ABSTRACT
People often think of racial discrimination in terms of the actions of individual prejudiced white people against individual people of color. Structural discrimination refers to the policies of majority institutions, and the behavior of the individuals who implement these policies and control these institutions, that are race-neutral in intent but have a differential and/or harmful effect on minority groups. Sometimes, institutional discrimination is embodied in laws and government policy. Blacks are not the only victims of institutional discrimination in the United States. If banks are practicing institutional discrimination by “redlining” minority areas, for example, activists can demand that the banks treat each person in that area as a distinct individual. Where structural discrimination is concerned, however, policies that are race-neutral in intent are not race-neutral in effect. Colleges that refuse to admit Hispanics who meet their admissions standards are practicing institutional discrimination.
