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Race and Ethnicity

Collective identity

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Full-Text Articles in African American Studies

Reconstructing Race: A Discourse-Theoretical Approach To A Normative Politics Of Identity, Andrew Pierce Jan 2012

Reconstructing Race: A Discourse-Theoretical Approach To A Normative Politics Of Identity, Andrew Pierce

Andrew J. Pierce

This paper aims to get clear on the normative implications of the idea that race is a “social construction,” not just for political practice in non-ideal societies where racial oppression remains, but in “ideal” (presumably non-racist) societies as well. That is, I pursue the question of whether race and/or racial identity would have any legitimate place in an ideally just society, or to state it another way, whether the concept of race can be extricated from the history of racial oppression from which it arose. The position I defend is a version of what has come to be called a …


The Clarity And Confusion Offered By Historical Personal Identity Studies, Nikitah O. Imani May 1995

The Clarity And Confusion Offered By Historical Personal Identity Studies, Nikitah O. Imani

Black Studies Faculty Publications

This literature review and analysis focuses on the historical reference group orientation and personal identity study material done on Blacks in the United States. It argues that these studies were critically flawed in the sense that they made inappropriate assumptions about the link between the two kinds of measures that are the respective foci of their inquiry (i.e., personal identity and group self-esteem). As a result, their conclusions and implications, in terms of the development of psychological and sociological theories based upon their findings, constitute a major obstacle to the ultimate and accurate understanding of the processes of development of …