Institutional Discrimination In Healthcare

I believe that institutional discrimination is taking a backseat to individual bias. As prejudice and discrimination become more of a topic of lawsuits organizations are taking the necessary steps to prevent or address any form discrimination that can be connected to the entire company or brand. We see this a lot with sports endorsements. When an athlete or anyone who is in any form representative of a company makes any type derogatory sexist, racist or homophobic statement, sponsors immediately cut ties with that individual. An incident similar to this was just played out in the National Football League with the Carolina Panther quarterback Cam Newton. Newton had remarked on a female report knowing how to “run routes” as a wide receiver. His intentions may not have been harmful but the perception

To initially alter these systems of injustices it is imperative that we change the attitudes of the people who make up these entities. It is the individual acts of bias and prejudice in which institutional discrimination is built on. Without that single person’s activities, organizational discrimination cannot exist. We can only destroy these forms of inequality if we focus on the individual level and not the institutional level. When we direct our attention to the organization the person responsible is not held accountable for their actions. There were also examples of institutional discrimination in the healthcare where minorities and women were not receiving similar levels of care as white men. This form of bias falls on the shoulders of the doctors, nurses, healthcare administrators and insurance representatives making these bias decisions. We as a society must be willing to challenge these everyday acts of maltreatment, which are subtle, implicit, and hard to identify. However, the effects of this injustice will be blatant, transparent, and are easy to recognize (Kaufman,