245, created: June 2024, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle EastWhat are institutional, structural, & systemic anti-Palestinian racism? There is no formalized definition of institutional anti-Palestinian racism (APR), structural APR, or systemic APR. “Individual racism” is racism performed by a single individual, such as a racist police officer doing a card check; “institutional racism” is racism within a single organization such as the Toronto Police department having a policy to conduct card checks; “structural racism” is racism at the level of the criminal-justice system that disproportionately penalizes BIPOC; and lastly, “systemic racism” is at the level of Canadian society overall where we see a society set up to maintain white supremacy and imperialism as a system. The Canadian Federal government does not have an official definition of anti-Palestinian Racism or anti-Arab racism. It is important for the Federal government to recognize and combat systemic anti-Palestinian racism because of the negative impacts it can have on the Palestinian community.
