I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity)

by Chanequa Walker-Barnes

Collins notes that racism operates through a complex matrix of four types of power: structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal. Structural power involves the way in which societal systems and institutions are structured to create and reproduce patterns of racial injustice over time, including in educational, economic, government, criminal justice, housing, and health care systems. The disciplinary domain includes the regulations and practices that sustain bureaucratic systems, as well as the “gatekeepers” who control who can access and benefit from these systems. The hegemonic domain consists of the ideologies, ideas, images, and symbols that shape how we think about the world, such as our ideals about femininity, masculinity, intelligence, professionalism, and leadership. It includes the stereotypes that form our basest assumptions about what racial identity represents: from the “hot-blooded Latina” to the doting mammy. Finally, the interpersonal domain includes the ways in which individuals and groups interact with one another.