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ANALYSIS: Two self-described liberal scholars who study class and race have a better way to discuss important issues of sexism and racism

Some people are “convictors” and others are “acquitters” when it comes to determining whether racism or sexism occurred.

That is the thesis of “Is it racist? Is it sexist?,” a new book out now from Stanford University Press.

In the book, Professor Jessi Streib and Professor Betsy Leondar-Wright explore the views of white conservatives and liberals.

They determine that conservatives are generally “acquitters,” when it comes to charges of racism and sexism. In other words, they tend to believe someone is innocent of an accusation until proven otherwise. Liberals tend to be convictors, ready to believe accusations of racism and sexism.

Though both Streib and Leondar-Wright describe their politics as “left” and note they get their news from liberal news sources, the pair have a better way to discuss these issues. People should be “surveyors,” they write, “focused on taking careful measures of the landscape and working to improve it.”

The book is generally easy to read, relying on anecdotes, quotes from people interviewed, and entertaining fact-check footnotes. It is not a dry academic work with too many complex references to statistics and studies.

The authors do a good job of capturing some of the reasons people may hold the views they do about race and sex. They also capture the experiences of people that explain how they shaped their views.

Furthermore, the authors did not start out with a thesis and then try to mold their findings to fit their beliefs. Rather, they developed their terminology and views after conducting the interviews.

They also use current events and realistic scenarios about the ways people encounter these important topics.

The authors also generally describe liberal and conservatives in charitable ways, pointing out what they see as flaws, without casting aspersions on anyone. Though I probably don’t share many political views with the authors, I get the sense they would be generally nice people to sit down with and have a discussion about current events.

The book does seem like it would be most helpful to a liberal audience – to me, it seems like a good book for college students to read at the beginning of the year, or after a controversial event on campus. Though the authors told me they  “hope that readers across the political spectrum will engage with the book and find it useful.” They also said, “everyone can improve how they approach situations where racism and sexism may or may not exist.”

There are some things I would have handled differently. For example, the book discusses abortion and females in religious leadership as possible areas of sexism. Those views are deeply rooted in moral and religious beliefs and are more complicated than assuming a female doctor is actually a nurse (an example given in the book).

I also think the book could have spent more time discussing the real harms of falsely convicting someone of racism. The book used only one example of a Latino woman falsely accused of racism for asking for cash from black customers. However, the real harms can include firing and ostracization and school punishment.

On the other hand, the authors suggest their surveying method can be helpful for determining when unequal treatment occurs. I asked about examples given in the book of black Americans being denied mortgages, noting they tend to have lower credit scores.

“In this case, we could examine whether banks treat potential clients and real clients of different races differently when they have the same credit scores and are applying for the same types of loans,” they said. “We could also think about if credit scores are an unequal outcome caused by unequal treatment, in this case, the result of the many policies that have made it difficult for black families to build credit.”

This book explains the issue at hand in a fair manner and also defines the terms used.

Even if some readers may not agree with how the professors define racism and sexism, it is a good starting point for a civil discussion.

Readers of the book will be left with another way to determine if something is racist or sexist.

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IMAGE: Stanford University Press

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