Institutional discrimination - Essay Example

al discrimination Introduction. al discrimination is the unjust or unfair treatment of an individual by an institution such as a college, a company, corporation or even a government based on such factors as one’s gender, race, ethnicity, age, political aspirations among others. This treatment is unfair and indirect and aims at suppressing the victim’s progress in a certain function (Mooney, David and Caroline 333). This essay will discuss institutional discrimination as a wide concept and racial discrimination in school admittance in South Africa as an example.

Institutional discrimination An institution is a social entity that is created within a specific mandate of providing certain social functions through well laid down procedures and practices such as schools, hospitals, corporations and governments. Throughout various institutions in the world, there have existed various forms of discriminatory treatment. Though direct discrimination has been greatly suppressed and is illegal in most national and international laws, there still exist policies laid down by various entities which indirectly discriminate against individuals or groups based on a certain element.

In hiring employees for instance, institutional discrimination can occur if the employer rejects a person’s employment application based on family ties, where an acquaintance or a family member of the hiring authority gets appointed. This and many other forms of institutional discrimination happen at the expense of meritocracy and often leads to reduced realization of the institution’s role, as well as increased social, economic and organizational disparities between those favored and those discriminated by the practices (Mooney, David and Caroline 337).

A famous example of institutional discrimination was apartheid in South Africa where the government supported discrimination against the blacks in favor of the whites. This practice was conducted by the National Party government between 1948 and 1994 when Nelson Mandela became president. In this practice, blacks could not attend the same schools as the whites as restricted by the Bantu Education Act of 1953, in which black education was specifically for the labor force (Smitha). Works Cited Mooney, Linda A, David Knox and Caroline Schacht.

Understanding Social Problems. New York: Cengage Learning, 2010. Smitha, Frank E. South Africa and Apartheid. 2000. Web. 3 Dec. 2011