In this compelling book the author contends that social equity--specifically racial equity--is a nervous area of government. Over the course of history, this nervousness has stifled many individuals and organizations, thus leading to an inability to seriously advance the reduction of racial inequities in government. The author asserts that until this nervousness is effectively managed, public administration social equity efforts designed to reduce racial inequities cannot realize their full potential.

Chapters 2 and 8 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Susan Tinsley Gooden is a professor of public administration and public policy in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs and executive director of the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and has published widely in the areas of social equity and social policy. A native of Martinsville, Virginia, she received an AS in natural science from Patrick Henry Community College, a BA in English from Virginia Tech, and an MA in political science from Virginia Tech. She received her PhD from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

1. Nervousness, Social Equity, and Public Administration 2. The Saturation of Racial Inequities in the United States 3. Nervousness Within Individual Public Administrators 4. Nervousness in Public Sector Organizations, 5. Seattle's Race and Social Justice Initiative 6. Assessing Agency Performance: The Wisconsin Experience 7. Making Racial Equity Work Visible: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 8. Assessing Racial Equity in Government 9. Beyond the Diversity Plan: Overcoming Racial Nervousness Within MPA Programs 10. Nervousness in a Comparative Context 11. Principles for Conquering Nervousness in Government