WHAT IS SYSTEMIC RACISM?

In recent work, Joshua Glasgow has offered a definition of racism that is supposed to put to rest the debates between cognitive, behavioral, attitudinal, and institutionalist definitions. The key to such a definition, he argues, is the idea of disrespect. He claims: " φ is racist if and only if φ is disrespectful toward members of racialized group R as Rs. " While this definition may capture an important commonality among cognitive, behavioral, and attitudinal accounts of racism, I argue that his attempt to expand the definition to cover institutional or " structural " racism is less persuasive. Alternatively, I argue that structural racism must be understood in terms of injustice rather than disrespect. This involves giving a fuller account of how institutions are related to the beliefs, actions, and intentions of individuals, and thus how they can come to embody a certain kind of agency. In contemporary race theory and recent social and political philosophy generally, the proper understanding of racism has been a matter of significant contention. On the one hand, racism has been variously conceived in terms of belief, behavior, volition, and psychosexual aversion, just to name some of the main candidates. What these conceptions share, despite their differences, is that they attempt to explain and understand the racism of individuals. In this sense, one might consider them micro-analyses of racism. On the other hand, racism has been understood in structural or institutional terms, 1 as a system of power that disadvantages some to the benefit of others. These conceptions attempt to explain the racism of social structures and institutions rather than individuals. In this sense, then, one might consider them macro-analyses of racism. However, far from the image of complementary perspectives that the language of 'micro' and 'macro-analyses' suggests, these two perspectives are often understood as competing conceptions, not least because the two approaches lend themselves to

. Systemic racism has to do with systems (political, economic, legal, judicial, and educational). It includes the policies, procedures, rules, laws, regulations, traditions, institutions, and the paradigms that disadvantage people of color while providing advantage to the white privileged majority in terms of opportunities and resources. Systemic racism, whether implicit or explicit, intentional or unintentional, is so emmeshed in the fiber of our society, that it often seems normal and goes unnoticed. As such, systemic racism calls for a systemic response.

Racism has been the subject of considerable attention in recent years, and although many varieties of it have been identified and discussed, most of the discussions take insufficient account of the differences between the racial, ethnic, and national elements that play roles in it. 1 Nonetheless, the talk of racism against members of ethnic and national groups is quite common and gives rise to misunderstandings and confusions about what racism is and the various forms it can take when these differences are not explored. 2 In this article, I explore racism in the contexts of race, ethnicity, and nationality in order to determine whether it makes sense in those contexts and, if it does, the differences and similarities between them. I argue that understandings of racism that pay insufficient attention to the differences that characterize racism arising from considerations of race, ethnicity, and nationality stand on the way of its eradication and prevention. I further argue that conceptions of race, ethnicity, and nationality that attempt to integrate them into mixed notions can make matters worse. The article is divided into five sections. The first presents a general discussion of racism and its racial, ethnic, and national kinds. The second, third, and fourth examine in more depth racism based on race, racism based on ethnicity, and racism based on nationality. And the fifth presents some recent attempts to integrate race, ethnicity, and nationality that pay insufficient attention to their differences.

systemdynamics.org

Understanding how interactions between apparently race-neutral institutions and policies can produce racial disparities is essential to a Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 21st Century. Moving from a discourse that focuses on intent as the determining factor in whether racism exists to a discourse that focuses on the existence of racial disparities and the structures that reproduce them requires a new language and vocabulary. Conceptualizing and operationalizing effective interventions that will reduce these disparities requires a new methodology. System dynamics can play a key role in providing both a language and a methodology to better understand the continuing presence of racial disparities across nearly every indicator of wellbeing. Most attempts to reduce racial disparities have met with considerable policy resistance, and modeling work must focus on identifying key leverage points. In this mostly qualitative work, causal-loop diagrams are pulled from relevant research and key reference modes are examined for insights into the structures perpetuating racial hierarchy. A dynamic hypothesis is proposed that the stock of African-Americans living in areas of concentrated poverty is one of the key drivers of racial disparities. Suggestions and opportunities for further modeling and next steps are also outlined.

American Journal of Community Psychology, 2007

Despite a strong commitment to promoting social change and liberation, there are few community psychology models for creating systems change to address oppression. Given how embedded racism is in institutions such as healthcare, a significant shift in the system's policies, practices, and procedures is required to address institutional racism and create organizational and institutional change. This paper describes a systemic intervention to address racial inequities in healthcare quality called dismantling racism. The dismantling racism approach assumes healthcare disparities are the result of the intersection of a complex system (healthcare) and a complex problem (racism). Thus, dismantling racism is a systemic and systematic intervention designed to illuminate where and how to intervene in a given healthcare system to address proximal and distal factors associated with healthcare disparities. This paper describes the theory behind dismantling racism, the elements of the intervention strategy, and the strengths and limitations of this systems change approach.

This article contests the contention that sociology lacks a sound theoretical approach to the study of race and racism, instead arguing that a comprehensive and critical sociological theory of race and racism exists. This article outlines this theory of race and racism, drawing from the work of key scholars in and around the field. This consideration of the state of race theory in sociology leads to four contentions regarding what a critical and comprehensive theory of race and racism should do: 1) bring race and racism together into the same analytical framework; 2) articulate the connections between racist ideologies and racist structures; 3) lead us towards the elimination of racial oppression; and 4) include an intersectional analysis.

Ethnic and Racial Studies

book review

American Philosophical Quarterly, 2023

2016