Race and Ethnic Groups
Institutionalized discrimination
Institutionalized discrimination is the kind of discrimination that has been developed in institutions’ systems, and in areas such as the institutions’ processes, procedures, activities, protocols and even the activities and exercises in these organizations. Through institutionalized discrimination, corporations, through the established systems, fail to take into consideration several social identities, such as specific social groups. As a result, this form of discrimination affects specific people, since they are part of the group that has been discriminated against. One of the major aspects to not about institutionalized discrimination is the fact that it is not necessarily company-orchestrated.
Rather, in some cases, the establishment and implementation of various protocols or systems in the corporation lead to the development of circumstances that might end up affecting a given group of people with certain, similar characteristics, such as their working hours, working conditions, as well as any other factors that might make hem end up affected. At the same time, other corporation or organization-operating procedures also affect various individuals, especially, those in line with the affected area. Some of these institutionalized discrimination affect may be long lasting, while others are short termed (Schaefer, 78).
Individual discrimination
Unlike institutionalized discrimination, individual discrimination is the form of discrimination that affects and discriminates against one particular person in an organization, and not the others. In this case, one person is not able to access the same services or working conditions, as well as a social life as the other people or workers (staff) in a corporation (Schaefer, 99).
Institutionalized discrimination, from a societal or an organizational perspective, is more harmful compared to individual discrimination. This is due to the fact that institutionalized discrimination affects a great number of people within the organization. As a result, this might affect the effectiveness or even the activities and operations of a specific department or group of people in performing, and even delivering in the corporation. As a result, there is worse performance, as compared to individual discrimination (Schaefer, 98).
Glass ceiling and glass walls are some of the discriminative strategies that are used to discriminate against groups or persons in organizations. Glass ceiling is an artificial barrier, especially for the female gender, that is established in corporations that limits them from reaching specific heights in the corporation, such as senior managerial positions. Glass wall, on the other hand, is a discriminative strategy that is used in limiting the discriminated employees from expanding their services, for example, in order to gain bigger markets. These forms of discrimination affect both the individuals and groups, as well.
Question 2
Brain drain is the skill and knowledge emigration from one country to another, in large capacities, as a result of unfavorable conditions in their native region, such as poor pay. Since many skilled persons have targeted America as a land of opportunity, there has been massive immigration of people into the United States, and this has led to increased competition in many sectors of the economy, as a result of increased trained personnel. At the same time, there has been depletion of the same in the immigrants’ home countries, and lack of skills to run these fields. This is particularly so in the medical and engineering fields.
At the same time, as a result of high levels of brain drain, there has been illegal immigration of various people into the United States, and this has led to the establishment of various acts, such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which was later declared unconstitutional. This act sought to restrict Chinese people from working in the United States, as a result of their increased illegal immigration into America (Schaefer, 116).
References
Schaefer, R., T. (2013). Race and Ethnic Groups. 13th edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, pp. 78, 99 & 116.
