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Three different types of discrimination are defined and analyzed. Individual and institutional discrimination refer to actions and/or policies that are intended to have a differential impact on minorities and women. Structural discrimination, on the other hand, refers to policies that are race or gender neutral in intent but that have negative effects on women, minorities, or both. Concrete examples of each type of discrimination are presented and pedagogical techniques for using these concepts are provided.
Discrimination is a critical term in understanding problems associated with diversity. Historically, of course, discrimination has been a major cause of the lack of diversity in higher education and the rest of society. In the 1990s, race and gender discrimination still permeate the institutions and structure of the United States even though most white Americans view discrimination as relatively unimportant.
Several years ago, I wrote that there were three different levels of discrimination-individual, institutional, and structural (Pincus, 1994). Individual discrimination refers to the behavior of individual members of one race/ethnic/gender group that is intended to have a differential and/or harmful effect on the members of another race/ethnic/gender group. Institutional discrimination, on the other hand, is quite different because it refers to the policies of the dominant race/ethnic/ gender institutions and the behavior of individuals who control these institutions and implement policies that are intended to have a differential and/or harmful effect on minority race/ethnic/gender groups. Finally, structural discrimination refers to the policies of dominant race/ethnic/gender institutions and the behavior of the individuals who implement these policies and control these institutions, which are race/ethnic/gender neutral in intent but which have a differential and/or harmful effect on minority race/ethnic/gender groups.
In these definitions, the term dominant refers to groups that have most of the power in society. In the United States, this refers to Whites, especially white males. The term minority refers to groups that lack power; it does not refer to groups that are small. In the United States, people of color and women are minority groups as are certain non-Christian religious groups like Jews and Muslims. People of color also happen to be a numerical minority, but women are not.
When discussing problems of diversity, it is essential to understand the differences between these types of discrimination. Although some...