In the United States, racial inequalities and disparities stem from policies and practices that perpetuate structural racialization. Structural racialization is a “set of practices, cultural norms, and institutional arrangements that are both reflective of and simultaneously help to create and maintain racialized outcomes in society.”1 In the context of the US, the outcomes of structural racialization generate and extend preexisting racial and ethnic inequalities that hinder access to equitable services, resources, and opportunities, such as housing, healthcare, drinking water and sanitation, education, economic opportunities, freedoms and rights as enshrined in the US Constitution. As a result, the federal government’s responsibility to provide all its citizens and residents with equal access to adequate life opportunities requires the establishment of a more holistic and equitable treatment in the design of public policy and implementation.

Although racism in the United States is often viewed as a product motivated by individual racial animus, racial inequalities and disparities are ultimately a byproduct of structural racialization, institutionalized by way of policies and practices at the local, state, and federal levels. The three case studies provided in this submission—addressing issues related to water security, housing policy, and Islamophobic measures and policies—offer evidence of the ways in which unjust structures ultimately perpetuate racial and ethnic inequalities in the United States. The policies, practices, cultural norms, and institutional arrangements that establish the foundations for structural inequalities are reflective of, and continue to perpetuate, the cycle of racialized outcomes that obstruct equal opportunity and access to public health, housing, religious freedom, and unbiased treatment in the US.

Importantly, for the US to maintain its commitments to the ICERD, as well as to strengthen its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial and ethnic discrimination, the federal government needs to ensure equitable access—regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or religious beliefs—to social, political, economic, legal, and health related rights and opportunities. This applies to private and public spaces, institutions, government bodies, and programs that implement policies, and practices that have historically disenfranchised, and continue to disenfranchise, people of color, low-income communities, people with disabilities, and other social groups by way of providing unequal treatment and access to fundamental rights. These rights include access to clean water and water sanitation, appropriate housing, as well as freedom of religion, and freedom from discrimination. As such, the executive and legislative authorities are obliged to examine and restructure the ways in which opportunities and resources are provided to the American public. This includes enhancing coordination between federal, state, and local governing bodies to ensure that both targeted and universal interventions are implemented to eliminate racial and ethnic inequalities and discriminatory practices.