Racism originates from the belief in the superiority of one racial group and the regard of one or more other racial groups as inferior. The attitudes and actions of members of the dominant racial group that espouse these beliefs result in biased treatment of people in minority racial communities.

Racism is rooted in a system in which people are classified into distinct groups based on common physical features such as skin tone, hair texture or color, and shapes of parts of the body, like the nose, eyes, and lips. Through the lens of racism, physical characteristics are correlated with non-physical traits such as intelligence or criminality. Because of learned biases and prejudice, people assign negative or positive attributes to a person or people whether or not they have exhibited these traits. Racism and its effects can be compounded by intersectionality – one person having multiple identities in addition to race such as gender, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Racism has existed around the world in many different forms for centuries. Historically, racism has been administered based on the polarity between “white” Europeans and nonwhite others. Throughout time, people with darker skin have been regarded as inferior or less than fully human. Racism against people has driven violent takeovers of land and resources, the persistent concentration of wealth within the majority race, and the destruction of cultures not aligned with that of the majority population. Around the world, people with white or lighter skin have been more privileged in resources, power, and opportunity than people with darker skin tones in the same region. Negative associations with blackness and dark skin persist to this day.

For many, the word “racism” evokes imagery of racist acts between one or more people. This is interpersonal racism – also called individual racism – or action based on an individual's racist beliefs or behaviors. Examples of interpersonal racism include expressing racial slurs, attacks on others for reasons related to their race, actively avoiding interactions with someone from another race, and vocalizing negative stereotypes against members of another race, whether in jest or seriousness. Racist acts can occur in face-to-face and virtual interactions, both verbally and non-verbally, subconsciously or intentionally. However, the spectrum of racism is much broader than individual acts.

Systemic racism – also referred to as structural racism or institutional racism – is the discriminatory practices, policies, and social structures that produce and perpetuate inequities that advantage one racial group over others. The more dominant race in a society – either through majority power, population, or wealth – enjoys rights and privileges not afforded to other groups due to long-established cultural prejudices. The acquisition and hoarding of power and privilege result in the unequal distribution of resources, economic opportunity, and representation for minority racial communities. Racism is deeply embedded in interconnected government, economic, and legal systems and yet operates independently of each other. The systemic wielding of power consequently advantages future generations of the dominant race.

Systemic racism creates invisible barriers to success. It can also perpetuate cycles of poverty, poor health, and lack of opportunity. Laws that control or hinder the rights of minority racial communities range from those created with explicitly racist intentions to modern policies that are a legacy of racist laws. Some modern legislation has been crafted in a way that disadvantages certain races based on known patterns of behavior but without explicitly mentioning or targeting race. Systemic racism can also exist with or without the intention to harm or awareness of its existence. Institutions and companies of various sizes can systematically discriminate by race in how resources are assigned to majority and minority racial communities, including differences in budget allocation, staffing, number of locations, quality of physical structures, and the goods and services they provide.

The shared belief by members of one majority race in racial purity and/or that power in its various forms should be maintained within the dominant race has infected societal systems. Seemingly neutral rules, policies, or practices may have discriminatory effects on specific racial groups by design. Systemic racism can originate from nefarious intentions by one or more individuals of an authoritative body, including government officials, heads of companies or institutions, or other people in positions of power seeking to advantage one community over others. This deliberate discrimination can be encoded into laws or policies that continuously strip members of minority racial communities of the same privileges conferred to others.

Racism is so deeply embedded within societal structures that it can seem to be a completely normal way of life. The invisibility and ordinariness of systemic racism due to longstanding societal norms bolsters the supremacy of the dominant culture and further harms marginalized racial communities. Not seeing the patterns can lead to questioning the very existence of racism in modern society despite its many iterations.

Systemic racism can exist in an institution whether or not the individuals who perform their duties in accordance with policies intend to discriminate against people from specific races. Individuals can reinforce systemic racism by disproportionately denying services to people of certain racial backgrounds, requiring relatively higher costs for needs such as food or housing, or creating additional requirements for services for people from specific communities. Individuals can also consciously or subconsciously take advantage of systems known to disadvantage minorities. Examples include calling the police on someone due in part to their race or purchasing homes at inflated values in a neighborhood populated by people from a minority race, consequently displacing residents no longer able to afford their homes.

In many ways, racism has evolved but has not disappeared. Though explicit race-based discrimination has largely fallen out of favor in society, it has shifted into new forms due to advancements in technology. Interpersonal interactions that would have previously been face-to-face – introducing the opportunity for on-sight bias or race-based discrimination – have been supplanted by virtual spaces and artificial intelligence that can reflect the subconscious bias of their creators. Data such as physical location, education levels, home values, food and entertainment consumption, and the concentration of specific types of business in neighborhoods have been used as a proxy to identify and consequently disenfranchise minority racial communities.

Over the years, a wide range of local, national, and international laws have been enacted around the world to combat institutional racism. Many overtly racist laws and policies have been repealed, overturned in court systems, or are not widely enforced, though many continue to exist. In addition to operating in accordance with anti-discrimination laws, companies and organizations of all sizes have instituted self-imposed mandates designed to correct for racial inequality where it exists, launched internal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, conducted anti-bias training for employees, and have established community liaisons to collaborate with underrepresented communities. The future will bear out the long-term effects of these initiatives on systemic racism.

Because of their experiences, people from minority racial communities often understand to varying degrees that systemic racism exists, even if they may not know the full extent of how it impacts their lives. They feel it in job opportunities, treatment by the businesses they interact with, the relative lack of government investment in their neighborhoods, and more. They must work even harder than their counterparts of the dominant race to achieve the same level of success in their endeavors.

Conversely, members of the dominant race in a region may not feel or recognize the effects of systemic racism and the privilege that comes with it. However, not encountering racism firsthand does not negate its existence. Experiencing systemic racism is also not limited to a particular wealth or status. People at all levels of society experience its often invisible effects.