A Dangerous Opportunity: Recommendations for Dismantling Racism in Psychology in the United States

This special issue of the Review of General Psychology (RGP) is focused on the APA Apology and the related APA Resolution on Dismantling Racism. https://www.apa.org/about/policy/racism-apology

RGP, as the journal for Division 1 (General Psychology) and focused on general topics across Psychology rather than specialty topics, was selected as an appropriate outlet for this special issue since the topic cuts across many areas of Psychology.

On October 29, 2021, the American Psychological Association issued an apology for the role the organization has played in historical and present harms to people of color (Akbar et al., 2024). This apology, approved by the governing Council of Representatives and shared widely with the media, is a historic one; it is the first time APA has done anything of this nature. https://www.apa.org/about/policy/racism-apology

This apology was informed by a historical review developed by the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology at The University of Akron that examined the ways in which psychology and psychologists have harmed people of color since the formalization of the discipline in the late 1800s (American Psychological Association, 2021a). This historical review provides a wealth of information on how scientific racism and its impact on education, practice, policy, and advocacy in psychology have contributed to establishing and maintaining hierarchies based on race and ethnicity.

In addition to the apology (American Psychological Association, 2021b), APA sought to address the critical issues underlying the harm done to people of color by issuing a resolution entitled the Role of Psychologists and the American Psychological Association in Dismantling Systemic Racism Against People of Color that has committed the association to engage the resources of the Association toward addressing antiracism in important social systems and institutions associated with child development, criminal justice, education, economics and employment, governmental policies, health, and science (American Psychological Association, 2021c). Specific recommendations were made that aligned with the existing portfolios of the Science, Education, Practice, and Public Interest directorates and the Advocacy Office within the current organizational structure of the Association. As is typical of similar Association resolutions and reports, the Dismantling Systemic Racism resolution was highly aspirational and existed at a very high level of abstraction. https://www.apa.org/about/policy/dismantling-systemic-racism

The primary purpose of the proposed special issue is to provide a framework or “road map” to help APA and the larger psychological community operationalize this resolution by providing a series of specific, measurable, achievable, realistic recommendations and requirements. These recommendations and requirements have been organized around the major domains of Psychology as represented within APA as directorates. Specifically, recommendations and requirements to dismantle racism are offered specific to the Science, Education, Practice, and Public Interest directorates.

Each article addressing Science, Education, Practice, and Public Interest is organized around a framework of Antecedents, Behaviors, Consequences, and Recommendations and Requirements for Change (ABC-R). As reflected in the historical review which guided the APA Apology, the Antecedents consist of beliefs in human hierarchy (racism, colonialism, etc) that served to produce racist and prejudicial Behaviors that existed in the past and continue to the present day. For well over a century, these racist Behaviors have caused the harm (Consequences) for which APA issued the Apology. To correct these Antecedents, Behaviors, and Consequences, APA issued the Resolution to Dismantle Racism to initiate a program of change. The proposed special issue seeks to go beyond the Resolution to Dismantle Racism by providing greater details on the presentation of racism in psychology yesterday and today and by offering specific Recommendations and Requirements for this program of change across the domains of Science, Education, Practice, and Public Interest.

Therefore, each article will begin with an historical review (Antecedents), and an analysis of Association and disciplinary practices and policies (Behaviors) that have created the negative impact (Consequences) that led to the apology. The articles end with Recommendations for Change within the domains of Science, Education, Practice, and Public Interest. The authors have significant expertise in the topical areas and have provided insightful reviews of the history of psychology that in some instances go beyond the APA Chronology (https://www.apa.org/about/apa/addressing-racism/historical-chronology.pdf) and recommendations or requirements that address systemic issues as well as specific areas of change.

Since there are other journals that have sponsored special issues addressing the same APA Apology, we would like to point out a major feature that distinguishes our special issue from others. Our special issue uses a specific theoretical framework for all the invited papers which would ensure more cohesiveness and systematic focus across the papers. This special issue will be organized around the Antecedents, Behaviors, Consequences, and Recommendations (ABCR) framework across the major domains of APA, namely, Science, Education, Practice, and Public Interest. Additionally, in contrast to other special issues, the focus on the Antecedents via the Historical Review has ensured that this special issue will have a strong focus on historical and theoretical perspectives that served as the foundation of the APA Apology and Resolutions. We believe that the inclusion of a strong historical and theoretical foundation to the articles featured in this special issue provides significant context for understanding how racism has systemically impacted psychology, including the APA, and therefore why systemic solutions are needed to foster antiracism into psychology and its institutions.

We entitled this special issue as “A Dangerous Opportunity” based on a common interpretation of the Chinese word for Crisis which is made up of two characters, Danger and Opportunity. The Chinese framed crises as dangerous opportunities during times of turbulent change because such crises contained elements of danger if the challenges created by these events are not handled well. At the same time, these challenging events also offer an opportunity for growth, development, and success if the challenges are handled well. Reading these articles exposes both the danger of racism but also the opportunity available to the APA and psychology in seeking antiracist solutions. In view of the social crisis that led to the APA Apology, we hope this special issue will serve as a valuable resource by providing specific recommendations to dismantling racism in Psychology across the dimensions of science, practice, education, and public policies.