Final answer:
White supremacy is an unnamed system that manifests through legal frameworks, societal norms, and institutional behaviors, perpetuating racial inequalities. It goes beyond outward racist actions to include systemic issues such as underfunded schools and biased law enforcement. The concept includes both institutional and systemic racism, which are entrenched in political and social structures that disadvantage historically oppressed groups.
Step-by-step explanation:
White supremacy is the controversial and inherently unequal belief system asserting that White individuals are superior and should therefore dominate society. This system is often unnamed or unrecognized as a formal political system but manifests itself through various societal structures such as legal frameworks, societal norms, and institutional behaviors.
During the Civil Rights Movement, organizations challenged the White supremacist structures, recognizing that racism can be perpetuated by those in positions of power within governments, businesses, educational institutions, and religious organizations, an example of what is termed systemic racism. Critical race theorists argue that this structural racism is embedded within Western societies, establishing a racial caste system that uses political, social, and economic structures to maintain inequalities. Here, institutional racism must be understood as not only motivated by individual prejudice but also as a result of legal and political policies that sustain social injustice.
The school of thought that views race as a social construction emphasizes that racial categories are not biologically identifiable but are instead created and maintained through social perceptions, stereotypes, and power dynamics. As a result, the concept of White privilege emerges, describing the advantages that individuals receive merely by their association with the perceived dominant racial group, further reinforcing the systemic nature of White supremacy.