A Primer on Institutional Racism

Dr Heather Came, Auckland University of Technology,

Diversity Forum 2014

Monday, September 15, 2014 2 © Camara Jones © Camara Jones

PREJUDICE + POWER = RACISM

3

Institutional Racism

“...white terrorists bomb a black church and kill five black children that is an

act of individual racism…

But when in the same city – Birmingham, Alabama-five hundred black babies die each year because of the lack of proper food, shelter

and medical facilities, and thousands more are destroyed and maimed physically, emotionally and intellectually because of conditions of poverty and discrimination in the black community that is a function

of institutional racism”.

(Carmichael & Hamilton 1967:2)

Stokely Carmichael

Puao te Ata Tu

• Institutional racism is “… the outcomes of mono-cultural institutions which simply ignore and freeze out the cultures of those who do not belong to the majority.

• National structures are evolved which are rooted in the values, systems and viewpoints of one culture only.

• Participation by minorities is conditional on their subjugating their own values and systems to those of “the system” of the power culture”.

(Ministerial Advisory Committee, 1988, p19).

Waitangi Tribunal Claims

Institutional racism is a pattern of differential access to material resources and power by race, which advantages

[privileges] one sector of the population while disadvantaging [enacting racism against] another. Action and inaction.

Informed by the writings of Yin Paradies and Camara Jones

Willful ignorance

Structural violence

Well-intentioned

people

Power is…

• Overt (and covert) decision making

• Shaping meaning and value

• Agenda and priority setting

• Access to information and voice

• Being ordinary

Monday, September 15, 2014 9

NEOLIBERALISM

Pre-selection

(names)

Interviews (accents)

Lack local experience

Downwards based

occupation mobility

Employment Based

Discrimination

Problems with credential recognition

Over- qualified

References

• Jones, C. (2003). Confronting institutionalized racism. Phylon, 50(1/2), 7-22. Ministerial Advisory Committee. (1988). Puao te ata tu (Day break) Retrieved from Department of Social Welfare website: http://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/archive/1988-puaoteatatu.pdf

• Paradies, Y. (2006). Defining, conceptualizing and characterizing racism in health research. Critical Public Health, 16(2), 143 - 157. doi: 10.1080/09581590600828881

• Spoonley, P, Meares, C, Ho, Elsie, Peace, R, Lewin, J, Cain, Trudie (2011). Namaste New Zealand: Indian employers and employees in Auckland, Massey University/Waikato University: Auckland, New Zealand.