Illustration by Nye’Lyn Tho

This section offers an explanation of how structural racism contributes to violence, how racial justice contributes to safety.

What is structural racism, and how does it contribute to violence?

Race is a social construction. According to Dr. John A. Rich, race “does not bear any reality in terms of biology,” but rather refers to phenotypic manifestations. Racism is a system of assigning differential value to human beings and designating differential opportunities based on the social interpretation of how one looks, which is what we call race. Dr. Camara Jones explains that racism “unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities [based on phenotype] and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources.” The founding of the United States is rooted in racism, ’through the colonization and genocide of Indigenous nations and people, chattel slavery, and race-based immigration policies.

Structural racism is racism that has been embedded in institutions and across society, causing cumulative and compounding effects that systematically advantage white people and disadvantage people of color. The cumulative impact of past and present-day structural racism disadvantages people of color at the structural and population level such that the conditions where people of color live, learn, work, and play expose them systematically to a greater concentration of risk factors for multiple forms of violence and an absence of factors protective against violence. African Americans, Latino Americans, American Indian/Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Americans, who face structural racism, experience reduced access to conditions that support health and safety and greater exposure to conditions that increase the risk for adverse health and safety outcomes. Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans typically receive the least and worst access to resources, opportunities, and conditions for health and safety. Because structural racism stifles innovation, increases anxiety and poorer mental health, and reduces economic productivity, it also exacts a cost on everyone, even among the most structurally advantaged groups.