Institutional racism is racial discrimination that has become established as normal behaviour within a society or organization. Even though Jim Crow laws and segregation laws have been abolished, institutions are still  heavily biased towards African Americans and have created a norm of racial discrimination. Institutions such as the criminal justice system throughout the years has made institutional racism unpunished, and normal. It gives longer sentences for the same crime based on race and is indirectly unjust towards blacks in the United States. Redlining also contributes to the cause, not allowing African Americans to develop out of certain clustered regions. Institutional racism has not gone and still exists today.

The foundation of institutionalized racism derives from the infamous Plessy vs Ferguson case of 1896 which began a set of segregational laws that were stated as “separate but equal”. This set the precedent of a racial separation on everything that was deemed as equal, which clearly wasn’t, and set the norm of discrimination towards African Americans in the United States. The way that the racial segregation was deemed to be constitutional was through a segregation that would prove equal. Consequently the fact that there is a minority group immediately makes it unconstitutional and unfair. The fundamentals of racial discrimination against African Americans begin with these Jim Crow laws that for years have practiced unfair rules on the African American Community. Even though the Brown vs Board of Education and Civil Rights Act of 1964 made conditions better for African Americans, racial discrimination in the society and elite organization and institutions was already established, making situations lawfully better but not actually better.

Institutionalized Racism breaches heavily as an aspect of housing discrimination. A phenomenon known as redlining, which is  the systematic denial of various services to residents of specific, often racially associated, neighborhoods or communities, either directly or through the selective raising of prices. Redlining is a key aspect of institutionalized racism as it does not allow African Americans to move out of neighborhoods that are filled with poverty and a poor living standard. As research shows, “ ‘This modern-day redlining persisted in 61 metro areas even when controlling for applicants' income, loan amount and neighborhood’, according to millions of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act records analyzed by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting “ (Glantz et al.). The isolation of African Americans into specific communities puts them in a never ending cycle of bad education and poverty. Because most African American communities are engulfed by poverty, low taxes are attributed to their public service, one of the most important, including education. With poor education, come job opportunities that do not pay as much. Low wages does not allow African Americans to buy new homes. So the cycle repeats itself, with African Americans all clustered in one area and with very low chances of making money and move out.  This links to institutionalized racism as the system, through redlining, is build up for African Americans to hardly develop, especially in a financial state. This relates back to the foundation of institutionalized racism where organizations and the society have established a norm of racial discrimination towards people with a dark skin color, which as a result of redlining live in poorer neighborhoods, are significantly poorer, and consequently perceived as inferior.

The African American society for years has been heavily impacted by police brutality and wrong sentencing. One of the most important aspects of institutional racism is unpunished police brutality. This is a bigger problem as it seems, because two big organizations such as the Police Department and the Criminal Justice System make it ok to racially discriminate African Americans. “Young black men were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015“ (Swaine et al.).This shows how more likely African Americans are to be shot by police officers. But the most upsetting fact is that between 2005 and 2017 65% of police officers have not been convicted for clear acts of police brutality (Park). This is concerning as police officers are abusing with power given to them by killing people unfairly, which is murder. On the other hand we have a criminal justice system that is not holding these men accountable. This is one of the major holes of the US system where institutional racism breaches in. These practices create a norm that make individual and collective acts of racism more and more acceptable. The criminal justice system also convicts black men on average 19.1% more than white men on the same crimes (Ingraham). This shows clear disparities on how African Americans are judged threatening  basic human rights. The criminal justice system is constantly practicing unjust practices towards African Americans and are making it a norm to mass incarcerate African Americans. As institutional racism is the practice of an established racial discrimination, the criminal justice system has surely established itself as an institution that is clearly racially discriminatory. The core problem is that the police department hardly faces any consequences and the criminal justice system has no governing body to make it face any consequences, leaving African American people to a system erect to discriminate them. Therefore the criminal justice system and police department serve as tools to enforce this institutionalized racism that has infected the whole system, discriminating African Americans.

Institutions in the United States are still racially motivated to discriminate towards different minorities, most specifically, African Americans. The criminal justice system, police department, and housing organizations are neglecting African American rights, and although the separate but not equal segregation is lawfully abolished, Institutional Racism is making conditions for Africans Americans inherently worse and separating them from the rest of the country that does not face these obstacles.