The Political Economy of Racism

"Informed and interesting. Students and scholars of all theoretical stripes will enjoy and benefit from this work...There is much that will appeal to anyone interested in learning the roots of racial discrimination in American society...a thoughtful, comprehensive, and provocative book." Contemporary Sociology

"A welcome construction of a materialist explanation fior the persistence of racism." Journal of Economic Literature

This important book examines race through the lens of economic and institutional realities, from antebellum slavery to present-day ongoing racial disparities. Leiman argues that institutional racism---beyond simply individual prejudice or misunderstanding---has been, and continues to remain, a central factor in American life. Housing, jobs, the criminal justice system, and every realm of social relations in the United States have been scarred by racial disperity and injustice.

Leiman argues that the persistence of racism functions as a disciplinary mechanism of social control in an unequal society where money and power have frequently been threatened by interracial social struggle.

Melvin M. Leiman is an emeritus professor in the Department of Economics at Binghamton University, New York and has written widely on political economy and racism.