The Debate on ‘Systemic Racism’ and Why It Matters

In 2020, two events changed the nature of America’s long-running debate over racism: the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, and Covid-19 hitting Black and Latino communities disproportionately hard. Protesters argued that ending injustice in the criminal justice and health systems required looking beyond one officer or outbreak to confront systemic racism. President-elect Joe Biden has said that confronting the issue is one of his top priorities.

Systemic racism refers to the ways policies, procedures and institutions work to perpetuate disparities toward minorities, especially Black Americans. Most academics trace the term back to the book “Black Power: The Politics of Liberation” published in 1967 by Kwame Ture, previously known as Stokely Carmichael, and Charles V. Hamilton. The authors defined two types of racism: overt, in which individuals act with hatred or prejudice toward others causing harm or even death, and covert racism, to them more subtle but not less destructive. The phenomenon is also known as institutional or structural racism, terms that focus on the role organizations play in perpetuating discrimination.