Abstract

Institutional racism remains a difficult and nebulous practice to analyse. This is due, in part, to the sophisticated and complex discriminatory mechanisms that operate through and between institutions. Furthermore, this is affected by the inequity that is experienced by both those who are employed and those who are serviced by the organisation. It is argued in this paper that a false dichotomy has existed in earlier constructions of institutions, whereby the individual and their conscious (or unconscious) actions can be separated from practices and procedures. In many respects, this has served to absolve the perpetrators of discriminatory practices. This paper claims that racisms actually operate in multiple ways and include other forms of discrimination. Religion, for example, has been ignored in most discussions about institutional racism. To exemplify this, data are drawn from a case study about the educational experiences of Muslim pupils in an anonymous state-funded primary school in the north-west of Britain. Evidence suggests that powerful prejudicial discourse, immersed in unequal power relationships, was maintained by teachers and school procedures, where pupils were, at best, misunderstood and, at worst, deliberately discriminated against.

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