The United States is currently experiencing racial tensions not seen since the Civil Rights era. On the cusp of becoming a majority non-white nation, Americans are grappling with how this demographic change will impact them. Some are not handling this impending change well and this has resulted in Americans increased attention to racism. Disaggregating Racism by Kenneth Jackson helps us understand this current moment by reviewing our understanding of racism as a concept and practice, and examining its impact today. Jackson deftly shows how institutional racism was embedded into the fabric of the United States from its inception and how it remains salient. This book is a must read for everyone seeking to understand how we arrived at this place in our nation and how we can possibly extricate ourselves from this moment.

Earl Wright II, Rhodes College, USA

Disaggregating Racism is a fascinating exploration of how conceptions of racism have shifted from explicit biological doctrines of racial hierarchy and individual prejudice to contemporary emphases on institutional, structural, and systemic forms. Yet, Kenneth Jackson argues persuasively that an excessive focus on structure risks reifying social systems as independent actors, minimizing the role of everyday practices and individual behavior, and weakening the analytical usefulness of the concept of racism. He advances a unifying framework that understands racism as an ongoing social process through which power, structure, racial classification, and legitimation operate to organize the production and distribution of valued resources across time and institutions. Provocative and historically grounded, Disaggregating Racism provides a clarifying account of the persistence of inequality.

Verna M. Keith, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA