Racism operates through routine practices that reproduce hierarchical structures

Evidence

The concept of everyday racism defies the view that racism is either an individual problem or an institutional problem. When we reduce racism to personal prejudices we get easily misled into believing that the psychology of the prejudiced person is the main problem. The development of alternative conceptualizations of racism, that is, a shift from intent (the motive behind discrimination) to outcome (the effect of discrimination to the lives of discriminated groups) has greatly benefited from critical US publications. The Kerner Report (Kerner Commission, 1968) a study of the conditions of black riots, benchmarked a structural approach, later captured in the notion of “institutional racism” (Carmichael and Hamilton, 1967). The institutional dimension refers to cooperative systems forming part of the ruling apparatus. Institutions embody cultural values organized around a distinctive function — education, health care, law, housing, media, and the like (Smith, 1987). Racism is ideologically mediated through actual practices in all these institutions. This means that the taken-for-granted feeling that one’s own group comes first, the idea that people of a different racial and ethnic background are less competent, less civilized, a cultural threat, or less intelligent operates (latently) when “individuals in carrying out the routine practices of their employment or institution produce outcomes which in their effect discriminate against members of ethnic minority populations” (Husband, 1991:53). Discrimination occurs whether or not actors are aware of their attitudes and motives. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1473 (#expands, via linked claim)

Surprisingly little attention is paid to the role of the subordinate racial group, perhaps on the grounds that it is whites who create and maintain racial hierarchy. But as a rich and growing historical literature makes clear, the dominated always participate in that process of creation, and not just as helpless victims and objects. Even when they act from a position of weakness and disadvantage, their actions and decisions play a central role in determining the course of historical change. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3583 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: When overt racism is socially shed, its institutional force persists across all mapped regions — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1906; Industrial clustering creates a self-reinforcing cycle that masks underlying racism as market process.; Social justice silos must yield to analysis of intertwining hierarchies’ shared logic. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 838 (+20 more)

Broader Connections

• Racism operates through routine practices, not only individual prejudice or formal institutions #expands (0.93) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1473
• Subordinated racial groups actively participate in creating and maintaining hierarchy #complicates (0.74) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3583