Cloudy with low visibility: Clarifying terminology and addressing distinctions

This paper addresses structural discrimination as a framework within which different types of discrimination occur. It defines structural discrimination as discursive and hegemonic discrimination that encompasses institutional as well as other forms of implicit and explicit discrimination. The paper suggests that structural discrimination can be used methodologically, to address and acknowledge microdiscrimination and other discrimination which falls outside everyday understandings and definitions. A central interest is how discrimination is assimilated, and thereby hidden, in daily interactions. I argue that such normative disappearance complicates identification and acknowledgement of racial discrimination.
Further, the paper explores differences and overlaps between discrimination and racism. The use of the term racism in regard to different, complex forms of discrimination is discussed. I argue that racism, as a primary term for challenges that include racial discrimination, racialization and other racially discriminatory challenges, can be misleading. Further, I suggest that conflating racism and discrimination may reinforce or exacerbate discriminatory mechanisms and frameworks. These terms have distinct meanings that have a potential to contribute to identifying, acknowledging, and perhaps even mitigating, racial discrimination.