By Alan Lytle
Lexington, KY – Structural Racism is the focus of a one day conference Friday at The University of Kentucky. The effort is being spearheaded by William Wiecek, the first Lassiter Distinguished Visiting Professor at the UK Law School. Wiecek says, structural racism is more insidious than overt in American society. The way to deal with it, he says, is to get it all out in the open.
"When we think about racism, we think of the traditional Jim Crow variety where individuals or groups in society deliberately and intentionally discriminate against certain groups of people. Structural racism is not concerned with intentions, or with people's bad attitudes, it focuses on the way society's institutions operate to deny people of color, the same benefits that are enjoyed by white people."
Topics up for discussion include segregation in housing, racial profiling, the criminal justice system, as well as socio-economic, and educational inequalities. The conference takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday in the Hilary J. Boone Center. It's free and open to the public.