Victor Ray, an assistant professor of sociology, penned an essay aimed at the political elite following an August white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned violent.
Ray, who researches race and discrimination, challenges political leaders to be more intentional about addressing and finding ways to combat the ills white supremacy.
The essay was published as an opinion editorial in Contexts magazine, a publication of the American Sociological Association. It appeared with the works of other leading sociologists of race and ethnicity.
“If politicians and business leaders are serious about fighting Nazis and White supremacy, they will move beyond the profitable (and easy) symbolism of condemning statements and support policies that can provide material resources for people of color,” Ray writes. “Affirmative action in admissions and hiring, the desegregation of public schools, greatly expanded affordable housing, and the end of a myriad of discriminatory policing practices are just a few of the policy changes that would need to occur to truly dismantle White supremacy.”