These challenges have worsened because of existing structural racial inequalities which mean that Black and Pakistani communities are more likely to work in unskilled jobs. Many of the issues that come with it have been escalated by the pandemic, including the disproportionate deaths of people of colour from COVID-19.Ī disproportionate number of Black and Asian people had to work through the pandemic as key workers due to preexisting structural issues. Structural racism exists in the social, economic, educational, and political systems in society. It’s the main reason behind inequalities such as the ethnic pay gap across many institutions, as well as fewer judges and university vice chancellors of colour. White supremacy lies at the heart of how systems in society work. It exists because of white supremacy: a pattern of beliefs, assumptions and behaviours which advance the interests of white people and influences decision-making to maintain their dominance. Structural racism is enforced through institutional systems like seemingly neutral recruitment policies, which lead to the exclusion of people of colour from organisations, positions of power and social prominence. Learning about white privilege isn't harmful to white working class children – viewpoint It also stealthily replicates the racial hierarchy established more than 400 years ago through slavery and colonialism, placing white people at the top and Black people at the bottom. It normalises historical, cultural and institutional practices that benefit white people and disadvantage people of colour. In plain terms, structural racism shapes and affects the lives, wellbeing and life chances of people of colour. Structural racism refers to wider political and social disadvantages within society, such as higher rates of poverty for Black and Pakistani groups or high rates of death from COVID-19 among people of colour. Examples of institutional racism can include: actions (or inaction) within organisations such as the Home Office and the Windrush Scandal a school’s hair policy institutional processes such as stop and search, which discriminate against certain groups. Institutional racism relates to, for example, the institutions of education, criminal justice and health. Institutional and structural racism work hand in glove. Institutional racism is defined as: “processes, attitudes and behaviour(s) which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people”.Īs Sir William Macpherson, head of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, wrote at the time, it “persists because of the failure … to recognise and address its existence and causes by policy, example and leadership”. Structural and institutional racismĭefined initially by political activists Stokely Carmichael and Charles Vernon Hamilton in 1967, the concept of institutional racism came into the public sphere in 1999 through the Macpherson Inquiry into the racist murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence.Ī journalist holding up a copy of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry report shortly after its publication. The terms “structural racism” and “institutional racism” are among many of the concepts that have been mentioned in relation to the report’s position on whether or not racism is ingrained in the UK.īut assessing the truth behind the Commission’s suggestion that these forms of racism aren’t factors in driving racial inequality first requires decoding these terms. Months later, amid continued division over the report’s position that racism isn’t pronounced in the UK, there’s still some confusion about what exactly some of the report’s buzzwords mean. From the moment it was published, the UK’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities’ report was met with a media storm driven by both its supporters and detractors.
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