Structural Racism

Description: Moves beyond individual and institutional racism to explore how a broader system of long-held historical policies, practices and values across institutions have created racialized hierarchies of power and continue to produce inequitable outcomes in well being for people of color

Purpose: To examine and address the multiple systems impairing the well-being of people of color

Critiques & Limitations: Not enough attention is paid to how structural racism uniquely affects LGBTQ communities. Also, given the magnitude of structural racism, strategies to address it are complex and might be more difficult to implement

As it relates to grantmaking: Sharpens the focus on outcomes, uncovers patterns of inequity, separates symptoms from causes, reveals how race relates to all groups and can be used with other lenses

As it relates to LGBTQ grantmaking: Possible to broaden grantmaking to integrate an LGBTQ lens into a structural racism approach that specially examines outcomes among LGBTQ people of color

Source: The Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change, Structural Racism and Community Building (Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute, 2004)

	"The term 'structural racism' refers to a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with 'whiteness' and disadvantages associated with 'color' to endure and adapt over time." —The Aspen Institute

Have a question? Email us at