Perspectives 1 Critical Demography and Racism: The Case of African Americans

Racism continues to be a major force in the lives of African Americans today. Whether one cites the recent examples of police brutality in the forms of the Louima and Diallo cases in New York, or persistent patterns of housing discrimination throughout the United States (Yinger 1995), American racism persists (Wilson 1973; Daymont 1980; Farley and Allen 1987; Feagin and Vera 1995). Surprisingly, despite the omni-presence of this phenomenon demographers have failed to utilize racism as a concept of analysis (Horton 1998). This omission is particularly intriguing given that as a primary component of the social structure, racism continues to be an explanation for population growth and development in the United States (Anderson 1988; Butler 1991; Horton forthcoming). Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a new paradigm, critical demography, can be employed to facilitate the use of racism as a concept of analysis in the demography of African Americans. Specifi-cally, the paper has the following objectives: 1) to provide an elaboration of the criti-cal demography paradigm; 2) to present examples of how this paradigm can be ap-plied to the study of African Americans; and 3) to discuss the implications of critica