CSRE 13: Race in Numbers: Quantifying Race and Racism

Course Description

Racism in the United States is pervasive and ongoing. News articles like "12 charts show how racial disparities persist across wealth, health, education and beyond" document the extent of these inequalities, but what do we know about how these charts and figures are produced? In this class, we will examine the countless decisions made by researchers when they decide how to define race, quantify race, and analyze data to make conclusions about race/racism in the United States. We will trace the fraught and racist history of "measuring race" and consider the current harms that race data can perpetuate. We will also consider the opportunities for data on racism to be used to expose inequalities and work towards creating a more just society.