Toward a Transformative Dialogue On Race: Understanding the Importance of “Structural

Racialization”

Toward a Transformative Dialogue On Race: Understanding the Importance of “Structural

Racialization”

Tom Rudd, Senior Researcher

Round Table ConveningMichael E. Moritz College of LawFebruary 12, 2009

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Presentation OverviewPresentation 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

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Individual Racism 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.

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Implicit BiasImplicit 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 ideologyGender 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

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Implicit Bias 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.

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Colorblind RacismColorblind Racism

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.

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.

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Institutional RacismInstitutional 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

ExamplesPast segregation in the military

Redlining in the housing industryThe absence of advanced placement courses in many racially segregated high schools

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Structural RacializationStructural Racialization

Structural Racialization is an analytical framework that assists in understanding how the joint operations of institutions create and maintain racial inequality.

In this framework, “structures” are defined as inter-institutional arrangements and interactions.

These structures are neither natural or neutral. 7

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 at the policies, practices and procedures of a single institution.

Inter-Institutional structures are multiple, intersecting, and often mutually reinforcing.

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Visualizing Systems Theory

The Newtonian Perspective:

A B C D E

Social phenomena may be understood by breaking down

the sum of the constituent parts.

Systems Thinking:

A D

C

B

ECausation is reciprocal, mutual,

and cumulative.

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Structural Racialization: An ExampleStructural Racialization: An Example

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Lack of affordable housing in “high-opportunity” areas restricts African Americans to hyper-segregated low

opportunity communities HOUSING

Students attend low-performing schools

PRIMARY/SECONDARY EDUCATION

Students do not meet traditional measures of “merit”

in college admissions

HIGHER EDUCATION

Individuals lack traditional educational credentials for

stable high wage employment

EMPLOYMENT

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Thompson v. HUDThompson 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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Today’s ChallengeToday’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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End NotesEnd Notes

1 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism

2 http://freedomkeys.com/ar-racism.htm

3 National 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

5 Westen, Drew. The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. New York: PublicAffairs, 2007.

6 Grant-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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