[steveklabnik]

> "Hate crimes" for instance clearly do not involve any recognizable institutions yet clearly involve an -ism of some kind.

Only in the sense that they 'reproduce' the broader -ism. The individual act is one of discrimination, the sum of all acts collectively is an *-ism.

> For instance it would be possible for a female owned company to not hire men (female hiring bias/sexism) which would run counter to larger societal biases.

Studies and discussion on this topic are scoped specifically at the societal level for a reason.