"Institutional Racism" and "White Skin Privilege":
What Might be the Connections?
We often think of prejudice and racism as something that individual people have or display
towards a particular group, and that racism hurts most when a person of color is unfairly
or unjustly treated by a white person. And it is important that each of us think about the
kinds of assumptions and stereotype we carry towards other groups of which we aren't
members. But sometimes personal prejudice or individual racism is not the most damaging
or important kind of racism that exists. There is institutional racism as well.
Institutional racism is when racism is built into the way a particular social or cultural
institution operates. In effect, a social institution (a school, a corporation, a political
system, a church) operates in a way that assumes people of color are less important and
valuable than white people, that people of color don't "count" as fully or needn't be paid
attention to in the same way. Sometimes this institutional racism is overt and official,
such as when (until the 1960's) Black people in many southern states were excluded from
state colleges and universities even when Blacks paid their share of state taxes to support
those colleges. Sometimes the institutional racism is covert and unofficial, such as when a
school adopts a history textbook that "neglects" to include the lives and accomplishments
of people of color, implying that those people who do count, who make history, are all
white. Either way, a social institution acts in a way that tends to put people of color at a
disadvantage, a way that discriminates against them and deprives them of equal benefits
or respectful treatment.
Such institutional racism is often more damaging than personal prejudice. It always hurts,
of course, when even a single person treats you badly and unfairly because of your skin
color or your racial identity. But social institutions have much more power than individuals,
and can do more damage when racist assumptions are built into how they operate. It hurts
when someone uses a racial slur against you, but is perhaps more damaging in the long run
never to see your image in mainstream television programming, or in your school's history
books, or to be denied a mortgage loan because of your color.
Another reason institutional racism is damaging is that it lets individual white people
imagine there is less prejudice and racial discrimination around than there really is.
Institutional racism is often kind of indirect, kind of vague--no one seems to be doing it,
no one seems responsible. In a way, institutional racism is a way of saying that society
discriminates on behalf of white people, so that white people do not have to do it for
themselves. White people underestimate the power and pervasiveness of racism because
they no longer have to discriminate against people of color personally; they feel less guilt
about, or responsibility for, the lives of people of color around them.
Yet white people may still benefit from the discrimination practiced by the institutions
around them--if corporations put toxic waste dumps in the neighborhoods of people of
color rather than in white neighborhoods, for example, white people benefit from the
racist decisions made by corporate leaders even if those white people aren't aware that
such decisions have been made. Sometimes this is called "white skin privilege" or simply
white privilege.
2
White privilege is a term that indicates the kinds of benefits and privileges a white
person accumulates in a society set up to reward white skinned-people. Individual whites
may not want, or even know that they receive, such privileges; nevertheless, such
privileges are real. For example, white people who go into a nice department store are
usually treated as if they belong there, as if they might be a valued customer, and are
treated with courtesy; on the other hand, many Black people report being followed around
by clerks in those same stores, treated as if they are shop-lifters rather than customers,
treated in a demeaning and mistrusting way that is very painful. Most white people, if
shown this situation, would agree it's unfair; the point here, however, is that when you
have a society in which white people are at the "center," are regarded as the most fully
legitimate and human people, are the kind of people who “get the benefit of the doubt,”
then white people do get treated better and more fairly even when they don't believe in
such treatment and even when they neither seek nor are aware of it.
Peggy McIntosh has written a lot about white skin privilege. She notes that most whites
are taught not to recognize their white privileges (even though they carry those privileges
around like an “invisible knapsack”), just as most men don't recognize the privileges they
tend to accumulate as men in a male-centered society (such as being able to walk around a
dark campus late at night without an escort or fear of meeting a stranger). She argues
that the following are some of the privileges she has as a white person in our society:
(1) "If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an
area which I can afford and in which I would want to live."
(2) "I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of
my race widely represented."
(3) "I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to their
existence of their race."
(4) "I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like
them."
(5) "I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group."
(6) "I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to 'the person in charge," I will be facing a
person of my race."
(7) "If a traffic cop pulls me over, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my
face."
(8) "I can easily buy books, postcard, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and
children's magazines featuring people of my race."
(9) What would you add?:
3
Both institutional racism and white skin privilege are reflected in this quote from
Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace (p. 164):
"Many of my white friends who live in New York City, I believe, would probably...say they
have simply come to New York City, found a job, and found a home, and settled in to lead
their lives within the city as it is. That is the great luxury of long-existing and accepted
segregation in New York and almost every other major city of our nation nowadays.
Nothing needs to be imposed on anyone [no discrimination needs to be done]. The evil is
already set in stone. We just move in."
Whiteness
Another way of thinking about some of the these issues is to ask what it means to be
“white,” at least in a society like the U.S. in which being white has involved political, legal,
economic, and social advantages or privileges. We might ask the following questions:
(1) Why is being “white” somewhat invisible? Why don’t “white” people often notice they
are white, feel aware of their whiteness? What are the situations in which white people
are most likely to be aware of feeling white? Why, when white folks are asked to list five
things that describe them, they are much less likely to list being white than Black or
Latino people are to list something about their race or ethnic identity?
(2) What does it mean to be white? When we think of whiteness, what things come to
mind? What are “white people” like?
(3) Is there such a thing as “white culture”? If so, what are some of the things that make
it up? If not, why not—after all, we talk about Black culture?
(4) Is whiteness something white people can feel positive about, take pride in (as people of
color often do about being African American, or Hmong, for example)? Or do we associate
being conscious and proud of whiteness as something that only hate groups would likely
feel?
(5) Are there costs to being white, things that white people “give up” to be white? Are
there things that are hard about being white?
(6) Do you agree that being white involves some privileges, even when a white person
doesn’t ask for them or want them? If such privileges don’t seem fair to have, what can a
white person do?