Toward a Transformative Dialogue On Race: Understanding the Importance of “Structural Racialization
1. Toward a Transformative Dialogue On Race:
Understanding the Importance of “Structural Racialization”
Tom Rudd, Senior Researcher
Round Table Convening
Michael E. Moritz College of Law
February 12, 2009
2. Presentation Overview
Identifying
conditions, processes, practices, policies, ideologies, and
interactions that lead to racial inequality
Individual racial animus
Implicit Bias (“symbolic racism”)
Colorblind racism
Institutional racism
Structural Racialization
What do we mean by “structural racialization”
A process by which inter-institutional interactions produce
racialized group disparities
A lens to perceive these often subtle interactions
Thompson v. HUD as an illustration
2
3. Individual Racism
Definitions:
“Racism” is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial
differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. 1
“Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social
or political significance to a man's genetic lineage…” “…racism is a quest for the unearned…” 2
Despite the continuing prevalence of race-based violence in the U.S., 3 research suggests that racial attitudes
have improved since 1997. For example:
Fewer White Americans readily endorse statements that African Americans are less intelligent and
hardworking than Whites.
Fewer White Americans verbally object to increasing levels of inter-racial mixing in neighborhoods and in
marriage partners. 4
Because of a history of violence and oppression toward people of color in the U.S., racial injustice is often
perceived as the product of individual racial animus and bigotry. This view is incomplete.
A closer look often reveals that pervasive durable racialized disparities have structural rather than individual
causes.
Racialized outcomes do not require racist actors.
3
4. Implicit Bias
Research suggests that most of us are guided by a set of
very subtle “symbolic attitudes” that develop over time from
our earliest experiences
Racial prejudice
Liberal/conservative political ideology
Gender bias…
Negative unconscious attitudes about race are called
“implicit bias” or “symbolic racism.”
These attitudes operate in our “unconscious” (also called
“subconscious”) mind
Usually invisible to us
Can significantly influence our position on critical issues
like affirmative action and school integration
4
5. Implicit Bias
Drew Westen writes that unconscious attitudes are typically less egalitarian
than conscious attitudes (what we think we believe about race) and that most
White Americans—including many who hold consciously progressive values
and attitudes—harbor negative associations toward people of color. 5
When we talk about race, we create an opportunity to examine and challenge
our implicit bias and reinforce our conscious beliefs.
5
6. Colorblind Racism
Since the civil rights acts of the 1960s, racism is a thing of the past.
There is full equality in the society now that all people have rights under the law.
All Americans have an equal opportunity to achieve success—President Obama,
Oprah Winfrey, and Tiger Woods are proof …
Our cities are segregated not because of structural racialization but because people
of color choose to live only with other people of color no matter how negative the
environment might be.
Colorblind racism weakens support for programs and policies designed to remove racialized
barriers to opportunity.
“Strategic colorblindness” is the fear among Whites that talking about race will lead to a racist
label.
6
7. Institutional Racism
The institutional racism frame supports the understanding that racism does not
need to be individualist or intentional to have an impact.
Institutional racism can be prescribed by formal rules but also depends on
organizational cultures that tolerate such behaviors and practices.
The Institutional racism framework focuses on intra-institutional dynamics, not
on interactions between institutions. 6
Examples
Past segregation in the military
Redlining in the housing industry
The absence of advanced placement courses in many racially segregated high schools
7
8. Structural Racialization
Visualizing Systems Theory
Structural Racialization is an analytical framework that assists in
understanding how the joint operations of institutions create and maintain
racial inequality. The Newtonian Perspective: Systems Thinking:
In this framework, “structures” are defined as inter-institutional
arrangements and interactions.
A D
These structures are neither natural or neutral. A
7
BCDE
C
In all complex societies, institutional arrangements help to create and
distribute benefits, burdens, and interests.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to understand the work that structures do in
creating and maintaining racial inequality by looking atphenomena may be
Social the policies, B
practices and procedures of a single institution. understood by breaking down
the sum of the constituent parts. E
Inter-Institutional structures are multiple, intersecting, and often mutually
reinforcing. Causation is reciprocal, mutual,
and cumulative.
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8
9. Structural Racialization:
An Example
Lack of affordable housing in “high-
opportunity” areas restricts African Students attend low-performing
Americans to hyper-segregated low schools
opportunity communities
HOUSING PRIMARY/SECONDARY EDUCATION
Individuals lack traditional Students do not meet
educational credentials for traditional measures of “merit”
stable high wage employment in college admissions
EMPLOYMENT HIGHER EDUCATION
9
10. Thompson v. HUD
Filed in 1994 on behalf of a class of African American public housing residents.
Plaintiffs claimed that the city of Baltimore, the Baltimore Housing Authority, and HUD acted in
concert over many decades to create a hyper-segregated system of public housing.
Plaintiffs’ expert witnesses included john a. powell who presented an analysis of “access to
opportunity” in the metro region, the harms of segregation, the development of public housing in
the context of larger regional patterns, and HUDs failure to pursue regional approaches.
The Court’s decision faults HUD for failure to consider and implement a regional housing plan that
would ameliorate racial segregation in Baltimore public housing.
In its decision, the Court observed that :
“Title VIII imposes upon HUD an obligation to do something more than simply refrain from
discriminating,” and that “through regionalization, HUD has the practical power and leverage to
accomplish desegregation through a course of action that Local Defendants could not implement
on their own, given their own jurisdictional limitations.” 8
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11. Today’s Challenge
Identify the past and present
conditions, processes, practices, policies, interactions, and
ideologies that may have contributed to racial segregation in
metropolitan Baltimore, Maryland.
Place each of these components into one or more of the categories
that typically account for racialized outcomes:
Individual racial animus
Implicit bias (“symbolic racism”)
Colorblind racism
Institutional racism
Structural racialization
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12. End Notes
1 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism
2 http://freedomkeys.com/ar-racism.htm
3National Crime Victims Survey reports an annual average of 161,000 racial or ethnic hate crimes in the
U.S. between 2000 and 2003. Twenty-First Century Color Lines. Andrew Grant-Thomas and Gary Orfield,
editors. 2009.
4 http://www.igpa.uillinois.edu/programs/racial-attitudes/brief
5Westen, Drew. The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. New York:
PublicAffairs, 2007.
6Grant-Thomas, Andrew and Gary Orfield, eds. Twenty-First Century Color Lines: Multiracial Change in
Contemporary American. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.
7 Unger, Roberto Mangabeira. Democracy Realized: The Progressive Alternative. New York: Verso, 2000.
8 Poverty & Race Research Action Council. “An Analysis of the Thompson v. HUD Decision.” February,
2005.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:4ZKRo4W7m84J:www.prrac.org/pdf/ThompsonAnalysis.pdf+prrac+an
+analysis+of+the+thompson&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
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