The roots of institutionalized discrimination are deep in the past of our nation and continue to influence lives of millions of people today. Since the birth of American nation-state, only white men had inalienable rights, civil rights of freedom of speech, right to vote, etc. Women and people of color were denied these rights. White men were considered to be superior to black people, Indians, women were considered. In the first part of the 19th century, Indians were pushed out of their land, killed and denied a right to property, because white Americans and American government decided that they could not be ‘civilized’ (Race: The Power of An Illusion - The Story We Tell). In the 20th century black soldiers who fought for the United States in two World Wars, could not purchase a house, because of their race. This decision was also a governmental policy (Race: The House we live in). Both these examples demonstrate cases of institutionalized discrimination, when people are discriminated against, based on the color of their skin and prejudices that prevail in the society.
Since 1930s race became one of the factors that determined the price of property. Houses in the communities mainly populated by African Americans valued less than those where the majority of residents were white Americans. The presence of even little number of African American families in a community negatively affected the price of other houses in the neighborhood. The official rating of districts by the governmental agencies also reflected this pattern: those districts where minorities where not present or their number was insignificant received high ratings, while the districts populated by racial minorities were given the lowest rate. Furthermore, African Americans did not have access to the houses in new housing developments in suburbs, because the owners of the property refused to sell them to people of color. As a result, white Americans bought houses in suburbs, which received high ratings and, thus, valued more. At the same time, racial minorities had to live in urban area and their houses valued less. Therefore, spatial segregation took place, separating white and black Americans and discriminating against African Americans, because of governmental housing policies and biases of property owners (Race: The House we live in).
The institutionalized discrimination in housing deeply influenced segregation in other social institutions, most importantly in schools. As African Americans lived in urban area and white Americans populated suburbs, the schools repeated the same patterns. The schools were intensely segregated: there were schools where the vast majority of schoolchildren were African Americans and there were schools, where only white students have opportunity to study. Even after the Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education, public schools remained segregated (Hannah-Jones, n.pag.). School district lines were drawn in such manner to prevent the process of integration. Segregation in schools negatively affected not only black students, who studied in crowded schools with less-qualified teachers and worse conditions than in schools, where only white schoolchildren studied (Hannah-Jones, n.pag.). Therefore, the consequences of institutionalized discrimination not only affected the ability of African Americans to buy houses and the value of their property but also influenced the future generations – generations that went to segregated schools and did not have the same opportunities as their white peers.
Works cited:
“Race: The House We Live in”. Video. Vimeo. 23 Jan. 2015. Web. 3 August 2016.
“Race: The Power of An Illusion - The Story We Tell”. Kaltura MediaSpace, n.d. Michigan State University. Web. 3 August 2016.
Hannah-Jones, Nikole. “Choosing a School for my Daughter in a Segregated City”. The New York Times Magazine. 9 Jun. 2016 Web. 3 August 2016.
