Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory

“…reproducing prejudice’ (Sandell 2007, 17) instead of measuring attitudinal changes, thus following the argument that racism is discursively constructed (Essed 1991; Gilroy 2002) and has evolved into a ‘floating discourse’ or ‘empty signifier’ (Delanty, Jones, and Wodak 2008, 4) that needs to be…”

“Similarly, higher levels of knowledge may lead to higher reports about discrimination, since greater awareness enables individuals to reveal forms of hidden or subtle discrimination (Essed, 1991).”

“…reinforced through multiculturalism education policy founded on hierarchies of belonging according to race, class and country of origin (Lee 2017) and the experiences of multi-ethnic students, which include experiences of everyday racism (Essed 1991), as they navigate these hierarchies at school.”

“Black feminist scholars argue that African American women experience gendered racism (Collins, 2000; Essed, 1991), a unique form of bias that occurs due to simultaneous experiences of racism and sexism.”

“But he, humorously and sarcastically, acknowledged the irony of familiar and everyday practices of racism (Essed, 1991) infused in socialized attitudes and behaviors*‘‘more comfortable with having a Black family live next door to them.’’”

“Essed (1991) suggests that these events of perceived racism are emotionally taxing and drain large amounts of cognitive energy from African American individuals.”

“Feingold (1994) reports that in childhood girls have higher self-esteem than boys, but during adolescence this trend reverses.”

“Insofar as the woman in the vignette missed an opportunity to speak out against a form of everyday racism, she might appear to have been passive in the face of the suffering that could well ensue from this act of incivility (Essed, 1991).”

“Black women, intersectionality, identity shifting, identity management, scale validation Black women, or women of African descent, in the United States (U.S.) experience marginalization at the intersection of racism and sexism (gendered racism; Essed, 1991).”

“Appendix 1 The Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS) used in RODAM In your daily life, how often have the following events happened to you because of your background?”

“We specifically focus on Latina Women of Color (e.g., Indigenous, Black) while underscoring their experiences of gendered-racism, a term coined by Essed (1991) to center the complexity of oppression uniquely experienced by Black women based on racism, sexism, and rigid gender roles.”

“Yet, not all offensive labels are equally obvious or intentional; contemporary everyday racism and sexism predominantly manifests through subtly offensive language and actions (e.g., Clair & Denis, 2015; Essed, 1991; Sue et al., 2007).”

“Essed (1991) reminds us that a balcony view allows one to experiment outside the fray of university politics and the structural limitations of universities.”

“In other words, it helps us to unpack the discursive construction of “everyday racism” (Essed, 1991) based on language practices of emergent multilinguals in and beyond the school.”

“…while other experiences are gendered; that is, shaped by a division of labour that results in men and women participating in different types of everyday activities and by gender interacting with ethnicity/ race in ways which create differing gender specific ethno-racial stereotypes (Essed 1991).”

“Indigenous students continually encounter so-called ‘subtle’ racism, or everyday racism (Essed, 1991) that exists in a range of settler contexts.”

“Essed (1991) introduced the concept of ‘‘everyday discrimination’’ to describe the recurring indignities, hassles, and microaggressions that socially disadvantaged groups face on a daily basis.”

“In this section, I examine the respondents ’ explanatory understandings of the causes of online racism – or their ‘ theories ’ of online racism (cf. Essed 1991).”

“The perception of a ‘new racism’ goes beyond national boundaries and has been suggested in the US (Essed, 1991), Britain (Reeves, 1983), South Africa (Durrheim & Dixon, 2004), Australia (Augoustinos, Tuffin, & Rapley, 1999), New Zealand (Wetherell & Potter, 1992) and throughout Western Europe (Essed, 1991; Pettigrew &…”

“It is often referred to as “microaggressions” (Essed, 1991; Solorzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000; Sue et al., 2008), and involves “character assaults” (Kessler et.al.,1999, p. 212).”

“The phenomena the present article draw attention to are at the very core of the ways in which ethnicity and race scholars have made sense of how systems of oppression and inequality operate (Essed 1991; Nazroo 1998, 2003).”

“As black people, participants could have been reluctant to discuss discrimination with a white researcher; and it is possible or even likely that were I black, they would have shared their experiences more extensively (e.g. Essed 1991; Mapedzahama and Kwansah-Aidoo 2014).”

“5 Essed (1991) describes "everyday racism" that a White person such as myself would consider "trivial" or "normal" (also see Houston, 1994, p. 134), in this case, a joke that I expressed, as being a problem for African Americans.”

“The interview guides did not presume any specific definition of racial prejudice, allowing the informants to decide whether they were ‘victims’ of racism (Essed 1991).”

“We adopt a structural account of racism, perceiving it as a process involving an uninterrupted, often unconscious, exercise of power that is based on the privilege of whiteness and the taken-for-granted superiority of Western culture [17, 26, 27].”

“They are often the more subtle, yet significant, covert acts of everyday racial discrimination (Essed, 1991) that is often described as “modern racism” or “polite racism” (Ng and Lam, 2020) which have displaced more blatant forms of racism (Deitch et al., 2003).”

“Essed (1991) defines everyday racism as manifestations of broader racism occurring through repeated interactions.”

“This has been seen already in some earlier studies of discrimination in Europe (see e.g. Eaton 1998; Essed 1991).”

“In her research, Philomena Essed (Essed, 1991, p. 151-152) shows how black women staying at hotels in Europe have been regarded as prostitutes by hotel staff.”

“Second, European racism and discrimination are often explained or excused by deflecting the discussion to questions of integration and cultural/religious difference (Essed 1991; Gullestad 2004; Skadegård 2014).”

“Essed (1991) argued that “racism is more than structure and ideology … [a]s a process, it is routinely created and reinforced through everyday practices of racism” (p. 2).”

“Among dozens of well-known studies are those by Bush 2004, Dovidio and Gaertner 1986, Essed 1991, Hale 1999, Hutchinson 2005, Jones 1997, Kincheloe et al 1998, Kovel 1970, Lipsitz 1998, Roediger 1991, Sears 1988, 1996.”

“…by multidisciplinary scholar1 Philomena Essed (1991) and further developed by social psychologists, the concept is that stereotypes that are associated with social categories such as race also reflect common underlying dimensions that are gendered (Essed 1991; Johnson, Freeman, and Pauker 2012).”

“Racialized coaches experience sport through a lens of social inequities and “everyday racism” (Essed, 1991; Este et al., 2018; Joseph et al., 2021).”

“For example, Essed (1991) outlines how the ability to explain individual experience as a group experience and see the historical continuities in racial and ethnic oppression are quintessential to the production of general knowledge of racism, which then allows individuals to comprehend the meaning…”

“As Essed (1991) puts it, ‘ everyday racism is about the integration of racism into everyday situations through practices (cognitive and behavioural) that activate underlying power relations ’ (50).”

“Gendered racism is therefore viewed as having an adverse impact on the ability of Black women to gain professional credibility in socially valued fields (Lawson, 2002; see also Essed, 1991).”

“The Muslim Other is subject to what Essed (1991) would call ’ everyday racism, ’ anti-Muslim racist acts manifested not necessarily through explicit, intentional practices of hatred or systemic exclusion but also in the micro-practices of daily encounters where the Othering intentions exist ’…”

“The compounding effects of class and racial inequalities are clearly evident here; Haya’s experiences are illustrative of the ways that exclusion and exploitation is coded and ‘invisibilised’ under regimes of new, cultural racism (Lentin, 2016; Essed, 1991).”

“This folk categorization is based on color, not country of origin, and despite professions of color-blindness, creates racial stratification by denying Black people the right to Dutchness, even if they were born and raised in the Netherlands (Essed 1991a).”

“This result may be related to previous findings [9,10,13] that racism is collective and impacts the lives of Black and African American people both directly and indirectly.”

“Additionally, the focus groups fostered conversations about broader social debates on topics that built on the exhibition themes, such as media representations of asylum seekers and refugees, and more nuanced discussions about everyday racism (Essed 1991).”

“This is methodologically important as racism in societies like Australia is increasingly subtle and often occurs in routine situations of ‘everyday racism’ (Essed 1991; see also Dunn et al. 2004; Noble 2005).”

“Pointing to the demise of older forms of biological and essentialist racisms, Philomena Essed (1991) argues that old colonial models of race oppression, rationalized as they were with ‘pseudoscientific “race” theories’, have lost ground since World War II and that in their place, culturalized racism has come to the fo…”