You’re trapped, in a room with no doors or windows, and the walls are closing in on you. Drowning endlessly in raging waves of faceless racism and never-ending segregation. This is the everyday life of ‘racial minorities’ in the United States of America. Suffering at the hands of government figures, employment grillers, educational systems, law enforcement officers, and medical practices; this, is Institutional Racism. I wanted to discover the extent of which Institutional Racism exists, how Institutional Racism affects people of colour, and what the government is doing to prevent Institutional Racism. This is what I found.
Institutional Racism exists in employment, education, medical services and justice systems. The African-American population
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A cycle is evident in the effects of Institutional Racism; lack of education leads to no job or low income wages, which then proceeds to poor housing and poor medical care, which ultimately results in death. Richard Rothson of The American Prospect spoke on the situation occurring in Baltimore City. Recently the government adopted a restriction against black Americans purchasing houses in the same suburbs as white Americans. Federal housing subsidy policies going as far as to direct low income, black families to segregated neighbourhoods away from mid-class suburbs. When interviewed, Baltimore’s mayor claimed, “Blacks should be quarantined in isolated slums in order to reduce spread of communicable disease into white neighbourhoods, and to protect white values among white majority.” This set of circumstances is related to discrimination in political figures as well as no employment and lack of education. Failure in education, according to usnews.com, talks about how African-American children are at a disadvantage in school curriculums, leaving them improperly educated, which results in lack of employment. This revolves back to the housing crisis in Baltimore, furthermore providing the facts that when an African-American person isn’t hired from an employer, based on the idea of limited education factors, they are segregated to a low income wage community, which can often be proclaimed as …show more content…
Discrimination of protected groups (ie. African-Americans) from businesses is prohibited, which allows the prospect of equal rights in employment. The law reaches out to cover protected groups while in ‘public accommodations,’ for example; private, meaning retail businesses, and public, such as town squares. This is information from findlaw.com, informing the idea that no discriminatory actions should be acted upon due to race, colour, religion or disability. Jay Michaelson of The Daily Beast, apprises the ‘Disparate Impact’. The ‘Disparate Impact’ allows a person to challenge actions by organisations they believe are discriminatory towards race, colour, religion or sex. This extends not only to employment but also housing. This is a powerful tool for fighting this type of institutional racism that is often silent, systematic and insidious. ‘No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, colour, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.’ Quoted from findlaw.com Title Vl of the Civil Rights Act, talks mainly about equality in education. Most, nearly all, public and private schools and colleges abide under this law. This means that any educational system receiving federal financial assistance must run their
Explain how institutional racism could result in internalized oppression for members of marginalized populations. Provide examples relevant to a specific minority group, based on the chapters you selected.
Inequality in today's america towards people of color is the result of a history of slavery in segregation in the united states. Michelle Alexander, a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer and author of the book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” talks about racial hostility in
When examining the timeline of slavery in the United States of America, it can seem like
There are numerous positive outcomes that I anticipate will result, if I am able to get funding for my project. One benefit of my project is that it will help to reduce the impact of institutionalized racism. African Americans are tried unfairly and killed daily, in a judicial system that is suppose to be equal and fair to everyone. Another benefit of will help to make America more aligned to the goals and values America was intended to be for. America has frequently been seen as the land of opportunity. The Pilgrims, for example, fled from England to America to escape racial injustice. Through hard work, they were able to pull themselves up, and work to build a fair society. The writers of the constitution wanted a world where every man is
Along with misogyny and LGBT+ phobia, racism is one of the many methods of discrimination and bias that still exists today in America. It affects many ethnicities; Asian, Latino, even Indigenous Americans, but racial bias in the United States today especially focuses on African Americans as it did since the times of slavery. How does the race system still exist? The answer is simple; racial bias, like a living creature, will constantly adapt to its surroundings as time passes. Michelle Alexander’s nonfiction book, The New Jim Crow (2010), discusses the several changes made to the racial caste system following slavery and how most African Americans themselves cannot see it in its form today.
extended to the entire population. Based on Oliver and Shapiro’s study of Federal Reserve data, “…discrimination follows Blacks no matter where they want to live and how much they earn” (20). For instance, in 1991 the Federal Reserve performed a study of over 6 million residential mortgage applications by race and earnings, and the report resulted in a “systematic pattern of institutional discrimination in the nation’s banking system” (Oliver and Shapiro 19). Black applicants were rejected twice as much as white applicants. Hispanics were also included in the Federal Reserve study regarding mortgage discrimination, and the study found that Blacks and Hispanics were denied mortgages two to three times as much as Whites. Financial profiles
Racism goes a long way down the American history. It came as a result of slavery which began in 1619 when African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia, which was an American colony in the North, to help in producing crops such as tobacco. Slavery was then a common practice in all American colonies through the 17th and 18th centuries, where African slaves helped in building the economic foundations of the now American nation. Slavery was then spread to the South in 1793, with the new invention of the cotton gin. About halfway through the 19th century, there was immense westward expansion in America, together with the spreading abolition movement in the North,
I would hope that viewers can clearly see that numerous systems work together to limit the possible opportunities for the urban community and that the actions, beliefs, and attitudes of individuals are shaped by these setting. While academia assumes often that these ideas as basic assumptions, American remains strongly inclined to the idea that individuals are largely responsible for their own economic situations. In a recent survey of American attitudes, “fully two-thirds of those interviewed (67%) say blacks in this country who can’t get ahead ‘are mostly responsibly for their own condition’ while only 18% say discrimination is mainly at fault.” Nearly three-quarters of US whites (70 percent), a large majority of Hispanics (69 percent), and even a slight majority of blacks (52 percent) believe that “blacks who can’t get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition.”
Racism has been an ongoing problem for decades, but now it has evolved into more complications rather than black people versus white people and wanting equality.
For centuries, America has been known as "the land of the free", but is it really free? What about the pledge of allegiance? The phrase "one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." seems a little odd. Originally, people came to America to express their religion freely and create a new nation; with the declaration of independence stating that all men are created equal. Ironically, to this day minorities across America are faced with constant discrimination due to their race. Being born a white person automatically guarantees the right to live as a human being and receive respect from their peers, those who aren't white live with the risk of having their rights turned down and lose respect from others who judge them
After living in a place like Bend Oregon for 18 years I haven’t ever noticed a difference between blacks and whites. Bend has been said to be “one of the whitest places to live”, yet I never viewed a city by its race. Being racist to me meant that it was the whites who had a problem with the blacks and whites didn’t want anything to do with blacks. I hadn’t actually seen racism in action from anyone here. Now, after watching the film Crash and reading the essays “Blinded by the White: Crime, Race and Denial at Columbine High” written by Tim Wise and “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” written by McIntosh, my understanding of race, diversity, and communications have changed.
1) Racism can be manifested in many forms, including poverty, housing problems, underemployment, unemployment, wage differences, lowered educational opportunities, high crime rates, and welfare dependency. What are the causes of racism. Describe the primary cause of individual and institutional racism. How are these factors dealt with by society?
Take a step into the tragic period between the 1940s and ’60s and imagine how prevalent racism was at the time. In a historic period during the Civil Rights movement and even later, how would we portray racism within America? Was it in its beginning stages? Or had it hit its highest point? It’s commonly known that racism was at its height around these intimidating moments. However, when compared to racism in America this last decade, have we really made any progress? Although much has changed about racism, from our laws to our rights, the educational system, along with the justice system, serve as clear examples in revealing the negative effects of racism and discrimination that continue to heavily influence our nation.
Taking into consideration my early childhood, youth and adolescence, I could say that I was surrounded by people, who were friendly and shared common cultural values. However, with the hindsight at my whole life, I could say why the sense of institutional racism touches me so deeply. I was raised by my mother and my grandmother, both of whom could not read and write. Thus, for the illiterate people there were no chances to have higher status in the society. The only way to survive for them was hard physical work. Institutional racism, as a form of oppression, is more consequential and involves policies and acts that affect a large number of people. Life of my family is only one example of its impact. Even though, a lot of time has passed since then, the most recent incidents with Rodney King, Trayvon Martin and George Zimmer, illustrate how a black man continues to be viewed as a menace to society in America (Blumenfeld, 2010).
Institutional racism has solidified its position into various aspects of American society. It has installed itself into employment practices, all levels of education, healthcare, housing, politics and the criminal justice system. Institutional racism has made some subtle changes to replace the boldness of slavery and Jim Crow. However, in educational institutions the effects of racism and discrimination are so delicate they typically go unnoticed by students of color. Individual racism usually happens on the personal level where the prejudice is expressed either consciously or unconsciously while there is some form of interpersonal encounter. When it comes to institutional racism it is similar to the individual concepts, however policies and practices are associated with with the belief of racial dominance of one group over another. It is a powerful system that use race to determine power and privilege(Reynolds et al., 2010). Even after the desegregation of school, educational institution are still separated. In Shelby County where I have lived since 1999 there are schools for minorities, and there are schools for whites. The schools for minorities in the city of Memphis have police officers walking the halls and there no books for learning. There are higher numbers of Whites students enrolled in private, charter, and magnet schools in the more affluent segments of the county. They will be exposed to the advantages of a proper education because of their race and privilege