Racism In The Workplace
Racism is still present in and outside of the workforce. Most whites that work alongside people of different backgrounds deny that racial or ethnic discrimination exists where they work according to What so many get wrong about racism in the workplace (fingerprintforsuccess.com). Research shows that at least forty-two percent of employees experience racism in the workplace and thirty-five percent of African American employees who believe that discrimination exists.
African American women are very likely to experience discrimination before they even enter a work environment. Black women that wear natural hairstyles are less likely to be seen as professional, especially in businesses that seem to have a strong dress code. They are also less likely to be recommended for a job interview while wearing a natural hairstyle. Black women who have straightened hairstyles or white women who have straight or curly styles tend to get the opposite treatment.
In a way to avoid discriminatory actions towards themselves, potential African American employees try to make their resumes sound and look more appealing to the eye. They make changes to their experience so that it will not give clues that they are a minority and sometimes they go as far as to changing their name. With jobs that look for diversity in the workplace, African Americans tend to give a clear cut resume of who they truly are. Studies show that the resumes that are altered get more callbacks than those who do not alter their resumes.
The Hispanic community experiences discrimination, racism, and demoralizing microaggressions says Hispanic Workplace Discrimination And Microagressions (refinery29.com). During this time in America, Hispanics receive more racist and violent attitudes more than they ever had. The racist attitudes that they experience are illustrated in different ways. They have to endure hostile comments concerning their skin tone, their nationality, or maybe their immigration status. Sometimes they can experience discrimination and colorism within their own community.
During today’s workforce at a time of protest such as Black Lives Matter, the businesses have been supportive in sending a message of togetherness. Showing their commitment and taking in the task of trying to eliminate prejudice at work. Often times relaying those messages are viewed as empty gestures. Surveys have been done on Instagram from networking group Black and HR and found that seventy seven percent of the issues faced by the black community have not been addressed.
More often, racism can be hard to spot at work. People of color have to deal with more than just hostility, it is very well existing in today’s workforce, but on a smaller scale. The black community members have to deal with racism on a daily basis, and most often their employer try their best to prevent this issue. In order to move forward and addressing the issues, organizations have to identify the signs of racism first and follow through with the appropriate actions.
Being a woman of color and having to deal with aggression from white colleagues, comes off very degrading when we are asked “why are we attending important events.” It is painful on a daily basis, but when it is multiple times a day, it becomes very overbearing and exhausting.
One may see these as harmless and not intended to harm anyone, cause offense, may seem to be friendly, but the impact is not lessened to those who are involved. Trying to minimize the impact after it has surfaced, may be hard to handle. Being the perpetrator ands doing racially active activities may not seem harmful to others, but one should patrol themselves to ensure others do not get caught in the cross fire.
African Americans and Hispanic employees are paid less than employees that are white, no matter the education level. State of Working America Wages 2019: A story of slow, uneven, and unequal wage growth over the last 40 years | Economic Policy Institute (epi.org) says that rising wage inequality and slow and uneven hourly wage growth for the vast majority of workers have been defining features of the U.S labor market. Data shows that the wage gap by gender and race are steadily increasing. Along with the growing wages, inequality still rises and becomes normalized. Hispanic workers have been closing the gaps between white workers while the wage gap between blacks and whites have been increasing.
Average wages grow faster within the Hispanic and white community. Wages grow slower in the African American community despite their education level. At nearly every education level, Hispanic and black employees were paid consistently less than their white co-workers. The speed of the wage growth cannot be blamed on the educational shortages because the rise in wage inequality has been far larger than the rise in returns to education. The wage gap between blacks and whites by education was larger in 2019 for all educational levels.
It would take organizations, both big and small, to look into all the activities in their work environment and locate the racism and try to make changes within. If that does not change, then racism will only continue to grow in and outside of the workplace, which would cause negative results in the community.
