ABSTRACT
Whether through the generation or implementation of policy, public administration can play a role in institutionalizing racial categories, biases, and unequal outcomes but also has important opportunities to promote racial equity within and beyond the public sector. These often create simultaneous but contradictory effects. This chapter considers a range of social and historical contexts around the world that shape modern discussions of race in particular countries and argues that this same context should play a large role in understanding how public administrators can seek to achieve racial equity in their local, state, and national jurisdictions today. Arguments presented are illustrated with cases from the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Korea, three countries with dramatically different racial compositions and significant variance in public policy approaches to race. Although no single chapter or study can present the issues of race and public administration in every possible international context, the diversity between the countries discussed here demonstrates the ways that such issues are considered and addressed.
