institutional racism

Institutional racism, also systemic racism, is a form of institutional discrimination based upon the person's race or ethnic group, which is realized with policies and administrative practices throughout an organization and a society that give unfair advantage to an ethnic group and unfair or harmful treatment of other groups. The practice of institutional racism is manifested as racial discrimination in criminal justice, employment, housing, healthcare, education and political representation.

The term institutional racism was coined by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton, in the book Black Power: The Politics of Liberation (1967), which explains that whilst overt, individual racism is readily perceptible, institutional racism is less perceptible for being "less overt, far more subtle" in nature. That institutional racism "originates in the operation of established and respected forces in the society, and thus receives far less public condemnation than [individual racism]".