{"id":17454,"date":"2020-11-03T00:44:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T04:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=17454"},"modified":"2020-11-13T15:00:35","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T19:00:35","slug":"structural-racism-white-fragility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/structural-racism-white-fragility\/","title":{"rendered":"Structural Racism: The Harm of Systemic Inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How do you define structural racism? What are some structural racism examples?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The structural racism definition is a type of race-based discrimination that is inherent in the structures of society. It is not in the individual interactions but in the overall societal norms<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to better understand how to define structural racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Individual vs. Structural Racism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As we\u2019ve seen, overt expressions of racial hostility on the part of white people have become taboo since the civil rights era. Whereas whites of previous generations would openly and proudly proclaim their belief in the justness of white supremacy<\/a>, few would do so now. Most white people today openly profess to believe that racism (however they define it) is immoral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this shift in what white people are willing to publicly <\/strong>express <\/em><\/strong>has done nothing to dismantle the very real <\/strong>power <\/em><\/strong>of white supremacy in American life. <\/strong>In many ways, in fact, it\u2019s reinforced <\/em>racism by making it less visible for white people and giving them plausible deniability for their responsibility in upholding it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we know from the previous chapter that white people receive messages about white superiority as soon as they enter the world\u2014from media misrepresentation of minorities, the segregated spaces most white people inhabit, and the absence of minorities from positions of power in key American institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racism is not <\/em>defined by specific behaviors committed by cruel and depraved individuals. It is a structural phenomenon, a framework that defines how we define our place (and that of others) in society. That’s how you define structural racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racism thus gets watered down to something that only \u201cbad\u201d people do. This is at the root of white fragility\u2014white people will furiously deny their racially problematic behaviors and patterns of thought because they view any discussion of them as an assault on their character.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is fundamentally not <\/em>how racism works. Racism is a force woven deeply and permanently into every institution of American life. The intentions or moral positions of individual white people are irrelevant here. Racism is a system that we all <\/em>participate in, that we cannot <\/em>escape from, and that imposes real <\/em>costs on people of color (and real benefits for white people). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Structural racism examples are seen with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n