Institutional Racism: The Byproduct of Historical Racism

The ways that social structures and institutions systematically work against the interest of people of color is called institutional racism. Institutional racism and historic racism are not unrelated concepts. Historic racism is the primary way institutional racism forms, especially in a society that rejects overt racism. Institutional racism based on historically racist social structures is allowed to persist because it does not appear to directly discriminate against people of color. However, social structures have great power to shape the lives of minorities. For example, in 1937 the…