Institutional racism is the process by which racial oppression is imposed on subordinate racial groups by dominant racial groups through institutional channels. While individuals carry out single acts of discrimination, societal institutions are the primary settings where patterns of racial discrimination are established and perpetuated toward subordinate peoples. Central to the operation of institutional racism is a racial hierarchy of power, and, despite differences in historical development and racial ethnic group composition among the world's countries, institutionalized racism tends to be prevalent in countries that have both dominant and subordinate racial groups.
From:
Lavelle, K. M., & Feagin, J. R. (2013). Racism: Institutional. In P. L. Mason (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (2nd ed., Vol. 3, pp. 437-440). Macmillan Reference USA. https://link-gale-com.libproxy.csun.edu/apps/doc/CX4190600376/GVRL?u=csunorthridge&sid=GVRL&xid=dd5cbfa1
Educational discrimination has a variety of effects that often lead to interracial conflict. Because education is a major means of social mobility, discrimination in this domain forces less-favored racial groups to occupy lower-status jobs and receive less income. Such results form a vital component in a wider system of racial oppression—as in the former apartheid policies of South Africa and state-mandated segregation in the U.S. South. But educational segregation by race also operates to limit the life chances of discriminated racial groups in nations without such formal systems of oppression, such as Brazil. And in countries where social class and race are highly intercorrelated, as throughout Latin America, racial segregation in schools results directly from intense patterns of residential segregation by class.
Racially segregated schools are the hallmark of racial discrimination in education. Separate schools allow for vastly fewer resources to be provided for the oppressed race. Indeed, racially separate schools are so central to systems of racial oppression that they are tenaciously maintained in the face of efforts to end them. The protracted and only partially successful efforts to end segregated schools in the United States provide a striking illustration.
From:
Race and Education. (2008). In W. A. Darity, Jr. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (2nd ed., Vol. 7, pp. 16-18). Macmillan Reference USA. https://link-gale-com.libproxy.csun.edu/apps/doc/CX3045302160/GVRL?u=csunorthridge&sid=GVRL&xid=ca041f49
The term prison-industrial complex refers to the economic interrelation between prisons and the various public and private job sectors that have become dependent on the expansion of the prison system. A partial list of these sectors includes construction, pharmaceuticals, and law enforcement, including probation and parole. The prison-industrial complex also provides a cheap labor force for various corporations.
The growth of the prison-industrial complex in the United States has come at the expense of predominantly black and Latino communities. Angela Davis observed in Are Prisons Obsolete? that “more than two million people (out of a world total of nine million) now inhabit US prisons, jails, youth facilities, and immigrant detention centers” (2003, p. 10). A 2005 report for the US Department of Justice (Harrison, 2005) noted that, in June 2004, there were 1,717 Latino inmates, 4,919 black inmates, and 717 white inmates per 100,000 residents of each group.
From:
Gutierrez, A. (2013). Prison-Industrial Complex. In P. L. Mason (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (2nd ed., Vol. 3, pp. 347-351). Macmillan Reference USA. https://link-gale-com.libproxy.csun.edu/apps/doc/CX4190600355/GVRL?u=csunorthridge&sid=GVRL&xid=03abeafa
When examining wealth by race, one finds that wealth is highly unevenly distributed. Data routinely indicate that white families possess substantially more wealth than black families. For example, before the 2007 Great Recession, data from the 2005 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) revealed a white household median net worth of about $135,000 and a black household median net worth of a little over $12,000. The typical black family had less than nine cents for every dollar in wealth of the typical white family. After the Great Recession that followed the 2008 economic crisis, that gap nearly doubled, with the typical black family having about a nickel for every dollar in wealth held by the typical white family. In 2009, the typical black household had less than $6,000 in net worth (Taylor, Kochhar, and Fry 2011).
From:
Hamilton, D., & Chiteji, N. (2013). Wealth. In P. L. Mason (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (2nd ed., Vol. 4, pp. 259-265). Macmillan Reference USA. https://link-gale-com.libproxy.csun.edu/apps/doc/CX4190600460/GVRL?u=csunorthridge&sid=GVRL&xid=81176ed0
Despite legal countermeasures, racial residential segregation persists in the United States in connection with continuing socioeconomic disparities. Residentially, blacks are more concentrated than whites in the central cities (Bluestone and Stevenson 2000), indicating that economic inequality is increasing as the concentration of poverty increases in central cities. (Lynn and McGeary 1990). Central cities contain 30 percent of the US population but 45 percent of the US poor. In general, the poverty rate in central cities is over 66 percent, while in suburbs it is well under 20 percent (Kingsley and Pettit 2003). Blacks account for the majority of central city populations, while whites comprise a minority. The divide between central city and suburb is simultaneously an economic and a racial divide.
From:
Marsh, K., & Gross, M. (2013). Segregation, Residential. In P. L. Mason (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (2nd ed., Vol. 4, pp. 17-24). Macmillan Reference USA. https://link-gale-com.libproxy.csun.edu/apps/doc/CX4190600399/GVRL?u=csunorthridge&sid=GVRL&xid=c96dc8a2
Environmental racism—defined as "any environmental policy, practice, or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages (whether intended or unintended) individuals, groups, or communities based on race or color" by Robert Kuehn in his article titled "A Taxonomy of Environmental Justice"—became identified as a significant problem for blacks and other people of color during the last decades of the twentieth century.
From:
Hoyte, J. S. (2006). Environmental Racism. In C. A. Palmer (Ed.), Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 725-726). Macmillan Reference USA. https://link-gale-com.libproxy.csun.edu/apps/doc/CX3444700427/GVRL?u=csunorthridge&sid=GVRL&xid=e1db9325
Medical racism is prejudice and discrimination in medicine and the medical/healthcare system based upon perceived race. Racism in medicine can occur in at least four ways. First, on a conceptual level, it can occur as members of a society learn about races and racism as well as the validity of white privilege. Health care providers are a product of their social environment. They learn negative attitudes and beliefs about human biological diversity from society that may be brought to the work/health setting. They may be unaware of this racism, and it can be subtle or overt. Second, collective racial discrimination, based on shared cultural beliefs, can result in differential medical treatment and health care. Third, experiences with racism in society and the medical setting can result in stress that negatively impacts health. Lastly, institutional racism in the medical/health-care system can affect the quality and quantity of health care for minorities.
From:
Hutchinson, J. F. (2013). Racism: Medical. In P. L. Mason (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (2nd ed., Vol. 3, pp. 440-445). Macmillan Reference USA. https://link-gale-com.libproxy.csun.edu/apps/doc/CX4190600377/GVRL?u=csunorthridge&sid=GVRL&xid=5c5d4645
