Systemic discrimination or inequality is the behavior, practice, or policies that form an organization’s structures and are responsible for creating or perpetuating disadvantage for racialized groups, women, and people of color. Throughout the U.S., systemic inequality has led to individual behaviors alongside unconscious and unintended outcomes linked to a discriminatory system. For a change in how people of color and women move to the top of the federal bureaucracy, leaders must tackle and evaluate systemic discrimination. What Americans might have considered the normal way of doing things has negatively affected women and people of color, and changing that requires a different perspective. The formal and informal policies, practices, and decision-making processes have erected barriers that restrict marginalized groups from accessing top bureaucratic positions in the country. Further, Americans must rethink how they view the use of high or informal discretionary approaches, which are problematic since they lack subjective considerations and have different biases and standards against women and people of color.
It is important that when designing policies, decision-making processes, and practices, leaders must account for significant individual differences and how that contributes to the dominance of certain cultures. Systemic inequality or discrimination has destabilized people of color and women. and has undermined their access to opportunity for centuries. As such, when rethinking public policies and how they affect Americans’ vulnerable groups, leaders must enact practices that create public spaces and bolster equal development opportunities for all. Moreover, every social institution must ensure not to practice systemic discrimination. In so doing, people will be more willing to be vigilant against biased organizational culture, decision-making processes, policies, and practices. It is not acceptable for Americans to remain unaware of systemic discrimination, especially when it is responsible for hindering marginalized groups from equal access to bureaucratic positions.