...Race/Ethnicity Institutional vs. Blatant Racism and Education and Race vs. Social Class Race has been a serious concern in the United States. More specifically, people have been treated differently according to their race. Different races have also had different levels of academic and professional success. Despite being illegal for several decades, segregation is still existent in many public schools in the United States. However, it has become institutionalized; it is hidden deep inside society. Many Black Americans live in poor communities. Therefore, they attend poorly equipped and worn out schools. Without the necessary materials and environment needed to learn, they lose interest in school. Consequently, many of these students drop out of school before graduation. In turn, their potential to achieve higher education and economic status severely diminishes. As discussed in class, prejudice and discrimination are closely related. Prejudice is the thought one has towards another group while discrimination is the action performed towards another group. Prejudice often leads to discrimination. Derogatory terms towards other races or ethnicites have been the cause for genocides, population transfer, and segregation (Witt 2010:302) Discrimination is a great obstacle for Black Americans who seek to achieve a higher economic status. More specifically, racial profiling has been an impediment towards Black American employment. Better known as the glass ceiling, this has caused...
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...Camara Phyllis Jones created a framework for understanding racism on three levels. These levels are institutional racism, personally mediated racism and internalized racism. In order to understand this, it is important to break down a real world example and show the impact of all three of these categories. One example which clearly demonstrates all three of these categories is the low graduation rate of black men in this country. Institutional racism plays an important factor in the lower graduation rate in a number of ways. Institutional racism is the societal disadvantages that people are born into due to their race. One example of this is that due to the segregation of communities based upon institutional racism the quality of schools...
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...Institutional racism is viewed in many ways within the American society, which was founded on the discrimination of slavery. This can be seen in the Jim Crow racial caste system, which regulated African Americans to the status of second class citizens, according to Ferris State University. Imagine being paralysed by racial discrimination, unable to go anywhere or do anything without your race impacting on your opportunities in life. Imagine if your own religion was twisted against you? This was the reality of many African Americans during the time of Jim Crow laws. Even church leaders claimed that blacks were cursed to be servants and that God supported racial segregation, which finally ended in 1954. Although this horrible discrimination has now officially ended, instutionalised racism still corrupts justice in...
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...Microaggressions can sometimes meant to be positive, such as “you speak English so well”, but they are rooted in stereotypes. Microaggressions occur on a daily basis for many minorities, and are often compared to a mosquito bite. One or two may not be uncomfortable, but if they keep occurring they can cause a lot of damage. Another concept I learned a lot about was institutional racism. Institutional racism is the tendency of social institutions to treat groups differently because of their race. Institutions can be set up in such a way that allows on race to do very well, while simultaneously treating other races in a negative manner. One institution that seems to struggle with institutional racism is the education system. A clear example of institutional racism in the...
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...African Americans have faced racism, prejudice attitudes, and discrimination in America for hundreds of years. First Black people were brought over as slaves and treated horribly by White people. After Black people were finally freed, they were then segregated from Whites until 1964 (Parrillo, 2011). Presently Black people still experience a great deal of racism in the United States. There are four main areas where African Americans encounter racism: job attainment, acceptance by other citizens, education, and poverty. Black people experience job discrimination through institutional discrimination. As defined by Parrillo, 2011, "institutional discrimination is the unequal treatment of subordinate groups inherent in the ongoing operations of society's institutions. Entrenched in customs, laws, and practices, these discriminatory patterns can exist in banking, criminal justice, employment, education, health care, housing and many other areas in the private and public sectors" (62). African Americans may not get a higher paying position simply due to the fact that they are black, and therefore labeled a certain way. Affirmative action took place in 1961 in attempt to produce equality in the workforce (Parrillo, 2011). However, employers still find opportunities to avoid hiring an African American based on "other factors." Blacks also experience racism through acceptance by other American citizens, mainly Whites. Whites may make it harder for African Americans to participate and...
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...himself, he fired on the unarmed teen. The case highlights Florida's 2005 "stand your ground" law. The law allows people to defend themselves, using deadly force, if they feel their lives are threatened. Florida legislators who crafted the law say that it was meant to allow Floridians who, for example, were defending their own property, to avoid being charged with a crime. Zimmerman invoked the stand your ground law and has not been arrested or charged; given that Martin was unarmed, and simply walking through the neighborhood there has been widespread outrage and charges of racism. Throughout the U.S. and even in London, thousands have protested the fact that Zimmerman has been neither charged nor arrested. What do you think about the case? As a student of sociology, you can use two concepts to consider the question about the role of racism in this case: institutional racism and interpersonal racism as aspects of racial domination. According to sociologists...
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...Robertson. "Racism and Police Brutality in America." Journal of African American Studies, vol. 17, no. 4, Dec. 2013, pp. 480-505. EBSCOhost. I found this article interesting because, it used real life examples and not just peoples thought on what they thought was happening. I also liked this article because it used real life situations and it never made like you have to take a side to police racism. 2. DONALD, HEATHER MAC. "Let the Police Police." National Review, vol. 69, no. 9, 15 May2017, pp. 28-29. EBSCOhost. The article reports on the opposition of some city officials and police chiefs to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' plan to review police consent decrees that limit the authority of local police departments in the U.S. Topics discussed include the ways in which accusations of racism among police officers influenced the formulation of the consent decrees, the reasons why some local officials oppose Sessions' planned review and the impact of the consent decrees on crime control in U.S. cities. 3....
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...parents were not always the first to step up and claim “ain’t racist” but they would when pressed. They enjoyed a good joke or two or twenty and stereotypes a-plenty. It was when I went to college straight out of high school, and let a racist slang term slip amongst a group of my multicultural friends that I realized how much my parents tainted my worldview. That was my first realization and my first step towards being anti-racist. The purpose of this reflective paper is to examine what confrontations are experienced in recognizing institutionalized racism and white privilege. In order to understand today’s institutional racism, we must define. That is a difficult task and we were unable to fully define it amongst a group of my peers and that I turn to an authority such as Enid Lee. According to Enid Lee in the article titled Anti-Racist Education: Pulling Together to Close the Gaps, racism is defined as “the use of institutional power to deny or grant people and groups of people rights, respect, representation, and resources based on their skin color” (Enid, Deborah, and Margo, p27). Let’s take a moment to dissect this powerful definition. “The use...
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...races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. Every study has come to the same conclusion that biologically, there are no 'races', yet the social construction of race as a category is alive and well today. The classification system, which radicalized different groups - typifying them according to their skin color and/or other defining features has a long history. With the advent of colonialism, racism underpinned the different and negative valuations attached to skin color. The racism of today is much more subtle and is no longer the blatant discrimination based on the color or your skin. It exists within the institutions of our society. It is the combination of government, corporate and media institutional racism that is largely responsible for the inequities of today. Unfortunately, these divisions impact the way in which we live our life and how we advance socially. Race has always been a complicated subject and is inevitable. Although we have made tremendous strides to dismantle the foundations of racism, it is clear and evident that racism still persists within the institutions of our society. I believe that America is one of greatest countries on the earth and it is a land of opportunity for everyone. The American dream is alive and well and many people of all races have had tremendous success. With these positives in place, it is no wonder why there have been so many incredible achievements by African Americans in the 21st century to include...
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...Introduction: What is the effect of racism on healthcare inequality in the United States? Healthcare in the United States has always been a contentious issue. A good healthcare system is necessary for a society to function properly, but how to best implement it has been a subject for debate. Yet for many Americans, the main problem with healthcare in the United States intersects with another institutional problem: institutional racism. Like all other institutions in the US, implicit and explicit racism has always been a part of the healthcare system. Professionals in the healthcare system often treat African Americans and other minorities unequally and provide lower quality treatment that results in worse healthcare outcomes when compared to White...
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...2.0 Introduction Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superior to others. Racism has existed throughout human history. It may be defined as the hatred of one person by another -- or the belief that another person is less than human -- because of skin color, language, customs, and place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes. Racism and discrimination have been used as powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others in times of conflict and war, and even during economic downturns. During the past 500-1000 years, racism on the part of Western powers toward non-Westerners has had a far more significant impact on history than any other form of racism (such as racism among Western groups or among Easterners, such as Asians, Africans, and others). The most notorious example of racism by the West has been slavery, particularly the enslavement of Africans in the New World (slavery itself dates back thousands of years). This enslavement was accomplished because of the racist belief that Black Africans were less fully human than white Europeans and their descendants. From the 16th century until now, racism still exists and it is causing major problem to countries all over the world. Today, the minorities are often discriminate through...
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...It is important to start by recognising that it is hard to measure the education achievement in different ethnic groups, as there are other factors apart from school factors that affect the achievement in pupils from different ethnic groups. Sociologists have identified several factors that could suggest that school factors are a big part of ethnic differences in educational achievement. An example of this is schools being blamed for coming across as ‘racist’ due to the ethnocentric curriculum that appears in the Curriculum within secondary schools. David conducted a research into the Ethnocentric Curriculum, whereby; he found that the history curriculum revolved around the history of white British people and their ‘glorious past’, with no recognition to any other ethnic groups and their history. However, the school would argue that this isn’t strong enough evidence to suggest that this is a factor that wouldn’t have any impact on educational achievement. Another factor that sociologists have suggested that affect educational achievement among different ethnic groups within schools is institutional racism. This is when a school is organised in such an ethnocentric way that every day school life discriminates ethnic minorities, with dress codes of the school policy, food supplied assemblies and school holidays could all be seen as institutional racism. School holidays is seen as institutional racism as the British secondary school calendar is based around Christian (Christianity...
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...YOUR COLLEGE DEGREE WON'T PROTECT YOU FROM INSTITUTIONAL RACISM Name: Institution: Colored students find it hard to establish themselves in the college. It is worth noting that, even a college degree will not protect a student from racism. This case has been evident to Mr. Lawrence Otis Graham. A year ago, Lawrence Otis Graham composed a Washington Post article in which he clarified that he sent his three African American children to first class non-public school. He urged them to embrace "preppy clothes, flawless expression and that demeanor of calm benevolence. He wanted to secure them from the racism and bullying. On the other hand, as Graham later wrote in his article, the careful social prepping that his children continued eventually got to be useless after two white men decided to call Graham's fifteen-year-old child the "n-word." The answer to occurrences of racism and other racially-spurred law violations against African Americans is not to blame the casualties of these circumstances. They should not be prosecuted for speaking African American Vernacular English or for not having admittance to advanced education. The encounters of Martese Johnson and Lawrence Otis Graham demonstrate that sticking to the code of respectability governmental issues does not ensure assurance from the tangible and institutional parts of bigotry. However, it would be more pertinent to inspect the bigger social and recorded reasons for prejudice and how they show themselves...
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...attribute dysfunctional behavior in minority communities due to a racial makeup instead of addressing more systemic problems that plague these communities. Countless studies reveal that lower income people of all groups tend to follow the same negative trajectory. Racism is the belief that one race or culture is superior to another, regardless of biological evidence that negates this belief. This difference – the perceived inferiority of one race over another – is commonly used and abused as basis for discrimination, whether institutionalized or individualized through social construction. The widespread societal and institutional changes in America since the 1960s have done little to eliminate discrimination faced by racial minorities even after the election of a black president. Race is not just a social construction but a historical construction that has been embedded into each of our lives through social classes and institutions since the day we were born. “Even though race is constructed through historic meanings and social interactions it is as much a part of our national character as themes of patriotism.” (Defending Whiteness, 8) Minorities historically have had less access to quality education. Less access to education, health care, and general wealth has forced a bigger proportion of minorities into a hole that is tough to dig out of. Perhaps I’m missing a point here, but my interpretation of the term “social construct” is that race only matters to us because we are so conscious...
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...Many universities require standardized test scores that are often found to be discriminatory due to the lack of preparation during the earlier years of education for disadvantaged minorities. That also reduces the chance that these potential students will qualify for scholarships or other no to low interest options for funding their higher educational pursuits. According to the Miami Times article, written by Mary Beth Marklein, the funding for historically black colleges and universities is also not what it should be. Specifically mentioning the MBA program offered at Morgan State University in Maryland lost a significant number of white students due to the state’s approval for a joint MBA program offered by a pair of traditionally white universities, even though Morgan State’s program had been in place for more than 30 years. (Marklein, 2013). The demonstrates how not only minority students, but also schools linked to minority student enrollment are being discriminated against. This historic discrimination is carrying over into today’s world, when it should have been left in the pre-Brown V. Board of Education...
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