riots; Slavery; Violence; War and Terrorism; and Work and Labor.
This encyclopedia is appropriate for libraries and research centres serving undergraduates as well as more experienced researchers. The articles are comprehensive, well-written and thought-provoking. Whether the reader agrees or disagrees with the choice of topics covered or the treatment of the material, the primary documents and lists for further reading alone offer a valuable and practical springboard for investigation into a complex and challenging dimension of the American experience.
