RESIST
racial empowerment, self-awareness,
and investigations of systemic transformation
We have adopted the term RESIST as a reminder that we are dedicated to resisting the dehumanizing experience of racism and empowering individuals in the struggle towards justice and well-being. We encourage you to look at our work and share this site with others, to interact with us on Instagram, to participate in our research, and to join us in working towards a more equitable and healthier society.
Alex L. Pieterse, Ph.D.
When reduced to its essence, research is simply another type of story-telling.
As such, RESIST (Racial Empowerment, Self-Awareness and Investigations of Systemic Transformation), is a research project dedicated to telling the story of how racism harms, and how it can be resisted.
Our mission is to bring awareness to the manner in which racism impacts the health and well-being of individuals and society, and to discover ways in which racism can be challenged, confronted, and overcome at both the individual and systemic levels.
Racism is an ideology of racial superiority with an accompanying set of social structures and interpersonal behaviors that are associated with dominance and oppression. Within American society, the historical record clearly indicates that assumed racial superiority is associated with European heritage and assigned racial inferiority is applied to individuals of non-European heritage, also known as People of Color (Pieterse & Powell, 2016)
Empowerment is a process by which people gain mastery of their affairs…and leads us to look for solutions to problems with living. Terms associated with the idea of empowerment include self-determination, and the giving of authority (Rappaport, 1987)
Self Awareness is a state of being conscious of one’ s thoughts, feelings, beliefs, behaviors and attitudes (Pieterse, Lee, Ritmeester, & Collins, 2013)