Post 4

What is institutional racism? It is a type of racism that is derived from a group and not an individual, institutional racism is racism that comes from an organisation or institution. It makes the racism normal and creates rules in which racism is unavoidable for the individuals in the population. The effect of institutional racism is negative because it allows individuals to learn racist behaviours and causes the victims problems with functioning within the institution.

Institutional racism tends to go unnoticed by most people but if you look at the victims and their stories it becomes clearer. An American young man at my high school wrote and spoke like an American, he was proud of his heritage and enjoyed being able to be American when he came at 14. However, throughout his schooling the teachers would tell him that he spelt and said things wrong, because it wasn't the Queen's English; when he used particularly American phrases he was shunned. By the end of the first year he didn't feel comfortable in his lessons or around school, he spoke rarely and was very synnical of everyone around him. He resented anyone who said anything about what he had said wrong and didn't want to go to lessons that particularly picked up on this. Classmates had learnt that you should correct people if they pronounce or spell things wrong, and picked him up on all his mistakes too. By 16 he hated where he was and everyone around him, all he wanted to do was leave and go back to the USA. He felt lost and alone because everything he identified to had been damaged and had holes picked into them, in essence he couldn't work out how to identify himself in the place where he was without completely rejecting it. So that's what he did, he rejected the institution and set himself on a way of returning to the USA.

This persons story shows how much of an effect institutional racism can have on someone, how just constantly correcting someone can lead to resentment and hatred.

In one class from school I can remember the boys being sat at the front of the class and the girls at the back. The teacher explained the reasoning was that the school wanted him to keep a close eye on the boys as they were most likely to mess around, which is an institutional stereotype; that girls are passive and listen and boys are loud and do not. However, as a result the boys had more attention during lessons because they were closer to the teacher and had to focus because they were at the front which agitated them because they felt less trusted. Girls on the other hand has less attention and listened less, they distracted themselves during classes, talking or texting, because the teacher was more focused on the boys. Therefore they did worse than the boys because they didn't have the attention required to stop them misbehaving. So the negative effect for boys was the resentment for not being trusted, but the negative effect for girls was bad grades because they didn't listen. A seemingly useful stereotype, therefore, caused problems for both parties in the situation and it was because of a rule that the institution made.