INSTITUTIONAL RACISM
Why Some Confront Personal Racism, Refuse to See Institutional Racism
They’re missing the forest for the trees
When it comes to racism, some Americans are missing the forest for the trees, so focused on personal racism that they’re blinded to the broader problem of institutional racism. In their 1967 book, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation, Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton first identified the layered phenomenon of racism. “It takes two, closely related forms… we call these individual racism and institutional racism. The first consists of overt acts by individuals … the second type is less overt, far more subtle, less identifiable in terms of specific individuals committing acts … and thus receives far less public condemnation than the first type.” When someone openly exhibits racism, the public will scold them for breaking social decorum. However, since institutional racism manifests in more nuanced ways, people are less likely to notice or acknowledge its impact.
Examples of institutional racism are plentiful. Black Americans experience discrimination in the housing, education, healthcare, and employment sectors. They are disproportionately punished within the criminal justice system. One 2018 survey, for instance, found that 100% of Black National Football League…
