The Dark Side of Reform: Exploring the Impact of Public Policy on Racial Equity contains nine chapters on the development of social policies with the potential to advance racial equity. In addition to studying these policies and their implications, the chapters in this volume demonstrate how lessons from the past can be used to inform the direction of current discussions. At the heart of these conversations are concerns about whether Black people, in particular, will receive the full benefit of transformative laws that may emerge in the coming years. The volume also offers recommendations on implementing policies that address the unique concerns of structurally disadvantaged communities with particular emphasis on Black and Latinx people.
Tyrell Connor is associate professor of sociology at the State University of New York - New Paltz. Daphne M. Penn is postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology and Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Table of Contents Introduction: Advancing Racial Equity Through Public Policy Daphne M. Penn and Tyrell Connor Chapter 1 - The Gun Control Debate and Its Policy Implications for Reducing Firearm Violence in Communities of Color Daniel Semenza and Brian Wade Chapter 2 - Policing is Punishment: Defunding the Police as Sentencing Reform Jalila Jefferson Bullock and Jelani Jefferson Exum Chapter 3 - Four Racial Justice Principles for Policy Response to Carceral Technology Emily Tucker Chapter 4 - Marijuana Legalization Angela S. Murolo Chapter 5 - American Dream into Nightmare: Immigration, Systemic Structural Racism and Health Inequity in the United States Jay Pearson Chapter 6 - #StopAsianHate: Examining Rising Levels of Anti-Asian Hate Crimes in the United States Janice A. Iwama Chapter 7 - Complexity and Possibility: Black Public Opinion on Immigration Niambi M. Carter Chapter 8 - Legacy of Good Trouble: The Next Frontier for Voting Rights Candice C. Robinson, LaTeri McFadden, and J Nicole Johnson Chapter 9 - Searching for a Racial Justice Agenda in High Poverty Settings: How Title I Reform's Data Blindness Limits its Educational Effectiveness for Black and Latinx Students Charisse Southwell and Michael Hudson-Vassell Conclusion Tyrell Connor and Daphne M. Penn
In The Dark Side of Reform: Exploring the Impact of Public Policy on Racial Equity, Professors Connor and Penn make a critically important contribution.The pandemic and the growing awareness that the criminal legal system and policing need to be completely reimagined have caused the nation to ask critical questions about reform. Connor and Penn have responded, moving the conversations on race and equity from the margins to the center of the domestic policy debate. The data and varied analyses in this book provide timely information to anyone concerned about public policy in America. -- Anthony C. Thompson, New York University
