TABLE 1.

Types, definitions, and examples of discrimination

Type of discrimination	Definition	Example
Interpersonal (individual)	Face-to-face or covert acts of discrimination toward a person	Physician’s implicit bias that leads to poorer treatment of a patient
Institutional (organizational)	Policies and practices within and across institutions that disadvantage certain groups	Denial of mortgage applications to black and Latinx populations compared with white populations with similar credit histories
Structural (systemic)	A system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing, ways to perpetuate group inequities	Mass incarceration and its disproportionate effects on people of color
Legal (de jure)	Discrimination that is mandated by law	Jim Crow laws; racial housing covenants
Illegal (de facto)	Discrimination that is without legal basis but sanctioned by custom or practice	Underrepresentation of women and minorities in leadership roles in medicine
Overt	Blatant forms of discrimination	Racist or sexist epithets
Covert	Subtle forms of discrimination	Microaggressions