Realizing the Civil Rights Dream: Diagnosing and Treating American Racism

This book explains why America can realize the civil rights dream in the 21st century-if U.S. citizens take actions as individuals as well as work together for equality.

It has been more than 53 years since Martin Luther King Jr. made his I Have a Dream speech. Why has the United States still not been able to make King’s dream a reality after a half a century of effort and progress? Is there still hope of full participation for all in America?

In Realizing the Civil Rights Dream: Diagnosing and Treating American Racism, author Kenneth B. Bedell proposes a civil rights dream that grows out of American history and speaks to the 21st-century reality. He makes the case that by adopting a larger perspective of the role of racism in preserving U.S. social, cultural, economic, and political institutions and practices, Americans can understand why it has been so difficult to fulfill the promises of the 1960s civil rights dream. Bedell describes and applies sociological theories that serve to explain why racism is still prevalent in the United States and identifies the steps that are necessary to overcome racism. The book concludes with proposals for ways to apply social science to realize the civil rights dream and examples of how individuals can take action to make a difference.

Asks-and answers-the troubling question: Why have the civil rights hopes of the 1960s not yet been realized?

Demonstrates the relationship between what happens in everyday life and racism’s persistence

Provides insightful historical context for racism as it exists in the 21st century

Presents a framework for understanding how social forces preserve racism

Offers a refreshingly optimistic perspective that racism can be overcome