Introduction: Building, Sustaining, and Supporting the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Community

Introduction: Building, Sustaining, and Supporting the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Community

By Nadia E. Brown, Purdue University, and Nazita Lajevardi, Michigan State University

Racial and ethnic minorities are grossly underrepresented in political science. APSA’s most recent Diversity and Inclusion Report (2018) indicates that only 3.2% of members are Black Afro-Caribbean or African American, 6.9% are East Asian or Asian American, 4.5% are Latino or Hispanic American, 0.2% are Native American, 1.1% are Middle Eastern, 1.6% are South Asian or Indian American, and 3.2% are other.1 Moreover, these individuals are concentrated primarily in some fields and informally excluded from others. For instance, the same APSA report found that membership of scholars of color is overrepresented in the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (REP) organized section: 22.2% are Black, Afro-Caribbean, or African American; 8.47% are East Asian or Asian American; 13.7% are Latino or Hispanic American; and only 38.14% are Non-Hispanic White or Euro-American. Comparatively, their membership in the Methodology organized section is staggeringly low: 80.72% of members are NonHispanic White but only 4.37% are Latino or Hispanic American, 4.88% are East Asian or Asian American, and 1.29% are Black or African American.

• Read the full article.
• PS: Political Science & Politics, Volume 52, Issue 4, October 2019, pp. 1