Contact Theory: Too Timid for “Race” and Racism

Erasmus, Zimitri

doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2010.01651.x

Cited by 35 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Lastly, consider the article by Erasmus (this issue). Without data, definitions of key terms, or a clear conception of levels of analysis, it is difficult to grasp how this restatement of critical race theory fits intergroup contact theory in particular.…”

Section: Intergroup Contact In the New South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Commentary: South African Contributions to the Study of Intergroup Relations

Pettigrew

2010

Journal of Social Issues

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The articles in this issue provide an overview of recent research on intergroup relations in South Africa. Most of them focus on intergroup contact theory, and they replicate and advance the theory in a variety of ways. They also emphatically counter those critics who believe that the theory does not apply in parts of the world with long histories of intergroup discrimination and conflict. Earlier work in Northern Ireland reached the same conclusion. The mandate for future social psychological efforts in this research area is to place contact theory and other social psychological processes in their broader structural context. Only then can this essentially bottom-up approach to social change be made useful for broad social policy. The South African emphasis on the conditions needed to achieve intergroup contact after centuries of discrimination and separation offers a solid beginning for this needed new direction.

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Section: Intergroup Contact In the New South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Commentary: South African Contributions to the Study of Intergroup Relations

Pettigrew

2010

Journal of Social Issues

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“…Critical race theory demands a listening for 'the changing, disguised, use of race' rather than just using race as an analytical category and provides a way of working with race in South Africa as a social construct while at the same time constructing knowledge and promoting practice aimed at 'its demise' (Erasmus 2010).…”

Section: Researching Race In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Race and assessment practice in South Africa: understanding black academic experience

Jawitz

2012

Race Ethnicity and Education

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Despite efforts to transform the racialised system of higher education in South Africa inherited from apartheid, there has been little research published that interrogates the relationship between race and the experience of academic staff within the South African higher education environment. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and critical race theory, this article traces the experience of two black male academics in relation to the assessment practices of their colleagues at a historically white university in South Africa. The interviewees, both graduates from the departments in which they teach, reflected on their experience of their departmental assessment practices both as black students and black academics. The analysis concludes that despite their differing perceptions and experiences they both regard the assessment practices of some of their white colleagues as undermining of their black students' efforts to succeed.

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“…Another issue is raised in the articles by Dixon et al (this issue), and Erasmus (this issue), regarding the consequences of contact for the transformation of the larger society. They point out that the effect of contact may not only be to reduce prejudice toward specific groups, but may also affect attitudes toward the individual's own group.…”

Section: This Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

The Changing Landscape of Intergroup Relations in South Africa

Finchilescu

Tredoux

2010

Journal of Social Issues

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Apartheid laws and policies served to create a hierarchy of four apparently distinct races in South Africa, which were systematically segregated from each other and provided with unequal access to material resources. The apartheid state was dissolved in 1994, and a new, democratic government installed, under relatively peaceful conditions. This special issue of the journal will examine the effects of this major social and political transformation on intergroup relations in South Africa. The present article outlines the history and nature of the transformation, and contextualizes aspects of race relations that will be explored in articles in this special issue.Two decades ago, South Africa was a pariah state. The policy of apartheid was vilified across the world for its entrenchment of racial inequality (in favor of the minority White population), and systematic abuses of human rights. Yet, barely 15 years ago, the pariah state gave way to democracy, resulting in a majority, predominantly Black government coming to power in what has been hailed a "bloodless revolution." The democratically elected government has faced the monumental task of transforming South African society. A start has been made in providing basic resources such as housing, running water, electricity, education, and health care to sectors of the population denied this in the past. Policies have been instituted to allow previously disadvantaged groups access to sociocultural resources and to fast-track their entry into the formal economy of the country (cf.

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Contact Theory: Too Timid for “Race” and Racism

Cited by 35 publications

References 37 publications

Commentary: South African Contributions to the Study of Intergroup Relations

Commentary: South African Contributions to the Study of Intergroup Relations

Race and assessment practice in South Africa: understanding black academic experience

The Changing Landscape of Intergroup Relations in South Africa

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