Theorizing Discrimination in an Era of Contested Prejudice: Discrimination in the United States

“Brilliant and fascinating…one of the smartest social science books I can recall reading.” 
—Barbara Reskin, University of Washington

“An erudite, confident, clearly written and valuable contribution to an important subject.” 
—John Skrentny, University of California, San Diego

“In this original and aggressively probing book, Lucas presses deeply into traditional social science understandings of prejudice and discrimination, showing the limiting character of these too-individualistic tools in conventional survey and legal analysis. Assessing the societal shift from overt exploitation to an era of ‘contested prejudice,’ yet one where discrimination remains pervasive, Lucas shows that social scientists must better theorize social contexts and the highly relational (often damaged) character of racial/gender relations. The goal is much more convincing social science understandings of these still-pervasive societal barriers.” 
—Joe R. Feagin, Ella C. McFadden Professor of Liberal Arts, Texas A & M University, and author of Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression

Samuel Roundfield Lucas is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Tracking Inequality: Stratification and Mobility in American High Schools and a co-author of Inequality By Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth.