Institutional discrimination
The roots of institutional institutions should be searched in the structure of institutions notwithstanding their functions and specific type of activities they promote. As Durkheim already noted, institutions are characterized by compulsion which is reflected in institutional norms, traditions, majority pressure etc (Durkheim, 1982). That is why it can be said that institutions should be described as force projection on the separate individual par excellence through various mechanisms of rules and norms. However, it should be noted that if such norms are applied in egalitarian manner, that is, do not change depending on the status, race, class or gender of a given individual they can form the structure of justice and equal access to rights and responsibilities. If that is not the case, we meet different forms of institutional discrimination which can take different forms such as discrimination of children, gender discrimination, race and class discrimination. Our purpose is to analyze these phenomena separately.
Racial discrimination within discrimination can be also referred to as institutional racism, which is the term Balibar and Wallerstein use for describing a situation when under the conditions of formal prohibition of any race discrimination and limitation, it in fact occurs due to some institutional reincarnations (Balibar, Wallerstein, 1992). Take real situation. After the abolishment of slavery in the southern states of the United States, racial hatred and discrimination changed its dress and transformed into class discrimination which however “came about race lines” (Lopez, 2000). Former slaves had to work for their former owners on the same conditions notwithstanding the fact that they had formally free status; the majority of black people did not receive free access to education due to its predominantly private nature and filled public schools lacking proper funding; the majority of important administrative and political positions were still occupied by white majority which formed informal barriers to prevent the entrance of black people into this sphere.
What concerns institutional discrimination of children, we also have many examples. For instance, many educational institutions which in theory should comply with national laws on fostering educational and development of children with disabilities, in practice do not create real conditions for this, leaving this category of children in alienation from other and from the purpose of their education. For instance, some children need special software for doing their class exercises since they have problems with sight, mental system etc. If educational institutions fails to create such conditions for disabled children, this fact may be described as the example of institutional discrimination of children (Maki et al.,1995).
Another example is institutional discrimination of poor (class discrimination). Take a situation when due to negative impact of market the whole community which is not rentable and attractive to business degrades and its people who were formerly protected by laws loose this protection and suffer from famine. They can not find any job and they have no money even to move to other territories in search of job to earns ones living.
Women institutional discrimination can be easily seen when an employer establish certain limitations on women age, appearance and other points that are sexist and prejudiced (Keng Mun Lee, 1998). If such things happen we can easily speak about racial discrimination.
To sum it up we have analyzed the basic examples of institutional discrimination.
Discrimination in advertising
There is no denying the importance of the fact that advertising is one of the most awful and inhumane products of our civilization. Advertising and all images and messages it disseminates contradict human notions of truth, dignity, justice, good since they are created to deceive people. Advertising is the apparatus of total deceit which is so dangerous paradoxically because it is legal and welcomed.
Women are among the first who are the most discriminated by sexist advertising campaigns and commercials. Women’s bodies, beauty are used as fetish symbols of total commoditization of society and it has as much to do with sexism as with capitalism. There is no denying the importance of the fact that the usage of women’s body in advertising is foolish and transparently strategic. These images are inserted in every commercial advertising objects which for the normal imagination have nothing to do with women: beverages, clocks etc. Some advertised prestigious goods such as automobiles, tours etc. are united with the images of women which is aimed to transform masculine sexual desire into the desire to buy a given product.
Therefore, women’s discrimination in advertising is deeply rooted in marketing impulse of promoting goods whatever price is paid by those people who watch this. Advertising ruins human psychology and creates the image of women as another commodity which can be paid for either overtly (prostitute) or covertly (offering money, status, possessions). History does not know more rude offense of the women than we now see in daily commercials on TV and Internet. What is even more dangerous is that women often adopt the proposed image and status and play the prescribed role (Ward et al, 2006). Pornography in this sense is only an extreme example of such discrimination and it is very strange when some people pay more attention to pornography (which is prohibited) than to commercial advertising which is enforced on people on the daily, hourly, minute, second basis. There is no denying the importance of the fact that all these deeply transforms our perception of our bodies, sexuality and sex.
References
Balibar E., Wallerstein I. Race, Nation, Class. Ambiguous identities. Verso, 1992.
Durkheim E. Rules of Sociological Method, (1895) The Free Press, 1982.
Keng Mun Lee, William. “Gender Inequality and Discrimination in Singapore.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 28.4 (1998): 484.
Lopez, Ian F. Haney. “Institutional Racism: Judicial Conduct and a New Theory of Racial Discrimination.” Yale Law Journal 109.8 (2000): 1711.
Maki, Pauline, J. Bruce Overmier, Sandra Delos, and Arlyne J. Gutmann. “Expectancies as Factors Influencing Conditional Discrimination Performance of Children.” The Psychological Record 45.1 (1995): 45-75.
.New Approaches to Economic and Social Analyses of Discrimination. Ed. Richard R. Cornwall. New York: Praeger, 1991.
Rhoodie, Eschel M. Discrimination Against Women A Global Survey of the Economic, Educational, Social and Political Status of Women. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1989.
Shepherd, George W., and David Penna, eds. Racism and the Underclass: State Policy and Discrimination against Minorities. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
Ward, L. Monique, Ann Merriwether, and Allison Caruthers. “Breasts Are for Men: Media, Masculinity Ideologies, and Men’s Beliefs about Women’s Bodies.” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research (2006): 703-745.
West, Michael, et al. “Beyond Section 504: Satisfaction and Empowerment of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education.” Exceptional Children 59.5 (1993): 456-487.