x Introduction inequities were conceptualized and discussed in the four-volume Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination (Chin, 2004) through contemporary lenses, we find that the 2004 series focused mostly on discrete aspects of indi­ vidual identity such as race, gender, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic sta­ tus, sexual orientation, physique, and disability within varying contexts such as work and academia. Moreover, these individualized identities were viewed through a unidimensional lens. Today, our emphasis is on intersectionality with greater recognition of the different statuses across identities that a single person may carry and how these identities often interact with one another, making for the complexity of addressing ineq- uities. Intersectionality was first introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989), who indicated that an individual’s identity consists of different aspects (i.e., “African American” and “woman”) with overlapping effects creat- ing multiple levels of social injustice, although the concept only became salient decades later. Compared to Caucasian males’ median earnings, African American men were paid 72.5 percent of those earnings and Caucasian females were paid 81 percent, but African American women were paid only 68 percent. This example suggests that the intersection of gender and race for African American women is disadvantageous when considering the multiple layers of social injustice they have experienced (Economic Policy Institute, 2021). The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination (Chin, 2004), also primarily focused on the discrete expressions of inequity rather than the underly­ ing connectivity of those inequities to one another. The COVID-19 era has exposed how inequities have contributed to psychological vulnerabili- ties for people of color nationally and globally. The pandemic has clearly exposed the connectivity of the individual areas of inequity, suggesting the importance of a reconceptualization of inequity as a function of col- lective and holistic inequity rather than of individualized and discrete expressions of inequity. In the past, there was an emphasis on psycho- logically bandaging the harm from those discrete expressions of inequity, whereas today we also focus on transforming the inequitable systems that contribute to the need for psychological bandaging. In other words, this book is more systemically focused to reflect a better understanding of the etiology of inequity within social systems. The chapters in this book specifically address the motivations and beliefs that sustain inequity. The book begins with an examination of how and why equities are maintained and how resistance and alliance in seeking equity are understood through a grounded theory of privilege awareness. Next, liberation psychology is used as a means to promote transformative change in the schools, followed by chapters addressing motivations and beliefs that sustain and foster inequities (i.e., microag- gressions that affect self-esteem, poverty, mental illness, and discrimina- tion in health care). Chapters following that examine the relationship of inequity to political extremism, social dominance, and the White power
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