True Colors: Structural And Institutionalized Racism

One’s earliest exposure to the concept of racism was through learning about how African Americans were once slaves to White people and were treated under awful conditions. However, even though this is true Daniel Tatum expresses that racism can also be defined as “... a system involving cultural messages and institutional policies and practices as well as the beliefs and actions of individuals (Tatum, 1999, p. 7). Racism is categorized as a system that will allow one race to suffer a disadvantage in many aspects of life while another race will have more advantages. Just like back then today, Whites are the superior race that receives various advantages thus resulting in people of color being treated differently and having unequal opportunities in life (Tatum, 1999). White people will most likely be treated better, talked to with more respect, and receive a greater number of opportunities. On the other hand, a person of color will

Structural and institutionalized racism is when one becomes confronted with a person or business that blatantly provide better opportunities towards one race (Tatum, 1999). Glen was offered a down payment of twenty to twenty-five percent while John was told he would have a downpayment on the same car for ten to twenty percent (True Colors, 1999). Institutionalized racism reflects off of John and Glen’s situation because the car dealership was discriminating against Glen because of the color of his skin. They blatantly gave John a better deal on the car because he was White and made the price much higher for Glenn because he was Black. This clearly shows the distinction between the advantage White people receives due to racism. John got offered a better deal for the vehicle and that was his advantage because of his race meanwhile Glen received the