Racism, structural and institutional

Abstract

Institutional and structural racism are sociological explanations for racism as more than individual prejudice, and as a deep‐seated and ongoing force in contemporary societies that produce racially structured patterns of inequality that recur in spite of equality before the law and antidiscrimination policies. Such patterns can be seen across many aspects of society, such as employment, housing, and law enforcement. Institutional/structural racism is also evident in ideologies at national and global levels through "color blind" perspectives as well as Eurocentrism. In theory and in practice they are best thought of as working through an interacting and intersecting combination of individual/group, cultural, and structural processes and forces.