Research Guides: Racial Justice Resources for Activists, Advocates &amp; Allies: Structural &amp; Systemic Racism

How to use this guide: Structural & Systemic Racism

Scroll through or click on a link below to explore the topics on this page

Kimberly Jones gives a powerful, eloquent speech that needs to be heard by everyone, she explains in detail why this is happening (racism across 450 years) and the difference between protesting, rioting and looting in 2020. On Saturday May 30th filmmaker and photographer David Jones of David Jones Media felt compelled to go out and serve the community in some way. He decided to use his art to try and explain the events that were currently impacting our lives. On day two, Sunday the 31st, he activated his dear friend author Kimberly Jones to tag along and conduct interviews. During a moment of downtime he captured these powerful words from her and felt the world couldn’t wait for the full length documentary, they needed to hear them now.

Structural & systemic racism: some definitions

Institutionalized Oppression

Institutions are fairly stable social arrangements and practices through which collective actions are taken. Examples of institutions in the U.S. include the legal, educational, health care, social service, government, media and criminal justice systems. Institutional Oppression is the systematic mistreatment of people within a social identity group, supported and enforced by the society and its institutions, solely based on the person’s membership in the social identity group.

Institutional Oppression occurs when established laws, customs, and practices systematically reflect and produce inequities based on one’s membership in targeted social identity groups. If oppressive consequences accrue to institutional laws, customs, or practices, the institution is oppressive whether or not the individuals maintaining those practices have oppressive intentions. Institutional Oppression creates a system of invisible barriers limiting people based on their membership in unfavored social identity groups. The barriers are only invisible to those “seemingly” unaffected by it. The practice of institutionalized oppression is based on the belief in inherent superiority or inferiority. Institutionalized oppression is a matter of result regardless of intent.

Structural Racism is a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist.

Systemic Racism: In many ways “systemic racism” and “structural racism” are synonymous. If there is a difference between the terms, it can be said to exist in the fact that a structural racism analysis pays more attention to the historical, cultural and social psychological aspects of our currently racialized society.

(Source: Aspen Institute)

Systemic Racism (also called structural or institutional racism) - racism that exists across a society within, and between institutions/organizations across society

Refers to the complex interactions of large scale societal systems, practices, ideologies, and programs that produce and and perpetuate inequities for racial minorities. The key aspect of structural or systematic racism is that these macro-level mechanisms operate independent of the intentions and actions of individuals, so that even if individual racism is not present, the adverse conditions and inequalities for racial minorities will continue to exist (Gee & Ford, 2011).
Examples: housing discrimination, government surveillance, social segregation, racial profiling, predatory banking, access to healthcare, hiring/promotion practices, mandatory minimum sentences (Fitchburg State Libguide)

Systemic Racism impacts the lives of BIPOC citizens in some, but not limited to, areas:

Criminal Justice/ law enforcement/ policing / mandatory minimum sentences

Discrimination

Employment practices / hiring / promotions / salaries

Government surveillance

Healthcare /medicine

Housing

Land ownership

Technology, algorithmic racism

Structural & Systemic Racism: videos

How do we span the racial wealth gap? | William A. Darity Jr. | TEDxDurham:
In this talk, William Darity proposes a bold solution he has created to span the racial wealth gap. Darity’s research focuses on inequality by race, class and ethnicity, stratification economics, schooling and the racial achievement gap, North-South theories of trade and development, skin shade and labor market outcomes, the economics of reparations, the Atlantic slave trade and the Industrial Revolution, the history of economics, and the social psychological effects of exposure to unemployment.

Systemic Racism Explained
Systemic racism affects every area of life in the US. From incarceration rates to predatory loans, and trying to solve these problems requires changes in major parts of our system. Here's a closer look at what systemic racism is, and how we can solve it.

WHAT IS SYSTEMIC RACISM? [VIDEOS]
What Is Systemic Racism?" is an 8-part video series that shows how racism shows up in our lives across institutions and society: Wealth Gap, Employment, Housing Discrimination, Government Surveillance, Incarceration, Drug Arrests, Immigration Arrests, Infant Mortality… yes, systemic racism is really a thing.

Structural & Systemic Racism: podcasts

Code Switch (NPR Podcast)
a multiracial, multigenerational group of journalists who explore how race affects every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between.
A Founding Contradiction: Thomas Jefferson's Stance On Slavery (NPR's Hidden Brain)
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." …these very same words — affirming the equality and dignity of all — were written by a man who owned hundreds of slaves, and fathered six children by an enslaved woman. And yet these very same words — affirming the equality and dignity of all — were written by a man who owned hundreds of slaves, and fathered six children by an enslaved woman, Sally Hemings, the contradictions embedded in Jefferson's life are "a window into us, into who we are as Americans."
Systematic Inequality in America (Center for American Progress)
This series examines the impact of structural racism on present-day outcomes for people of color
The Whiteness Of Wealth' Probes Why Black Americans Pay Higher Taxes
Chances are, if you're a white taxpayer in the U.S., you're getting a better deal than Black Americans.

Structural & Systemic Racism: web resources

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.'s 19-Day Self-Education Challenge (UC Libraries)
- Week 1: Reparations - https://sway.office.com/wpEUthwSmEunEVoD?ref=Link&loc=mysways
- Week 2: Police Brutality - https://sway.office.com/80L0xGLBzubNWruc?ref=Link&loc=mysways
- Week 3: Equity in Healthcare: - https://sway.office.com/cmab4KcTGH4ltRGO?ref=Link
- Week 4: Equity in Education - https://sway.office.com/DiKP3Hc4czJ16cbD?ref=Link

6 policies to address social problems affecting Black boys and men
Policymakers must pay particular attention to the intersection of institutionalized racism and sexism in society and they must be intentional with their support for Black boys and men. Anything less than systemic change will allow the current system to continue to function as it was originally designed—to the detriment of Black men. To that end, the experts identified six key policy areas to systemically address the challenges Black boys and men face
The Black Tax: Why African Americans Must Work Harder to Build Wealth
The black tax begins in childhood and can rob a person of the ability to build wealth. After 400 years in this country, black families hold a fraction of the wealth of white families. And that is due, in part, to what is referred to as the "black tax." The term "black tax" is commonly used in South Africa, where it refers to the financial support that black professionals are expected to give their extended families. In the U.S. it also describes the racial dimensions that perpetuate a cycle of inequality such as lower pay and a lower standard of education. In practice, it is why the Institute of Policy Studies reports that 37% of black families have zero or negative wealth -- meaning their debts are equal to or greater than their assets -- compared to just 15.5% of white families.
Data Capitalism and Algorithmic Racism (Yeshimabeit Milner, Amy Traub)
Big companies are using data to preserve the power imbalance that keeps them rich. This economic model is rooted in chattel slavery and relies on the extraction and commodification of data. This paper makes the case that the underlying driver is data capitalism: an economic model built on the extraction and commodification of data and the use of big data and algorithms as tools to concentrate and consolidate power in ways that dramatically increase inequality along lines of race, class, gender, and disability.
Data for Black Lives (D4BL)
a movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of our social and economic lives. These new data systems have tremendous potential to empower communities of color. Tools like statistical modeling, data visualization, and crowd-sourcing, in the right hands, are powerful instruments for fighting bias, building progressive movements, and promoting civic engagement. But history tells a different story, one in which data is too often wielded as an instrument of oppression, reinforcing inequality and perpetuating injustice. Redlining was a data-driven enterprise that resulted in the systematic exclusion of Black communities from key financial services. More recent trends like predictive policing, risk-based sentencing, and predatory lending are troubling variations on the same theme. Today, discrimination is a high-tech enterprise.
The Economic State of Black America in 2020
Evaluating the economic state of Black America requires acknowledging that while the United
States has made some progress, very large disparities continue to exist. Recognizing both the
progress and the challenges is essential to ensuring that all Americans, including Black
Americans, have a realistic chance to achieve success
Here’s what the “Black tax” does to so many families — including mine
As a money coach and a Black woman, I’ve seen the racial wealth disparity firsthand.
The Race Gap: How U.S. systemic racism plays out in Black lives + INFOGRAPHIC
Inequality between white and Black Americans persists in almost every aspect of society and the economy. Such disadvantages have proven immune to decades of laws and policies meant to address them, leaving Black people with less education, less wealth, poorer health and shorter lifespans. Together, the disparities reflect what many have labeled systemic racism amid the mass protests that followed the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer in May. [see Infographic]
Racism, Inequality, and Health Care for African Americans
The American health care system in beset with inequalities that have a disproportionate impact on people of color and other marginalized groups. These inequalities contribute to gaps in health insurance coverage, uneven access to services, and poorer health outcomes among certain populations. African Americans bear the brunt of these health care challenges.
The Roots of Structural Racism Project: Twenty-First Century Racial Residential Segregation in the United States (Othering & Belonging Inst.)
The Roots of Structural Racism Project was unveiled in June 2021 after several years of investigating the persistence of racial residential segregation across the United States. Among the many components included in this project are the national segregation report which contains startling findings about the intensification of racial residential segregation in recent decades; an interactive mapping tool that illustrates the level of segregation in every city, region and neighborhood in the country; a collection of tables which list cities and metropolitan regions by various measures of segregation and political polarization; nine city profiles noteworthy for their levels of segregation or integration; and a literature review featuring dozens of local city histories.
The Staggering Cost of Being Black in America
Armed with the tools of modern finance, engineer and businessman Shawn Rochester ’97 offers an accounting.
The systemic racism Black Americans face, explained in 9 charts
The current protests — and the anger that fuels them — did not spring up out of nowhere. They are a cry of pain from a raw nerve that has always afflicted the United States, one that was all too often ignored.
Structural racism and health inequities
This article reviews several ways of conceptualizing structural racism, with a focus on social segregation, immigration policy, and intergenerational effects. Studies of disparities should more seriously consider the multiple dimensions of structural racism as fundamental causes of health disparities.
The Structural Racism Remedies Project (Othering & Belonging Inst.)
an overview of our open-source, searchable repository of policy-based recommendations for addressing structural and systemic racism or advancing racial equity drawn from a vast array of published material.
The Structural Racism Remedies Repository (Othering & Belonging Inst.)
This a repository of policy-based recommendations for addressing structural and systemic racism or advancing racial equity drawn from a vast array of published material.
To protect Black women and save America from itself, elect Black women (JULY 2020)
Representation matters to our political mental health. The fact that all but one president (and every vice president) in the history of the United States has been a white man would be completely unbelievable if the American psyche didn’t see leadership as equating to that one demographic. Today, Black women elected officials—[Shirley] Chisholm’s spiritual children—are not only representing people but also remedying the sick American psyche with every chair they bring to the table.
Tulsa Race Massacre Sidelined Legacy of Black Wealth in Greenwood
The community now known as ‘Black Wall Street’ has become a symbol of the challenges Black communities face in building and sustaining wealth
Why are most digital technology developers white men?
Youth of color and young women are the demographic groups that use social media the most. But they are also the least represented among digital technology developers, who are predominantly adult white males.

Structural & Systemic Racism: books

The Address Book: what street addresses reveal about identity, race, wealth, and power by Deirdre Mask
Call Number: HE336.S77 M37 2020
ISBN: 9781250134769
Publication Date: 2020-04-14
The story of how streets got their names and houses their numbers, and why something as seemingly mundane as an address can save lives or enforce power.
Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble
ISBN: 9781479849949
Publication Date: 2018-02-20
Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color. Through an analysis of textual and media searches as well as extensive research on paid online advertising, Noble exposes a culture of racism and sexism in the way discoverability is created online. As search engines and their related companies grow in importance--operating as a source for email, a major vehicle for primary and secondary school learning, and beyond--understanding and reversing these disquieting trends and discriminatory practices is of utmost importance. An original, surprising and, at times, disturbing account of bias on the internet, Algorithms of Oppression contributes to our understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in the 21st century.
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Call Number: LANGSAM Stacks E185.61 .R8185 2017
ISBN: 9781631492853
Publication Date: 2017-05-02
Richard Rothstein, a leading authority on housing policy, explodes the myth that America's cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation--that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law incontrovertibly makes it clear that it was de jure segregation--the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments--that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.
The Hidden Cost of Being African American: how wealth perpetuates inequality by Thomas M. Shapiro
Call Number: LANGSAM Stacks E185.8 .S53 2004
ISBN: 019515147X
Publication Date: 2004-02-05
Over the past three decades, racial prejudice in America has declined significantly and many African American families have seen a steady rise in employment and annual income. But alongside these encouraging signs, Thomas Shapiro argues in The Hidden Cost of Being African American, fundamental levels of racial inequality persist, particularly in the area of asset accumulation--inheritance, savings accounts, stocks, bonds, home equity, and other investments-.
How capitalism underdeveloped Black America : problems in race, political economy, and society by Manning Marable; Leith Mullings (Foreword by)
Call Number: E185.8 .M2 2015
ISBN: 9781608465118
Publication Date: 2015-10-27
a classic study of the intersection of racism and class in the United States. It has become a standard text for courses in American politics and history, and has been central to the education of thousands of political activists since the 1980s. This edition is presented with a new foreword by Leith Mullings.
How We Can Win by Kimberly Jones
Call Number: OhioLINK
ISBN: 9781250805126
Publication Date: 2022-01-18
Jones delves into the impacts of systemic racism and reveals how her formative years in Chicago gave birth to a lifelong devotion to justice. Here, in an expansion of her declaration, she calls for Reconstruction 2.0, a multilayered plan to reclaim economic and social restitutions--those restitutions promised with emancipation but blocked, again and again, for more than 150 years. And, most of all, Jones delivers strategies for how we can effect change as citizens and allies while nurturing ourselves--the most valuable asset we have--in the fight against a system that is still rigged
Know Your Price: valuing black lives and property in America's black cities by Andre M. Perry
ISBN: 9780815737278
Publication Date: 2020-05-19
Provides an intimate look at the assets that should be of greater value to residents--and that can be if they demand it. Perry provides a new means of determining the value of Black communities. Rejecting policies shaped by flawed perspectives of the past and present, it gives fresh insights on the historical effects of racism and provides a new value paradigm to limit them in the future. Know Your Price demonstrates the worth of Black people's intrinsic personal strengths, real property, and traditional institutions. These assets are a means of empowerment and, as Perry argues in this provocative and very personal book, are what we need to know and understand to build Black prosperity.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Call Number: HV9950 .A437 2010
ISBN: 9781595581037
Publication Date: 2010-01-05
Despite the triumphant dismantling of the Jim Crow Laws, the system that once forced African Americans into a segregated second-class citizenship still haunts America, the US criminal justice system still unfairly targets black men and an entire segment of the population is deprived of their basic rights. Outside of prisons, a web of laws and regulations discriminates against these wrongly convicted ex-offenders in voting, housing, employment and education. Alexander here offers an urgent call for justice.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Call Number: LANGSAM Stacks E169.1 .Z53 2003
ISBN: 9780060838652
Publication Date: 2005-08-02
A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women. factory workers. African Americans. Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers. Revised and updated with two new chapters covering Clinton's presidency, the 2000 Election, and the "war on terrorism." A People's History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. Open-minded readers will prophet from Professor Zinn's account, and historians may view it as a step toward a coherent new version of American history
Race after Technology: abolitionist tools for the new Jim code by Ruha Benjamin
Call Number: LANGSAM Cohen HN90.I56 B46 2019
ISBN: 9781509526406
Publication Date: 2019-06-17
From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce white supremacy and deepen social inequity. Far from a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, Benjamin argues that automation has the potential to hide, speed, and even deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racism of a previous era. Presenting the concept of the New Jim Code, she shows how a range of discriminatory designs encode inequity: by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies, by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions, or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Moreover, she makes a compelling case for race itself as a kind of tool a technology designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice that is part of the architecture of everyday life.
Race for Profit: how banks and the real estate industry undermined Black homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
ISBN: 9781469653662
Publication Date: 2019-10-21
Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned. The same racist structures and individuals remained intact after redlining's end, and close relationships between regulators and the industry created incentives to ignore improprieties. Meanwhile, new policies meant to encourage low-income homeownership created new methods to exploit Black homeowners
Racial Domination, Racial Progress by Matthew Desmond; Mustafa Emirbayer
Call Number: LANGSAM Stacks E184.A1 D36 2009
ISBN: 9780072970517
Publication Date: 2009-10-08
Racial Domination, Racial Progress: The Sociology of Race in America looks at race in a clear and accessible way, allowing students to understand how racial domination and progress work in all aspects of society. Examining how race is not a matter of separate entities but of systems of social relations, this text unpacks how race works in the political, economic, residential, legal, educational, aesthetic, associational, and intimate fields of social life.
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
ISBN: 9781568584638
Publication Date: 2016
racist ideas in this country have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history.
Systemic Racism in the United States by Robbie W. C. Tourse; Johnnie Hamilton-Mason; Nancy J. Wewiorski
ISBN: 9783319722320
Publication Date: 2018-05-30
Examines the sociology of discrimination as a constant in daily life. Traces the history of the legalization of racism in the United States. Locates key manifestations of racism in the American psyche. Links racism to other forms of discrimination. Identifies the interlocking components of institutionalized racism. Offers contemporary examples of resistance to racism.
The Whiteness of Wealth by Dorothy A. Brown
ISBN: 9780525577324
Publication Date: 2021-03-23
The Whiteness of Wealth, Brown draws on decades of cross-disciplinary research to show that tax law isn't as color-blind as she'd once believed. She takes us into her adopted city of Atlanta, introducing us to families across the economic spectrum whose stories demonstrate how American tax law rewards the preferences and practices of white people while pushing black people further behind. From attending college to getting married to buying a home, black Americans find themselves at a financial disadvantage compared to their white peers. The results are an ever-increasing wealth gap and more black families shut out of the American dream. Solving the problem will require a wholesale rethinking of America's tax code. But it will also require both black and white Americans to make different choices. This urgent, actionable book points the way forward.
White Rage by Carol Anderson
Call Number: LANGSAM E185.61 .A5438
ISBN: 9781632864123
Publication Date: 2016-05-31
Since 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains.