Institutional Racism

Institutional Racism

Institutional racism was mainly propagated by the social institutions in the United States and the established political institutions where mainly the blacks were discriminated because of their color. This form of discrimination was actively supported by these institutions namely the government and social institutions, the unions that to a large extent demeaned the blacks through denying them access to wealth. Blacks had poor education, housing, and lacked a sound political voice thus making it difficult for them to acquire wealth but at the same time be economically vulnerable. Several events in the United States actively contributed to the promotion of institutional racism. The events are described below and how they affected the wealth distribution among the African Americans. This paper, therefore, sort to outline how the timeline of events described below aided the promotion of unequal distribution of wealth and to what extend the inequality was actively aided by institutional racism.
In 1935, the U.S Congress through its mandate adopted the creation of the security fund. Through the fund, many retiring workers were protected whereby they could have access to funds after retiring. However, the social security was discriminatory in that it only covered the high paying jobs, but the lower jobs like those for agricultural workers and the servants who worked domestically were excluded. A majority of these workers were blacks. The discriminated Africans had little opportunity to save due to the low-paying jobs, and as such upon retirement, most of them were vulnerable to severe economic conditions like depression.

This form of Institutional racism contributed to wealth inequality in that the black Americans lacked funds upon retirement while the whites through the social security had been protected economically hence the whites continued to have wealth at the expense of the low-income African Americans hence widening the gap between the rich and the poor due to wealth inequality (“RACE – The Power of an Illusion. Where Race Lives | PBS”, 2016).
In 1935 also, the Wagner Act came into effect whereby the act through the American Federation of Labour allowed the exclusion of Non-whites from Unions. This made the blacks to be economically vulnerable in that they could not access the high paying jobs and most importantly enjoy the benefits of the formed unions in terms medical care and security of jobs. The move greatly contributed to wealth inequality in that many African Americans were left poor due to lack of funds while the rest accumulated wealth through being members of trade unions (“RACE – The Power of an Illusion. Where Race Lives | PBS”, 2016).
The period between 1930 and 1940 saw the active implementation of the government national appraisal system where the value of poverty and the people’s eligibility in accessing loans was tied to race. As such the whites were the highest beneficiaries of the government supported loans. In this case, the blacks were locked out of government housing subsidy while the whites had many homes created. The policy by the government increased wealth inequality in that the blacks had no access to loans while the whites saved a lot through subsidies hence accumulated more wealth while African Americans poverty level increased (“RACE – The Power of an Illusion . Where Race Lives | PBS”, 2016).
Institutional racism has greatly contributed to inequality in wealth distribution in that the policies adopted are meant to favor whites. Through such policies, the blacks lack education that can enable them to get knowledge and get high paying jobs, they are discriminated in the trade unions hence have poor social security, they are denied access to financial aid like loans, and many of them are denied better-paying jobs. These effects of institutional racism make African Americans not have enough wealth while the whites acquire more wealth hence inequality in wealth distribution.
References
RACE – The Power of an Illusion. Where Race Lives | PBS. (2016). Pbs.org. Retrieved 20 November 2016, from http://www.pbs.org/race/006_WhereRaceLives/006_01-unclesam.htm