1. Understanding Discrimination
Discrimination - unequal opportunities because of group membership
Discrimination and deprivation
Two patterns of deprivation relative and absolute
Relative deprivation is based on a discrepancy between cultural expectations and actual realities
Conditions may improve but continued discrimination may lead to feelings of deprivation
Absolute deprivation - occurs when a group is deprived of the basic necessities that allow for survival in a society
Feelings of relative and absolute deprivation emerge out of discrimination

2. Total Discrimination Definition
Total discrimination- current discrimination in the labor market and past discrimination
Poor education and its impact on jobs
Poor health care and job experiences
Past and present actualities

3. Figure 3-1 Total Discrimination

4. Institutional Discrimination
Institutional forms of discrimination are due to the ongoing routines found within a society’s institutions, e.g. economic or education
Institutional forms of discrimination are committed collectively against a group
May be unconscious - in that it is not a function of awareness of discrimination

5. Examples of Institutional Discrimination
Standards for assessing credit cards don’t work for Hispanics or African Americans...
IQ testing favors middle-class children...
The entire criminal justice system, from the patrol officer to the judge and jury, are dominated by White males
Hiring practices often require several years of experience at jobs only recently opened to members of subordinate groups

6. Low-Wage Labor
Informal economy operates outside of governmental processes
Regular and irregular labor market
Regular labor market - operates according to the principles of the conventional labor market
Stability, wages, health insurance and pension…
Irregular or hidden economy - operates outside the boundaries of the regular economy as it relates to job stability, wages, working conditions or benefits

7. Informal Economy and Discrimination continued
Subordinate groups have often been used as an elastic part of the labor force and relegated to the irregular economy
In the irregular labor market entrance to better jobs is a function of past discrimination that effects entrance into the primary labor market
The irregular economy discrimination and low-wage labor

8. Discrimination Today Measuring discrimination
How much discrimination is there?
1. Identifying the different treatment
2. Determining the cost of discrimination
Distribution of income as a measure of discrimination

10. Income Differences Difference in White and Black male income
Double jeopardy and gender, race and the distribution of income
Direct discrimination in hiring
Promotion
Past discrimination

11. Eliminating Discrimination
Two major sources for the elimination of discrimination:
Voluntary associations
Governmental agencies and policies
Roosevelt’s 1943 and the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)
Supreme court decision Brown v. Board of Education

12. Eliminating Discrimination
Affirmative Action - Executive order issued by President Kennedy in 1961
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
However, redlining (the process of discrimination against people trying to buy homes in minority and racially changing neighborhoods) still exists.

13. Environmental Justice
Environmental racism
Race and the exposure to environmental pollutants
Executive order (1994) and environmental justice for the poor and minorities

14. Affirmative action
Affirmative action - refers to positive policies and efforts to recruit and promote minority group members for educational and job opportunities
Affirmative action and addressing the problem of institutional discrimination

15. Examples of Affirmative Action and Institutional Discrimination
Height and weight requirements that are unnecessarily geared to the physical proportions of White males
Seniority rules, when applied to jobs historically held only by white males
Nepotism-based membership policies
Restrictive employment leave policies
Rules requiring only English be spoken at the workplace
Standardized academic tests or criteria
Preferences shown by law and medical schools

17. Reverse Discrimination
Reverse discrimination - the view that more qualified white males are bypassed for less qualified minority candidates
Affirmative action and reverse discrimination
Issues have focused on quotas
The myth of quotas

18. Figure 3.3 Glass Ceilings and Glass Walls

19. Determinants of Glass Ceilings
Lack of management commitment to establishing system, policies, and practices for achieving workplace diversity and upward mobility
Pay inequities for work of equal or comparable value
Sex, race, and ethnic-based stereotyping and harassment
Unfair recruitment practices
Lack of family-friendly workplace policies
“Parent-track” policies
Limited opportunities for advancement to decision-making positions