Leading the Charge: A Look Inside the Behavior Analysis in Practice Emergency Series of Publications on Systemic Racism and Police Brutality
Behavior analysts must use their science to dismantle racist systems instead of staying silent.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kremkow et al. (2022) wrote the opening piece for a special issue on racism in the journal Behavior Analysis in Practice.
They did not run an experiment. They summarized every paper in the issue and told readers why the field must act.
What they found
The authors found that behavior analysts have been quiet while Black clients and coworkers face harm.
They say our science gives us tools to change racist systems, so staying silent breaks our own ethics code.
How this fits with other research
Watson-Thompson et al. (2022) extend this call by handing you a map: the Social-Ecological Model. It shows how to shift contingencies at staff, agency, and policy levels.
Belisle et al. (2022) extend it again. They give you an RFT lens so you can measure and change the relational networks that keep racism alive.
Capriotti et al. (2022) replicate the same activist stance, but for sexual and gender minority people. The message pattern is identical: use our science to protect marginalized groups.
Why it matters
You no longer have to guess how to fight racism with behavior analysis. Read the issue, pick one tool (SEM, RFT, or policy scripts), and test it in your clinic or school this month. Every delay keeps harmful contingencies in place for the Black clients we serve.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This article introduces the "<i>Behavior Analysis in Practice</i> Emergency Series of Publications on Systemic Racism and Police Brutality." After the murder of George Floyd, the behavior analytic community was charged to respond in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King's challenge to social scientists. The charge of Dr. King was to explain real life phenomena negatively affecting the Black community. This series covered a wide range of topics with the intent of creating solutions that may be used to address remnants of the overarching impact of systemic racism and anti-Blackness. In this editorial, we provide an overview of the major themes of the accepted articles, some personal accounts of the editorial team, context for the special issue, discuss the contributions of the included articles, and a discussion of the areas in need of further work.
, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s40617-022-00759-9