Institutionalized Discrimination In The Here And Now essays

Institutionalized Discrimination In The Here And Now essays Institutionalized Discrimination in the Here and Now While the trend in society seems to be moving away from discrimination as it was known in the pre civil rights era, there is still plenty of evidence to show that institutionalized discrimination still exists in the United States and one need only look to the nearest newspaper to see it. Three articles taken from the September 19th Salt Lake Tribune illustrate some of these discriminatory practices as they demean women, the mentally ill, and homosexuals or subtly undermine their rights. Here, the articles and the issues they bring up are discussed as they relate to social policy and society. Nowhere is institutionalized discrimination more obvious than the current legislative process aimed at denying homosexuals the right to marry. Rebecca Walsh (2004) wrote an article about the process that Amendment 3 (the above mentioned proposal) is going through with the support of BYU professors and other religious figures in the Utah community. A glance at the article is all it takes to learn what these actors reflect in the local society: Homosexuals are still discriminated against and that there are currently active political forces to make these people out to be marked as evil, wayward and deviant. In other words, homosexuals are less than human and therefore unworthy of the legal and emotional benefits of marriage. This kind of legislation is in direct opposition to the progress of equality for all in the United States and if the amendment passes, then the road is paved for further institutionalized discrimination policy. Another area of institutionalized discrimination was presented in an article by Holly Mullen (2004). The article related to discrimination against the mentally ill, particularly youth. The case in question related to the trial of the parents of a severely neglected and abused mentally ill child. Th...