Question

How do you understand racism and/or prejudice to have impacted your lived experience? What do you understand White Supremacy to be? How might interpersonal racism and institutional racism be linked?

Answer 1

Racism steals one of opportunities. I have come across incidents where the right and capable candidate gets overlooked for the color of their skin and instead a mediocre candidate gets the desired position. A person of the ‘wrong color’ gets different treatment by authorities such as the police, they are looked on with suspicion and the chances of them getting help in times of emergencies is lower when compared to that of the white folks. Also, people belonging to minority religions are shamed frequently for their choice of faith and are always made to defend themselves and their religions on any political or social forums.

White supremacy, as the name suggests is feelings of superiority by the people belonging to the white race. It is a belief that white people are far superior in all ways compared to people of other races and hence they have the authority to be dominant over others. It spreads itself in all spheres of life, be it socioeconomic, political, cultural etc. White supremacy basically means the privilege and advantage enjoyed by the white people over others belonging to different ethnicities and cultures.    

Interpersonal racism practiced at an individual level takes bigger and organized form at the institutional level (institutional racism). Individual racism can be termed as the everyday occurrences at a personal level, where an individual’s attitudes, beliefs, action and behavior are based upon stereotypes, prejudices and biases against people belonging to other races. Institutional racism is more systematic and it includes disparities at every possible level, like employment, housing, health care, criminal justice system, education, wealth and income, political etc. Interpersonal racism gives birth to institutional racism and vice versa, hence both are connected and linked to one another.