Watch a Berkeley Scholar Explain Structural Racism

Structural racism — or the way systems like housing, education, employment and justice create racial disparities without overtly racist actors — is a concept that is often “deeply misunderstood,” according to Stephen Menendian.

Stephen Menendian, the assistant director and director of research at UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute, has spent over 15 years studying structural racism. As he defines it, structural racism means that policies may be written without the express intent of oppressing people of color, but their effects can still deepen inequality on a racial basis. That’s the paradox at the center of his life’s work.

In this 101 in 101 video, a series that challenges UC Berkeley faculty to explain their field in 101 seconds, Menendian explains how most of the mechanisms that form structural racism –– like mass incarceration –– have taken shape in the post-Civil Rights era.

As he puts it, structural racism “is an evolution of the concept of institutional racism brought forward in the 1960s to say that institutions can produce and maintain racial inequality even in the absence of racist actors or any kind of invidious intent.” Compared to institutional racism, the structural lens takes a wider view: It looks at how entire systems connect and compound, shaping life’s opportunities. “It’s like a web without the spider,” he says.

It’s not just one “web” that causes racial disparities. Menendian’s research points to numerous interconnected mechanisms that could be considered structurally racist, such as exclusionary zoning, an increase in municipalities who can no longer fund adequate public services and unequal public investment. Residential racial segregation, for example, means middle-income Black families often live in higher-poverty neighborhoods than poor white families, with cascading effects on health, wealth and education.

Menendian’s new book, Structural Racism: The Dynamics of Opportunity and Race in America, offers a detailed analysis of these forces and ten broad strategies for dismantling them, from ending mass incarceration to reforming zoning laws and expanding access to quality schools, transit and housing. In concert with the book, the Othering & Belonging Institute published an interactive tool with more than 80 metrics of racial disparities in life outcomes. 

Menendian hopes that with deeper, data-driven understanding, we can begin to untangle the interlocking webs that hold back people of color. Watch his 101 in 101 video to learn more about the basics of structural racism. 

Watch more 101 in 101 videos featuring UC Berkeley faculty and experts here.