Addressing Institutional Racism

Addressing institutional racism is critical to creating racial equity. The political systems and structures in which we exist reinforce racial inequity through a continuum of practices and policies that uphold a racialized society. Social and political institutions possess the power and magnitude to affect the masses, and historically such institutions have sustained, modified, or developed policies that singularly privilege, center and protect whiteness while further perpetuating racism and harm upon BIPOC people and communities. Acknowledging and recognizing institutional racism is a fundamental step toward awareness, accountability, reparations and racial equity. The capacity for reflection is key both personally and communally in assessing how you show up in the spaces you occupy and how those spaces function to disadvantage BIPOC peers. What personal decisions, actions, choices or inactions are contributing to racial inequity in those spaces? Within your home, community, work environment where can you identify racial inequities? Act. Where can your power and privilege be applied to confront and rectify racial injustices within those spaces? How can your power and privilege be used to propel the eradication of racial inequity within those spaces?