Avoiding the Issue

Abstract

This article explicates the meaning of race and its institutionalization within public administration theory and practice. An argument is presented that conceptualizations of administrative responsibility in public administration have oversimplified or ignored what Gunnar Myrdal described more than 50 years ago as "the American dilemma. " Racism is an integral and often invisible component of the customary morality—a historically constructed system of meaning that establishes the customs and practices of a people. The author demonstrates that within public administration theory, administrative responsibility originates in customary morality. Brief suggestions are offered as to how administrators might confront a problem they are unable to resolve but are, nonetheless, compelled to address.