What is unintentional racism and institutional racism?
Here’s an example of unintentional racism. A Mexican-American is outside mowing the lawn of a nice house in the suburbs. What would your first thought be? That he is the gardener, when really he could be the owner of the house. But we assume that he’s just there to do work because he’s Mexican. Here’s an example of institutional racism, taken from Wikipedia. In 1935, the U.S. Congress passed the Social Security Act, guaranteeing an income for millions of workers after retirement. However, the Act specifically excluded domestic and agricultural workers, many of whom were Mexican-American, African-American, and Asian-American. These workers were therefore not guaranteed an income after retirement, and had less opportunity to save, accumulate, and pass wealth on to future generations.
