riotrite:

I realized that an academic concept I talk about a lot, but haven’t necessarily ever explained, is structural violence. So this is what I mean when I say it:

Structural violence is a non-traditional way of thinking about violence. Essentially, it considers harm enacted by social systems, implicit and explicit, to be just as violent as interpersonal violence and warfare. It’s the starvation of one person while another has more than they can eat. It’s workplace discrimination, and therefore the deprivation of entire demographics of people of opportunities and well-being. It’s a lack of healthcare systems because of bloated military budgets.

You get the idea. All these things hurt people physically, emotionally, and so on just as much as intentional/interpersonal violence, but they’re much easier to ignore. The lines are often blurred, though- police violence against black people is both structural and interpersonal. It’s not exclusive. It’s just a way of thinking about the world that equally values human life and wellness regardless of how it’s threatened.