Racism, Social Programming, and Evaluation: Where Do We Go From Here?

Recent public events have unnerved the country, touched the consciousness of the populace, and reveal the resurgence of the White supremacist movement, causing many citizens to reflect on race relations. Given the profound impact of racism deeply embedded in the fabric of this country and its complex and destructive influence on the lives of people of color in social programs and in the contexts being evaluated, evaluators and the evaluation profession must not be complicit in the status quo by ignoring issues of race and racism in our work. This article sounds a clarion call for evaluators to use their power and privilege to advance a more equitable society by “calling out” racists’ practices, unmasking inequities, and articulating participants’ experiences within their racialized environments. We unpack how racism is a complex and destructive force in evaluation contexts. In this article, we hope to stimulate evaluative thinking and action by urging evaluators to gain a deeper understanding of racism as a complex interplay of individual attitudes, social values, and institutional policies and practices and to bring these understandings to their work. While evaluators alone cannot solve the racism problem, they certainly can at least elevate this harsh reality in the discourse on the eradication of social problems that derive from a national legacy of exploitation and bigotry. As reflective practitioners and advocates for democratic ideals, evaluators have both an opportunity and responsibility to illuminate the potential impact of race and racism on the programs that we evaluate and the environments that we engage. The article concludes with specific actions that evaluators can take toward this end