Discrimination individual vs institutional

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- [Voiceover] Discrimination
is differential treatment

and harmful actions against minorities,

the key word here being actions.

And discrimination can be based

on a ton of different factors
including race, age, religion,

and the list goes on and on.

And discrimination can occur
at the individual level,

but it can also happen
at an organizational

or institutional level.

So, first, let's take a look at an example

of individual discrimination.

So for individual
discrimination you can say

that this is a science
professor, for example,

and he does not like women

so he will not let them in
his class no matter what.

And that's how he is.

He says, "Hey, no women are allowed

"to learn physics in my class."

So because he is an individual
person and he's acting

against a certain type of people
based on sex in this case,

but it could have been on
age, race, religion, whatever,

that is individual discrimination.

So he is taking action.

It's him, one person.

On the other hand, we have
institutional discrimination.

So institutional
discrimination is really just

an organization discriminating.

It's not an individual anymore.

So this can include
governments, banks, schools,

any sort of organization.

So the example we'll look at
is Brown v. Board of Education,

and this was a landmark
court case in 1954.

And in this court case, it
overturned the fact that

there used to be separate
but equal schools.

So African-Americans and whites

had to go to different schools.

Well, this in fact wasn't the case

and that's what Brown was saying.

He was saying, "Hey,
even though you're saying

"there are these separate
but equal schools,

"that actually is not true.
We're having much more

"inferior service to
you, and we also aren't

"receiving the same education,
and we're being mistreated."

So that is what institutional
discrimination is,

and it can be done through
a couple different ways.

And a couple types that we'll talk about

are intentional and unintentional.

And this is a law so this
intentional, our example.

And let's look at a couple
examples of how institutional

and organizational policies can actually

discriminate unintentionally.

So, first, we'll look at something called

side-effect discrimination,
and side-effect discrimination

is an interesting thing
because it talks about

how one institution or
organization or sort of sector

can influence another negatively.

So there's many institutions
if we think about it.

There's economics.

There's politics, government,
law, business, medicine.

We have all sorts, and
they all are interdependent

and related in some way.

And that is what side-effect
discrimination is saying.

So if one area is sort of
discriminating or doing something,

it can affect another.

So let's take a look at this example.

So let's say in a small town it seems

that an African-American
man has never gotten

a non-guilty verdict.

So many minorities plead
guilty to a lesser charge

even though they may have been innocent,

and they didn't think they
could get off on a fair verdict

in this city so they just
took the lesser crime.

Well, let's fast forward.

They're trying to apply to a job now,

and while applying to the
job their criminal record

comes up and the employer he has nothing.

He just uses the information
about the applicant's

criminal record, and they
don't intend to discriminate

by any means.

There's no ill will,
but they end up doing so

whether or not the
individual was guilty or not,

and this is side-effect discrimination.

So it's unintentional.

So by the criminal justice
system having reached

an unjust verdict, it wasn't fair at all,

the potential employer is
swayed in an unfair way.

So that's side-effect discrimination,

one institution affecting another.

So a second way unintentional
discrimination can occur

is through something called
past-in-present discrimination.

And past-in-present discrimination
talks about how things

that were done in the past,
even though they may no longer

be allowed, they can have consequences

for people in the present.

An example would be Brown
v. Board of Education.

Before this verdict,
African-Americans and white people

had to attend different schools.

So just after the decision,
let's say that there's a girl

and she wants to go to
an integrated school now

with white kids and black kids
both in the same classroom

but now she's clearly not,
she doesn't feel welcome.

She still feels mistreated,

and it's still not going well for her

so that's past-in-present discrimination.

That's a negative attitude from the past

coming forward to the present,
and it causes a minority

to be discriminated against unfairly.