Interracial Justice: Conflict & Reconciliation in Post-Civil Rights America

• NCJ Number: 198696
• Author(s): Eric K. Yamamoto
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 338 pages
• Sale Source: New York University Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This book presents concepts, methods, and terms for understanding the complexities of and promoting reconciliation between groups whose past and current conflicts are based in racial differences.

Abstract

The book focuses on the nature and achievement of interracial justice, which consists of an acknowledgment of the historical and contemporary ways in which racial groups harm one another, along with affirmative efforts to redress justice grievances and rearticulate and restructure current relations. Interracial justice draws broadly from the disciplines of law, theology, social psychology, ethics, and peace studies, as well as from indigenous practices. Its guiding principle for relationship building is reconciliation. To examine issues in interracial justice, this book is divided into three parts. The three chapters of Part 1 examine issues associated with intensifying conflict among U.S. racial communities in local politics, business, education, and immigration; locate grievances and racial groups' conflicting goals and perceptions in an exploding national and international trend of race apologies; and examine one such apology in its social and historical setting, i.e., the Asian American churches and United Church of Christ's apology to and reparations for Native Hawaiians for their participation in the cultural and economic oppression of Hawaii's indigenous people. Part 2 explains concepts of race, culture, and responsibility. It contains discussions of the author's use of race, culture, and grievance; develops concepts related to the dynamics of group power crucial to an understanding of interracial justice; and explains a praxis methodology that grounds justice at the juncture of progressive race theory and anti-subordination practice. Part 3, which is the core of the book, describes multidisciplinary approaches to intergroup healing, encompassing law, theology, social psychology, ethics, peace studies, and indigenous healing practices. After offering a praxis approach to interracial justice, three chapters use these praxis dimensions to help assess three concrete interracial justice controversies. Chapter notes and a subject index