Racism and Education - Essay Example

“Racism casts long shadows in the past and the future” (Green, 2000).

As the term suggests, racial discrimination or inequality that takes place in an institute is termed institutional discrimination. This can take place in any type of public place; libraries, universities, restaurants or business entities. The problem with racism is that probably everyone rejects it on the surface but unconsciously people still do it. Race as a basis for superiority or inferiority has been rejected by biologists but it has grown in social settings.

It is common to think that whites would oppress blacks (or many times as vengeful action; vice versa), but this happens on an individual basis. For example, if I don’t accept treatment from an Indian or Asian doctor based only on the fact that his/her skin colour is not of my liking then I’m committing racial sin. But when this same thing starts happening at an institutional level, then it’s a big problem. Sadly enough, it is prevalent.

In old movies of the time of the Second World War, Hitler’s Germany, one can see (or read about them) there were shops and public eating places that had sign boards reading ‘No Jews Allowed’, a classic example of institutional discrimination. The difference between racism on an individual basis and by an institution lies in the formation of policies. Usually, institutional racism is in a documented form.

Countries can (and have) denied visas or asked for very high taxes from specific nationalities if they want to migrate. The segregation is not limited to visas only, when the difference between the rich and the poor is observed it is more likely to occur that whites (in many countries including England and the US) usually have higher income levels than coloured people.

Racism has its dark deep roots in British social science (Billing, 1979). Over there across the ocean in King County US, 29.1% of African Americans and 19.2% of people of Latin origin are living below the poverty line compared to only 7.9% of people living under the poverty line from white households (Solid Ground, n.d.).

An interesting study suggests the colonization of African and Asian people that began in the 15th century has more to do with the race of the people than people think. When Europeans met with Africans and Asians for the first time, they saw these different groups of people that had different cultures, they started to believe that Races in the human species do exist and that Whites are superior to all of them (Clark, 2007).

It was due to this thinking that they began enslaving them and colonizing their lands, considering it their right as they represented the superior race (Clark, 2007).

Institutional racism happens both overtly and covertly, many forms happen in the world without people knowing that it is eating away their social fabric. Ethnocentrism is one overt form of institutional racism where policies are made by keeping only one group in mind. Prejudice is another form where negative attitudes and beliefs are associated with certain groups of people.

At this moment, many groups and communities are being oppressed by the powerful. These oppressed people suffer the worst form of institutional segregation where they are helpless to do anything about it. Other than holding placards and banners, they cannot do something that would have an impact.