Personal and Institutional Discrimination

PERSONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION

Personal and Institutional Discrimination: Privileged Perpetrator

Kritzia Rosas-Feliciano
SW 3110

Personal and Institutional Discrimination

Personal and Institutional Discrimination: Privileged Perpetrator

Is it possible to be the perpetrator of discrimination without actually knowing that you are
doing it? Can ignorance be forgiven or overlooked? Many questions come to mind when I think
about discrimination. Being a minority, you might think that I have been discriminated against
more than others, but that wasnt the case this time. Going back and thinking deeply about my
past, I find myself being privileged by discrimination and indirectly being the perpetrator of
discrimination. In social work, this type of discrimination would be considered as agency
institutional discrimination. When I was a senior in high school, like many other middle class
students, I was searching for a job to be able to afford everything that my mother could not
provide for me.
My job search was very difficult, no one seemed to want to hire a young student with no
experience. One night, my mother and I went out to buy food at a fast food restaurant. While we
were waiting for our order in the drive thru, my mother spoke with the manager and asked if she
could have an application for me. I filled out the application once we got home. I did not want
to work at a fast food restaurant because I preferred to work at a clothing store. I figured I might
as well try and get some experience now that I have the opportunity to do so. The next day, I
turned in my application. I received a call a few days later and the manager informed me that I
was hired and to come in and fill out the rest of the paper work. When I came in to fill out the
paper work, the manager performed an informal hasty interview and I started working that same
day.
As I became familiarized with my coworkers, I noticed there were only three male
employees. Besides the manager and two cooks, the remaining nine employees were females.
Throughout my time with the company, many people quit their job and many people came to fill

Personal and Institutional Discrimination

out applications. At one point, we were very short staffed and we were forced to work long
hours. I asked the manager, Why dont you interview people and hire new help? He replied,
Most of the applicants do not qualify for the job opening. One male came in the store and was
very nice and professional so I decided to put in a good word for him. He was interviewed and
hired. Shortly after, the new male team member was showing lack of motivation. He was taking
too many smoke breaks and was ultimately terminated for a no-call-no-show. When talking to
the manager about how hard it was to find good help, he stated that he doesnt like to hire males
because they are lazy, unless they are of Mexican descent. He also pointed out that AfricanAmericans were lazy and that it would be a bad business choice to hire someone that is going to
end up getting fired in a few weeks anyway.
I consider myself lucky because I am a Puerto Rican female, which worked in my favor
to obtain the job that I had. Since I was not a male or of the African American race, I wasnt
discriminated against and labeled as lazy. I was privileged to get the job because of my gender
and ethnicity. At the time, I was only 17 years old and did not put much thought into the
adversity of situation. As a caring person, I did feel a bit pitiable every time a guy or an African
American came in to apply for a job, because I knew that 9 times out of 10 they were not going
to get hired. I felt that it was not my place to say anything because I was just a team member and
I did not want to risk losing my job.
I indirectly consider myself the perpetrator of discrimination in this case, because I knew
that many people were being discriminated against and I did not do anything to put an end to the
situation. I was part of the problem and not part of the solution. Now that I am less ignorant
about social issues and discrimination, I regret not taking action. The manager of the restaurant
unfairly stereotyped non-Mexican males and African Americans as lazy people. It was very rare

Personal and Institutional Discrimination

for non-Mexican males or African Americans to get a chance to work in that fast food restaurant.
The manager would never call them for an interview in order to avoid explaining why he wasnt
hiring these individuals. The managers excuse to not hire males and African Americans was
that they just simply did not qualify for the job or that the store was fully staffed. I worked at
this restaurant for a few years before I decided to quit because I found a higher paying job at a
rehab center. When I submitted my resignation letter and two weeks notice, the manager did not
want to let me quit. I decided that I had to quit in order to better myself. I felt relieved once I
was able to find another job where the dynamic was more diverse and less discriminatory.
The staffing situation at the fast food restaurant has changed. That same manager has
hired all kinds of different people from different backgrounds and there are somewhat equal
amounts of males and females working in the restaurant. I was happy to see the change in
dynamic that the restaurant had taken. I believe that everyone deserves a chance to prove and
better themselves as individuals. Life is already hard enough. We, as a society, should help one
another instead of bringing each other down or making life more difficult for each other.
Institutional discrimination often exists in many agencies throughout the world and not just in
fast food restaurants.
Institutional racism and sexism were both present in this agency. The manager wouldnt
hire any males unless they were Mexican. The manager believed that Mexicans were hard
workers but that males in general were lazy. He used the guy he had terminated, the male I
suggested him to hire, as an example. This practice of institutional discrimination favored me,
but indirectly made me the perpetrator because I did not act upon changing the situation.
I am the type of person that refuses to think of herself as a victim unless physical, mental,
or emotional harm is done to me. I tend not to focus on how others treat me, but rather on how I

Personal and Institutional Discrimination

treat others. I will never know if I was discriminated against when applying at many different
clothing and department stores for jobs that I never attained. I attempted to stop the
discrimination by persuading my manager to hire new people. I am glad that was the first
stepping-stone for change. I was relieved to see a major adjustment in the restaurant that I
worked in. Equal opportunity should be for everyone and certain groups should not be excluded
due to stereotypes of poor job performance. It is possible to be a perpetrator of discrimination
without acknowledging that it is happening. The most important aspect of overturning
discrimination is continuing the movement towards equality.