Institutional Racism and Its Impact- Examining Obstacles to Equity and Professional Implications

Institutional Racism and Its Impact- Examining Obstacles to Equity and Professional Implications

Obstacles That Have Created Unequal Opportunities in America

Institutionalized discrimination refers to segregation embedded in big organizations’ systems, policies, or goals; typically, institutional predisposition targets explicit, handily stereotyped, and generalizable individual attributes, like race, sexuality, and gender, i.e., minority groups (act.tv., 2019). This sort of discrimination is demonstrated as obstacles that eventually result in unequal opportunities for minority groups.

One example of such obstacles is poor schooling. In America, taking a look at the schools in communities comprised predominantly of minority groups, African American, Latino, Arabs, Asians, etc., then compared to those in neighbourhoods of the majority group, i.e., white people, there is a considerable disparity in the schools’ systems. For instance, schools in minority communities don’t have extra curriculum activities, underpaid teachers, overcrowded classes, and students lack access to high-quality tutors. They are contrasted to schools in majority-group neighbourhoods that have all these resources and facilities. This results in poor performances from the students in minority groups and high rates of dropouts.

The second example of an obstacle is standardized tests; tests like ACTs and SATs have been shown to put minority groups at a disadvantage. Average scores on standardized tests have shown that minority groups, especially African American and Latino students, perform poorly compared to white students. This is because the minority groups have limited and immeasurably different resources compared to the majority groups.

The third obstacle leading to unequal opportunities is discrimination in the real estate industry. Even today, studies continue to show that areas with minority groups continue to be redlined, making it hard for investors to invest in those communities. Minority people are constantly denied loans, and their mortgage interest rates are higher than white people in a similar situation.

In conclusion, there are numerous other examples of impediments that minority groups face, which result in them being disadvantaged against the majority group. These obstacles include discrimination in job opportunities, school to prison pipeline, racial profiling, white privilege, and house segregation.

These Obstacles Relation to Social Works

As a major in social work, my profession will be about meeting basic needs in communities, from education to healthcare and overall well-being. This profession will relate directly to the obstacles mentioned above because, being disadvantaged due to institutional racism, minority groups face many challenges like high rates of unemployment, poverty, drug abuse, and imprisonment, among others.

References

Act.tv. (2019). Systemic Racism Explained. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHIQIO_bdQ

Institutional Prejudice or Discrimination/ Introduction to Sociology. Courses.lmenlearning.com. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/cochise-sociology-os/chapter/institutional-prejudice-or-discrimination/

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Defining “institutional racism” can be difficult, but it affects our present-day American existence. The video above attempts to provide a visual representation of how American history has created a need to achieve equity in modern times.

1) Using the videos, name some of the obstacles that have contributed to unequal opportunities in the United States. (Please note: Affirmative Action and implicit bias will be discussed at a later date within this course).
2) How might these obstacles relate to your profession, either now or in the future?
Please note: My major is Social work.