Wiki Page, Multicultural Diversity in the Workplace for the Tourism Professional: Topic 2 Preventing Racism in the Workplace

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2022-09-21T17:33:46+08:00

Racial Discrimination in the Workplace

Racial Harassment in the Workplace

Preventing Racism in the Workplace

Racial Discrimination in the Workplace

The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment. But the sad reality is, it is still happening.

There might be employment decisions that screen out candidates of a certain race or projects and job duties that are assigned differently based on race. Unintentionally, the employers stereotype instead of recognizing people as individuals or implement pay discrepancies based on racial identity.

In some occasions, co-workers are the ones not acting fairly or discriminating their racialized colleagues. They are doing harassing behavior such as using racial slurs or making jokes about race or skin color or making derogatory comments about a particular element of a person's customs or culture. Worse are violence or threats of violence based on a person's race, being more critical of certain people on racial grounds or displaying symbols associated with racism, such as a swastika or Confederate flag.

The racial discrimination in the work place can either be disparate treatment or disparate impact.

Disparate treatment is when individuals are treated differently on purpose because of their race.

When ethnic minorities are being given lower starting salaries, or if different interview questions are posed to white applicants and ethnic minorities, these are concrete examples of disparate treatment. This is when an applicant or employee is being intentionally treated unfavorably because he/she is of a certain race or because of personal characteristics associated with race such as hair texture, skin color, or certain facial features.

The negative impact that race discrimination might have is the disparate impact. It happens when seemingly neutral workplace practices have an unnecessary and negative effect on members of a protected class. When there are unnecessary requirements for one’s appearance, like requiring men to have short hair, which might eliminate qualified Native American applicants, or requiring hair to be straightened, which would unduly burden many African American women who have naturally curly hair are some examples of disparate impact.

Racial Harassment in the Workplace

Racial harassment is an unwelcome behavior towards a person’s race, color, or national origin, such as verbal or physical conduct of a racial nature. In the workplace, racial harassment is unlawful when the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a person would consider intimidating, hostile or abusive. This also called hostile environment harassment. Moreover, it is also prohibited if enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment

In the workplace, the harasser can be the victim's supervisor or a supervisor in another area. It can also be a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.

The severity of a racial harassment depends on the frequency and harshness of the unwelcome harassment. It will also vary whether the harassment was physically threatening or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance and whether the harasser was a superior within the organization. The effect on the victim’s psychological well-being can also be taken into consideration.

The racial harassment can be done by the harasser through a verbal or written conduct. It can through jokes, innuendos or slurs; name-calling; comments about clothing, personal behavior, or body; racial or race-based jokes; telling rumors about the victim’s personal life; threats or organized hate activity directed at employees.

Physical conduct can be another way of doing racial harassment. Examples of such are rape or assault, impeding or blocking the victim’s movement or Inappropriate touching of body or clothing. There is also nonverbal conduct of racial harassment. These may include derogatory gestures or facial expressions of a racial nature, following or stalking and malicious interference with work performance.

Visual displays are creative yet harmful way of racial harassment. These include posters, drawings, pictures, screensavers or e-mails of a racial nature, epithets scrawled on the employer's property, hangman's nooses, Nazi swastikas, or other items understood to have racial significance.

If a victim of racial harassment, dealing with it will not be a walk in the park. However, mindful and well-thought actions will be of great help. Firstly, say no and communicate to the harasser directly that the conduct is unwelcome. Reporting harassment to your employer as soon as possible will be a wise move instead of having the incident just passed. If only happened once and severity is manageable, still write it down to document what had happen. Keep this as records. Find a trustworthy confidant and talk about it. This trusted confidant will be your witness in case needed in the future.

Preventing Racism in the Workplace

It can be illegal for an organization to have an employment policy or practice that applies to everyone, regardless of race or color if it has a negative impact on the employment of people of a particular race or color. Most importantly if it is not job-related and necessary to the operation of the business.

A best example is a "no-beard" employment policy being applied to all workers without regardless of race. It may be unlawful if it is not job-related and has a negative impact on the employment of a certain race like the African-American men who have a predisposition to a skin condition that causes severe shaving bumps.

The best is to uncover any problems that may already be happening in the workplace or business by looking at the demographic breakdown of your workforce. It will be ideal to review the hiring policy of the company and make sure job descriptions have neutral wording that relate only to the job requirements and skills of candidates.

Using an applicant tracking system to evaluate candidates on a neutral basis can eliminate any possible chances of prejudices and biases on the bases of race. Rejecting non-diverse candidate shortlists and introducing diversity to interview panels is a safeguard in the company’s commitment to inclusion and equality in the workplace.

It will be best to also take a hard look at the company’s pay review policies, benefits packages, conditions of service, promotion policies, awards and recognition programs, training policies and performance reviews to make sure they advance equality of opportunity for all employees, regardless of their race.

The company can further guarantee racial inclusion by writing and enforcing an anti-discrimination policy to show that the company will not condone racist behavior and will hold people to account for their actions. Training can also be provided to inform employees about racism for them to oppose harassment and avoid being a harasser themselves. The company must strictly sanction the harasser and support the victim of discrimination.