Final answer:
Institutional racism is a form of systemic discrimination embedded within the structures of a society's institutions, leading to racial inequality in areas like law enforcement, education, and health care. Eradicating it requires identifying and changing racist policies and practices.
Step-by-step explanation:
Institutional racism refers to the systematic incorporation of racist policies, practices, and norms into the very structure of a society's institutions, such as its legal, political, educational, and economic systems. It occurs when these institutions enact or perpetuate discriminatory practices, resulting in the unfair distribution of resources, power, and opportunities along racial lines.
This form of racism can be overt, with clearly racist laws or regulations, but it is often more insidious, manifesting through the establishment of laws and procedures that may not appear overtly racist on the surface but that nevertheless result in racial inequality. Examples of institutional racism include racial profiling by law enforcement agencies, the disproportionate incarceration rates of ethnic minorities, and unequal access to quality education and health care.
Combating institutional racism requires a concerted effort to identify racist policies, practices, and procedures, and to replace them with equitable and anti-racist alternatives. It involves acknowledging the deep-rooted biases present within a society and working actively to dismantle them, often through legal and social reform.