Administrative racism: Public administration education and race

ABSTRACT

Public administration has an ethical problem with race and racism. Researchers find that race is a nervous area of government public administrators avoid confronting, resulting in their eschewing discretion and creating administrative evil. Administrative racism occurs when administrators rely on technical rationality to avoid making difficult decisions about race. The authors argue public administration curricula must prepare students to address the root causes of racism. There is a need for race-conscious pedagogy to prepare administrators to competently negotiate this nervous area of government. This article presents one model for public administration programs to better prepare students to respond to ethical dilemmas dealing with race and racism. Drawing on critical race in education, this essay presents a race-conscious public administration dialogue, links this dialogue to public management ethics, and specifies a classroom-tested antiracist pedagogy for public administration.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural competency
• diversity
• ethics
• teaching

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anthony M. Starke

Anthony M. Starke is a PhD candidate at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He received his MPA from the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Nuri Heckler

Nuri Heckler is a research assistant and PhD student at the University of Colorado Denver. He received his JD from the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver in 2008.

Janiece Mackey

Janiece Mackey is a PhD student at the University of Denver, where she is pursuing a degree in curriculum and instruction with a public policy emphasis.