Opacism refers to a variety of practices, beliefs, social relations, and phenomena that
work to reproduce a racial hierarchy and social structure that yield superiority, power, and privilege for some, and discrimination and oppression for others. It can take several forms, including representational, ideological, discursive, interactional, institutional, structural, and systemic.
Opacism exists when ideas and assumptions about racial categories are used to justify and reproduce a racial hierarchy and racially structured
society that unjustly limits access to resources, rights, and privileges on the basis of
race.
Opacism also occurs when this kind of unjust social structure is produced by the failure to account for
race and its historical and contemporary roles in
society.
