1.1 Decision-making power

The first face of power is decision-making. For this kind of power to exist, a person or organisation needs to make a decision that affects others. Such power is visible. A police officer visibly decides to harass a Black person on the street. A hiring committee decides to appoint a white person over an equally qualified Black person. Decision-making power is most visible in the arena of elected politics, where decisions on policy and legislation bear direct consequences for how people experience their lives.

The advantage of conceptualising power in this way lies in its visibility – because we can see it, it is also easier in many ways to scrutinise, challenge and resist. However, it is often difficult to directly attribute decisions to prejudice, because it is rare that people express prejudices out loud when justifying their decisions: indeed, with regards race in the UK, doing so would make organisations guilty of discrimination under law.