Legal Definitions - racism

Racism refers to prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race or ethnicity, based on the belief that one's own race or ethnicity is superior. It is a system of beliefs and practices that establishes a hierarchy among human groups, often leading to unfair treatment, disadvantage, or harm.

Racism can manifest in various forms:

• Individual Racism: This involves the personal attitudes, beliefs, and actions of individuals that perpetuate racial prejudice or discrimination. It can be conscious or unconscious.
• Interpersonal Racism: This occurs when individuals express racist attitudes or behaviors directly towards others, such as through slurs, insults, or discriminatory actions in social interactions.
• Systemic or Institutional Racism: This refers to the ways in which laws, policies, institutional practices, and cultural norms within a society or organization create and perpetuate racial inequality. Even if not explicitly intended to be discriminatory, these systems can result in unequal opportunities and outcomes for people of different racial or ethnic backgrounds.

At its core, racism is founded on misconceptions and stereotypes about race and ethnicity, attributing character traits, values, aptitudes, or defects to individuals based solely on their racial or ethnic group. It undermines personal dignity and can incite hatred, discrimination, or violence.

Here are some examples illustrating how racism can manifest:

• Example 1: Disparate Access to Green Spaces

  Imagine a city where historical urban planning decisions consistently led to the development of large, well-maintained public parks and green spaces in predominantly affluent, historically white neighborhoods. Meanwhile, neighborhoods with a majority of racial or ethnic minority residents have significantly fewer parks, or their existing green spaces are smaller, less maintained, and often located near industrial zones. Even if current city officials do not explicitly create these disparities based on race, the long-standing policies and resource allocation patterns perpetuate a system where residents of certain racial backgrounds have unequal access to environmental benefits and recreational opportunities. This illustrates systemic racism, where past and present institutional practices create and maintain racial inequality in quality of life.

• Example 2: Workplace Microaggressions

  Consider an employee of Asian descent who is frequently complimented by colleagues and managers on their "excellent English," despite having been born and raised in an English-speaking country. They are also often asked where they "really come from" or are assumed to be exceptionally good at math or technology, regardless of their actual job function or skills. While these comments might not be intended to be malicious, they are based on racial stereotypes that imply the employee is a perpetual foreigner or fits a narrow, predetermined mold. This demonstrates interpersonal racism, where subtle, often unconscious, biases manifest in everyday interactions, undermining the individual's sense of belonging and professional identity.

• Example 3: Algorithmic Bias in Lending

  A financial institution implements an artificial intelligence (AI) system to evaluate loan applications. The AI is trained on historical loan data, which, due to past discriminatory practices, contains patterns where loan approvals were less frequent for applicants from certain racial or ethnic minority neighborhoods, even when their individual financial profiles were strong. As a result, the AI system, without explicitly being programmed to discriminate, learns and replicates these historical biases, leading to a higher rejection rate for applicants from those same minority groups in the present. This is an example of institutional racism, where a seemingly neutral technological tool, by incorporating biased historical data, perpetuates racial disparities in access to financial services.