Past racism was explicit, intentional, and institutionally systematic

Evidence

The politicians who interned thousands and thousands of Japanese Americans in concentration camp conditions were racists. The Governors of Arkansas and Alabama, who said segregation today and forever, these were racist. In times gone by, the racists were far from hesitant to say who was superior and who was inferior (invariably whites at the top, blacks at the bottom, Native Americans, Asians, and Latinos in between); and they were far less hesitant to implement laws to support this, and to organize the distribution of jobs, pay, housing, and education to ensure that this remained the case (Wilson, 1978). Here it is possible to see racism as the content of an ideology, or as prejudice, or as discriminatory actions; racism here is both individual and group intentions, and institutional and systematic outcomes; and racism was perpetrated by politicians and judges, the police, managers of companies, and individual citizens with malicious intent and for personal gain. These kinds of racisms were outright, explicit and clear. Racism was a ubiquitous set of beliefs and practices that systematically devalued the lives of people of color, and ensured that they were treated worst. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1815

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with contemporary accounts of ‘colorblind’ or structural racism in private-sector settings — echoes the shift argued in Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s work on ‘racism without racists’. — connects to: The end of Reconstruction coincided with the dawn of modern racism — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited: The Sixties and the…, 890; Racism operates through whole institutions and eras, not only individual intentions — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1558