About Barbara

Barbara Trepagnier was born in 1940 in Houston, Texas. She attended college at the University of Houston in her forties—after several of her four daughters had already graduated. She completed her doctoral work in sociology at University of California in Santa Barbara in 1996, and at that time returned to Texas. She teaches sociology at Texas State University-San Marcos, and has recently joined the Task Force on Racial Disproportionality, sponsored by Texas Child Protective Services and Casey Families.

Dr. T. (as her students call her) has received a number of teaching awards while at Texas State, and has recently been promoted to full professor. Silent Racism is her first book.

My interest in studying race issues is fueled by a salient memory of myself as a young mother in a small Texas town during the 1960s. I remember seeing the thousands of civil rights activists in the 1965 March on Washington on television. I wanted desperately to be there but could not manage it with three young children. I felt as though I were missing out on an opportunity to publicly declare my stand against racism, to march side by side with others who cared about ending racial inequality. For many years I focused on other things besides racism, my concern about inequality buried under the routine concerns of everyday life. During those years, I undoubtedly was a bigger part of the problem than of the solution concerning racism. My commitment to racial equality was rekindled years later, and the ideas presented here are an effort to contribute now to the solution. - Barbara Trepagnier

Barbara resides in San Marcos, Texas, where she spends a good deal of time in her garden when she is not teaching or writing. Her house and gardens have won several awards.