Racism and the Other Isms

Some people discount the effect of race on the outcomes for people of color. Many would argue that the issues for people of color are more a consequence of socioeconomic status than race. What they fail to recognize is that the overrepresentation of people of color in lower socioeconomic strata is due to institutional racism that has constrained them to life circumstances that kept them in that strata.

Others equate the prejudice, discrimination, and bias based on age, gender, sexual orientation, or physical ability to the negative experiences due to race. Prejudice and discrimination based on these factors do in fact cause much strife in our society. Also, issues of privilege based on these factors must be confronted as seriously as privilege by racial identification. However, the experience of people of color in each of these categories is significantly worse compared with those who are white and in these categories.

Furthermore, the intolerance that was first established on the basis of race provided the template to treat in a discriminatory manner those who do not “fit.” If our society can successfully tackle its treatment of people who are “different” by virtue of the social category of race, it will have changed the manner in which it views, understands, and responds to “differentness” in other forms.

From the INSTITUTIONAL RACISM &  THE SOCIAL WORK PROFESSION: A CALL TO ACTION .