Abstract

RANDALL, Jennifer. The House that Hate Built: Fixing the Mess We Made. Aval. psicol. [online]. 2025, vol.24, n.spe1, e25632.  Epub Sep 05, 2025. ISSN 1677-0471.  https://doi.org/10.15689/ap.2025.24.e25632.

The long-standing entrenchment of racism as a societal norm, along with its pervasive influence on large-scale assessment systems, continues to perpetuate racial and ethnic injustice globally. White supremacist logics underpin systemic oppression across institutions in North America (e.g., Canada & the United States), South America (e.g., Brazil), and Europe, manifesting in criminal justice systems, social services, and education settings. This manuscript highlights how assessment tools, shaped by racist logics, contribute to the marginalization and dehumanization of racially and ethnically minoritized populations. I describe how psychometric methods often perpetuate oppressive ideologies, resulting in assessments that function as discriminatory practices under the guise of objective measures of merit. I also propose a path forward aimed at disrupting these logics. This manuscript presents a justice-oriented approach to assessment design that is unapologetically antiracist and aims to disrupt the historical legacy of white supremacist and racist logics (rooted in hate) within the fields of assessment and measurement. This approach requires (a) collective responsibility for pursuing justice, regardless of our role in the system; (b) the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation system; (c) investment in developing the critical consciousness of the entire assessment/measurement field; (d) transparency; (e) respect for the cultural norms of the world’s majority; and (f) a commitment to seeking evidence of justice in our measures, rather than simply removing bias. I advocate for an overarching ethos of love (justice is love) to actively correct the harm inflicted on racially and ethnically minoritized populations and reframe assessments as tools for liberation.

Keywords : justice-oriented assessment; assessment justice; measurement justice.

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