Racism

Racism represents the primary sociopolitical force that Acho seeks to overcome, and his strategy in this book is to educate the reader as to the manifestations and effects of racial injustice. Acho encourages the reader to recognize the fact that they have been culturally conditioned to accept and implicitly support racist ideas. This tacit support of racism is called ‘implicit bias,’ and it may affect many of the reader’s thoughts and actions regarding non-white people. Acho writes about how Black Americans often face discrimination “on the individual level, in the everyday interactions between black and white Americans: through implicit bias…through harmful stereotypes” (72), et cetera. Implicit bias also occurs at the institutional level, such as in a study where resumés with traditionally Black-sounding names on them received far fewer job interview offers than resumés with more ‘white’-sounding names. Acho encourages the reader to remain...