Institutional Discrimination
In the United States, institutionalized discrimination occurs everyday. According to Aguirre and Turner (2010) it is both subtle and complex. Because discrimination based on race is illegal, many acts of institutionalized discrimination are informal; a company, school, government, or other public institution does not formally write them in a policy. “Yet individual acts of informal discrimination are so widespread in many communities that discrimination is informally institutionalized even in the face of formal prohibitions” (Aguirre and Turner, 2010). Despite, being outlawed nationally, discrimination still exists.
My first example of institutionalized discrimination exists in the public school system. There is a huge educational gap among urban public schools and suburban public schools, essentially, among white and minority students. In many states, educational systems have imposed standardized testing as a requirement for graduation from high school. I believe that these implementations are a strategic effort to weed out minorities from achieving higher education and decrease the opportunity to move up in social class. Though state educational systems cannot formally institute discriminatory practices, they can subtly implement requirements such as these testing procedures. As a product of an inner city urban public school, I have experienced this first hand. Guiner and Torres (2009) discussed that a lack of education hinders social mobility, which essentially reinforces racial inequality.
From third grade until passing the eleventh grade EXIT Level Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam, also known as the TAKS test, I was taught how to pass the TAKS test. I wasn’t taught the necessary skills needed to be successful in college. As a student who took all of the AP classes offered at my school, I was not taught to the level to pass these AP test to test out of college general education classes and I wasn’t taught on the college level, as the courses are
My first example of institutionalized discrimination exists in the public school system. There is a huge educational gap among urban public schools and suburban public schools, essentially, among white and minority students. In many states, educational systems have imposed standardized testing as a requirement for graduation from high school. I believe that these implementations are a strategic effort to weed out minorities from achieving higher education and decrease the opportunity to move up in social class. Though state educational systems cannot formally institute discriminatory practices, they can subtly implement requirements such as these testing procedures. As a product of an inner city urban public school, I have experienced this first hand. Guiner and Torres (2009) discussed that a lack of education hinders social mobility, which essentially reinforces racial inequality.
From third grade until passing the eleventh grade EXIT Level Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam, also known as the TAKS test, I was taught how to pass the TAKS test. I wasn’t taught the necessary skills needed to be successful in college. As a student who took all of the AP classes offered at my school, I was not taught to the level to pass these AP test to test out of college general education classes and I wasn’t taught on the college level, as the courses are