Theories Of Institutional Discrimination

Prejudices lead to discrimination. Prior to taking this class, I didn’t know that there are different types of discrimination. There is individual discrimination, which is the type that most people are familiar with. The intention is to treat a category of people differently to either harm or benefit others. This type of discrimination includes micro aggressions, that aren’t necessarily intentional, and we don’t realize we do them. They end up building up inside the people we harbor them toward. Institutional discrimination is a type that involves discrimination on a much larger scale. It includes policies, institutions, and the behaviors of the people who implement them. The policies have the intent to harm or benefit a specific group of people.
This theory wants the world to be in order and without conflict. Society works best when everything is in harmony. Everyone has a certain role to fulfill. Conflict arises when people start to do things that are not included in their specific role. For example, women are expected to stay home, and men go to work and earn money. When women start going to work too, they create conflict because they are going against the set of values and roles set up by society. The Consensus Order Theory also includes the idea of meritocracy, an ideology where those who are successful worked hard all their life in order to get where they are. They earned their success and power. After learning about this theory, I realized that this is the theory that most Americans seem to believe in. I think at the beginning of the semester, I too believed this about the world. If you work hard, you will be successful. My view of the world has changed now. I no longer believe that it is only hard work that makes someone successful. There are so many more factors that are involved in order to be make a good life for oneself. The kids at Packer are living in Section 8 housing because their families don’t make a lot of money. People are likely to view these families as unsuccessful. They will think that because they didn’t work hard, they have to live in low income housing and haven’t acquired any success. I used to think this way as well, but I have seen first-hand that the parents at Packer work many hours to make sure their kids are well taken care of. Instead of saving the money they make from working so that they can move out, they spend it on food and supplies for their kids. It’s like they can never get ahead in the world. Something always happens in life that messes up the plans. That’s why it is so much more than just hard work that makes success. Hard work doesn’t always equal success, and just because