Can Social Justice Live in a House of Structural Racism? A Question for the Field of Evaluation

Abstract

This article questions whether social justice can live within the structural racism present in the field of evaluation. Structural racism refers to the totality of ways in which societies foster racial discrimination through mutually reinforcing systems of housing, education, employment, earnings, benefits, credit, media, health care, and criminal justice. In order for social justice to be a professional standard of evaluation, the field must recognize, identify, and modify persistent learned behaviors associated with structural racism. We assert that all evaluators, regardless of demographic designation, are subject to perpetuating structural and institutional racism, found in the history and systems of the profession, by tacitly accepting the status quo norms of evaluation practice. Current norms, policies, and practices compromise the normalization of social justice in evaluation. Evaluators sanctioned and reinforced by their professional association, the American Evaluation Association, have the power to modify behaviors of evaluators that perpetuate social injustice in the discipline and field of professional evaluation. We highlight pioneering literature that intellectually protest and position paradigm shifts for equity. We acknowledge the presence of racial and ethnic colleagues, and professional statements about social justice as confrontations to structural racism found in the history and systems of the evaluation field. Finally, we propose a framework for professional behavior modification as a strategy for the extinction of structural racism in evaluation and assert that social justice can only be realized when structural racism is eradicated.