Understanding Institutional Discrimination

In my recent columns, I have focused on individual biases and prejudices. By special request, I would like to explain the concept of institutional racism/sexism and how it has real-time consequences for today’s citizens.

Institutional discrimination is created when systematic policies or laws and practices provide differential access to goods, services and opportunities by race/ ethnicity or sex. The effects of institutional discrimination can be found in education, banking, housing, public health and the criminal justice system.

While institutional racism in education exists nationwide, I experienced first-hand its effects on learning in New Orleans. The city had a history of failing to provide separate but equal neighborhood schools for African-Americans before desegregation. Despite educational segregation being deemed unconstitutional in 1954, changes in the Crescent City did not occur until 1960. The transition did not go smoothly.

When I lived in New Orleans in the 1980s, my property taxes, which help fund Louisiana schools, were low. I sent my child to an unairconditioned public school. Additionally, I volunteered weekly to watch sleeping kindergarteners so the teacher could take a break. The PTO was raising money for an AC system. Eventually, I realized that many area whites sent their children to Catholic or private schools. With a poverty rate of twenty-five percent, large groups of mainly minority students were confined to antiquated, poorly run schools.

A year later, we returned to Houston and moved into a comparable neighborhood. The public-school PTO was raising money for a lawn sprinkler system.

As of 2018, forty percent of the Orleans Parish public schools were ranked “D” or “F” by state standards. The system, which now consists entirely of charter schools, serves mainly poor black students. How can anyone lift him/herself out of poverty without a decent education?

Couple that with discriminatory lending practices of the 1930s. Neighborhoods consisting mainly of minorities were labeled red and ‘hazardous’ and therefore considered high risk for housing loans. “Redlining” denied minorities homeownership, the number one way to increase wealth. Even though the practice was banned fifty years ago, the effects still linger. Currently, three of four communities formerly redlined struggle economically.

Today, because of the effects of systemic racism, including employment discrimination, countless persons of color are contracting COVID at a higher rate than whites. Many work front-line jobs that cannot be done remotely. These individuals depend on public transportation and may live in small apartments or multigenerational homes.

Additionally, the lack of medical care to treat chronic conditions makes minorities more susceptible to the virus. Compared with whites, persons of color have lower levels of access to medical care. The causes are higher unemployment rates and under-representation in well-paying jobs that include health insurance as part of the benefits package.

Lastly, institutional sexism is alive and well in the United States. Despite earning the majority of college degrees and making up roughly half the workforce, women lead less than six percent of America’s top 3,0000 companies. Stereotypes of a weaker sex continue to permeate corporate America.

As a country, we need to have thoughtful conversations regarding the effects of institutional discrimination and issue reforms. While we have passed laws outlawing some of these practices, their effects still linger. Working to see that every American child has access to a first-rate education, plenty of food to eat and a safe place to live is a good start.

Marie W. Watts, rriter, spent thirty years in the civil rights arena investigating employment discrimination complaints and providing EEO and diversity training to thousands of Texas workers. She can be reached at www.mariewatts.com.