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Unlike the previous definition that was heavily misleading, Institutional (or Institutionalized) Racism defined by sociologists actually refers to the discriminatory racial practices that are rooted into the political, economic, and educational systems.

People often have the misconception that this term is a "concept" or "ideology" that proposes some kind of theory to subvert white culture.

It is not a theory, it is not an ideology, it is not some sort of lame excuse used to defend an argument, it is merely a fact which states that some institutions, be it your family or your schoolmates at school, will hold biased views towards an ethnic minority as if it was commonsense. In fact, one might not even be aware that they are being racist (in contrast to intentional racism), hence it's not their fault.

For example, according to one study in 2005, black people in Kingston Ontario were nearly four times to be pulled over by the police compared to white people. The police force admitted that they never had the attention to cherry pick people based on race, it was just a systematic reaction that they formed unconsciously.

In reality, you are most ever likely to come across this term while taking a sociology 101 course. Anyone else who tries to discredit this but has not taken one course in sociology will only be embarrassing themselves, so use this term wisely. That goes for any other people who uses this term incorrectly or in the wrong context.

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