Structural Racism
Overview
The complex system by which racism is developed, maintained and protected is often referred to as structural racism. The term was developed in part to help people working towards racial equity emphasize the idea that racism in society is a system, with a clear structure, and with multiple components. Per the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change, a group doing important work to help others understand structural racism, “the term structural racism refers to a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity….the structural racism lens allows us to see that, as a society, we more or less take for granted a context of white leadership, dominance, and privilege. This dominant consensus on race is the frame that shapes our attitudes and judgments about social issues. It has come about as a result of the way that historically accumulated white privilege, national values, and contemporary culture have interacted so as to preserve the gaps between white Americans and Americans of color." The term structural racialization has also become popular more recently (See Dr. john a. powell’s work). The idea of racialization is being used for two reasons. First, to avoid some of the negative response to the term “racism,” and second, to emphasize the processes by which institutions and systems create and maintain racism – not, at this point, the actions of individual people acting out of their own individual, conscious racism.
This section also includes resources on “systems thinking.” Systems thinking can also help people to understand why changes in multiple sectors are likely to be required to make genuinely sustainable progress towards racial equity in a particular sphere, such as education, health or economic security. It can thus help identify both entry points for change and links among those entry points.
- Dismantling Structural Racism: A Racial Equity Theory of Change
- The Five Faces of Oppression
- Operationalizing a Structural Racism Framework: A Guide for Community Level Research and Action
- Post Racialism or Targeted Universalism
- PRAAC Structural Racism Issue
- Questions for Grantmakers: Understanding How Structural Racism Affects Grantees
- Structural Racism and Community Building
- Different Approaches For Those Situated Differently
- The Unequal Opportunity Race
- Understanding Structural Change
- Challenging Racialized Structures and Moving Towards Justice
- Place Matters Design Lab Fourteen: Structural Racism, Privilege, and Policy: A Systems Perspective
- Systems Thinking and Race: Workshop Summary
- Race, Power and Policy: Dismantling Structural Racism
- A Structural Analysis of Oppression
- Structural Racism in the United States: A Report to the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the Occasion of its Review of the Periodic Report of the United States of America
- Structural Racism
- A Framework For Understanding The Causes Of Racial Inequities In 21st Century America
- Deepening Our Understanding of Structural Marginalization
- Response to Ferguson: Systemic Problems Require Systemic Solutions
- What is Systemic Racism? A Video Series
- The Painful and Dangerous Message: Only Black Deaths Matter
- The House that Racism Built
- Facts Matter! Black Lives Matter! The Trauma of Racism
- Targeted Universalism video
- The Racial Politics of Time
- Race Equity Crosswalk Tool: Targeted and Universal Strategies Achieve Better and More Equitable Results
- Getting to Yes: How to Generate Consensus for Targeted Universalism
- The Problem of Othering: Towards Inclusiveness and Belonging
- What Do We Mean When We Say, “Structural Racism”?: A Walk
Systems Thinking
- Systems Primer
- Using Systems Concepts to Navigate Complexity: The Systems Field is Big...
- Dancing With Systems
- Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
- Discussion Guide: American Denial
- Systems Tools & Resources
- Whole Systems Change: A Framework & First Steps for Social/Economic Transformation
- Structural Racialization A Systems Approach to Understanding the Causes and Consequences of Racial Inequity
- A Guide to Ecocycle Mapping: A Tool for Supporting Systems Thinking
- The Systems Thinker
- Targeted Universalism: Policy and Practice
