Abstract
The infrastructure of racism is perpetuated by structural dimensions that affect individuals, groups, organizations, and society as a whole. Institutionalized racism transcends the individual level and is supported by scaffolding in American society. This chapter focuses on entrenched systemic racism that operates to create and maintain racial inequalities at the broad societal level. It examines poverty and accumulated wealth as examples of racial disparities that illuminate the operation of this structural form of racism. It also discusses the invisibility of structural racism and describes the interlocking institutional web that, along with the racial scaffolding, assists in supporting the perpetuation of racism. Using a systems theory framework, the chapter describes and discusses the operation of institutional racism on three hierarchical levels—individual, organizational, and societal. The rungs of the racial scaffolding are conceptualized as societal level inputs that contribute to the outcome of racial inequality in the society at large. The chapter also presents and describes organizational racial equity and organizational racial tolerance and gives illustrative examples of how these factors are manifest in employment within an organization/company.
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Tourse, R.W.C., Hamilton-Mason, J., Wewiorski, N.J. (2018). The Infrastructure of Racism: The Institutional Dimensions. In: Systemic Racism in the United States. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72233-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72233-7_6
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