Institutional Racism

The degradation of African Americans by powerful outside societal forces creates a serious imbalance of power, resources and opportunity. Similar to but not the same as the racial bias of individuals, institutions have policies and practices that disadvantage certain racial and ethnic groups. Institutional racism is the systematic distribution of materials, such as power, that benefit people who are white and exclude others. While individuals create institutions, individuals (often) do not have control over the policies implemented by institutions. In addition, predominantly white people hold the enforcement and perpetuation of such discriminatory policies. People who are considered racially white may or may not notice this white privilege. For example, in Solitary, Deirdre Howard, the forewoman of the grand jury which indicted Woodfox for a third time in Brent Miller’s murder, expressed she was unaware that there was another story behind Woodfox’s imprisonment. She took the...