Developing Race Skills for a Just and Equitable Society: Undoing Racism in Interracial Interactions

In this talk, social psychologists Drs. Valerie Jones Taylor and Courtney Bonam introduce race skills, a necessary and foundational skill set for understanding what race truly is, how it came to be, and how to function effectively in a racially diverse society. First, they will briefly highlight factors leading to prejudice, discrimination, and racism within our society and consider how the collection of individual-level processes relates to structural-level racial inequality and systemic racism. They will then center the conversation on one crucial race skill: the ability to navigate interracial interactions effectively. Specifically, they will provide empirical evidence and research-based tools for effectively interacting with someone of a different race. These tools include 1) identifying common pitfalls when interacting with someone of a different race, 2) strategies for preventing common pitfalls when interacting with racial outgroup members, and 3) strategies for managing and confronting racial microaggressions. Ultimately, cultivating and strengthening such race skills will empower people to effectively engage (and become willing to re-engage) in difficult race-related conversations and interpersonal interactions, leading to anti-racist social action.

Dr. Courtney Bonam and Dr. Valerie Jones Taylor are the cofounders of Anti-racism Consulting (ARC) for Equity. They bring a combined 35 years of experience teaching and conducting research on race, racism, and racial justice. With a focus on intergroup relations, these university professors and social scientists contribute to theory and empirical research on social identity threat, cultural psychology, racial and gender stereotyping and prejudice, intersectionality, and anti-racist education. They examine how these complex processes reinforce both social inequity and inequality, and shape behavior in educational and organizational contexts and everyday interracial interactions.

Dr. Bonam and Dr. Taylor both received their PhD in Social Psychology from Stanford University. Dr. Bonam is an Assistant Professor in Psychology and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. She was previously an Assistant Professor in Black Studies and Psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago, and a Postdoctoral Research
Fellow in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley. Dr. Taylor is an Assistant Professor in Psychology and Africana Studies at Lehigh University. She was
previously an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Spelman University, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psychology at Princeton University.