10.1177/0011000005276468THE COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGIST / July 2005Casas / RACE AND RACISM • Reactions Race and Racism: The Efforts of Counseling Psychology to Understand and Address the Issues Associated With These Terms

The essence of this reaction is aptly captured in the foregoing quote. More to the point, this paper focuses on race and racism with the underlying hope and expectation that in the near future the terms race and racism will be more accurately understood and, when necessary, more appropriately and selec-tively addressed by the field of counseling psychology. With respect to the term racism, it is hoped that the efforts of counseling psychology on behalf of social justice will reduce inaccurate and unacceptable race-driven attitudes and behaviors that comprise this “ism.” To this end, the goal of this reaction is to provide a more accurate under-standing of the terms race and racism and the psychosocial issues associated with these terms. To accomplish this goal, the reaction is divided into three sections. The first section critically examines the terms as they are most fre-quently defined, used, and/or misused in the literature. The second section presents the changing population demographics that serve to bolster the con-tinued use of the term race. For perspective, special attention is given to a sociopolitical phenomenon that is undermining the accuracy, validity, and generalizability of existing statistics that are reflective of and/or associated with racial identification. The third section reviews and critically discusses the respective Major Contribution articles. This section not only underscores and reacts to the racial issues discussed in the respective papers but, more importantly, highlights research, educational, and applied efforts that are or should be directed to racial issues