African_American's_in_the_Workplace

Abstract This essay will inform readers about the horrific obstacles that African Americans face in the workplace on day to day bases. Moreover, it discusses how the United States made attempts to remedy their injustices. African Americans in the Workplace and Obstacles They Face Is race discrimination still at large' This is a topic that is widely debated because most people already have a specific and set opinion about the topic. According to Tillman, “Either people think discrimination is an important force in U.S. society or they don’t (2001). Usually, people believe in one of two situations. The first situation is that you see the world in conditions of the weak being victimized by the strong. The world has many inequalities, which are caused by the predation of the strong. The second situation is seeing the world in terms of nonperformers and performers. The nonperformers are those who keep the talented and enthusiastic from reaping rewards. As people choose one side they push away facts that do not coincide with their opinion. Studied exhaustedly, race discrimination in the work place does still exist. This essay will inform the reader of race discrimination against African Americans in the workplace. One of the major obstacles African Americans face as a whole is dispelling myths of having a bad work ethic. This subject is an extremely sticky one because it insults various races. This important matter has been in existence for a great deal of time and by the looks of it, may not go away. For example, many people, mostly conservatives, feel that African Americans are too lazy to work or look for work. According to Tillman, conservatives feel black’s suffer from a culture of poverty, which happens to be a mixture of the effects of long term poverty and slavery (2001). As a result, the culture of poverty theory asserts that blacks feel there is no cause for advancement. Moreover, this theory suggested that blacks feel powerless, destined to such an ill fate and that all doors and opportunities are closed to them. Accordingly, working hard for advancement in school and work is pointless. This is a major obstacle that hinders most African Americans because they are wrongfully judged before the application process even begins. Once in the workplace, African Americans face the obstacle of being isolated. According to Tillman, the lack of success for some African Americans can be linked to the lack of professional and social isolation and scholarly productivity (2001). In the workplace, Blacks have fewer opportunities to be selected as protégés in predominately Caucasian organizations because they do not share the same personal and cultural backgrounds. Research shows that Caucasian people are most comfortable mentoring people of their own race. This puts African Americans at a disadvantage since there are fewer African Americans in higher positions than Caucasians. Another form of isolation that African Americans face in the workplace is known as workplace bullying. This type of bullying can include forms of mistreatment such as verbal abuse, threats, intimidation, humiliation and work sabotage. Often, bullies use tactics to emotionally abuse their prey. Moreover, the targets are often chosen because they are better workers than the bullies and feel threatened. Workplace bullies only bully one person at a time, which makes it incredibly hard for other co-workers to notice. This puts incredible stress on the target as he or she searches for the cause of being picked on. Samantha Williams, and African American woman, has personally experienced workplace bulling amongst her predominantly Caucasian employer. She had been a registered nurse for over 28 years in the state of Connecticut. Her work ethic was superb. She was timely and always accurate. Over the years she noticed how her boss would exclude her from certain meetings, undermine her and manipulate others to questions her mental health. Samantha had no idea what was happening until she researched workplace bullying. After discovering this concept she confronted her manager and transferred to a different office. According to statistics, Minorities, especially African Americans, are they typical victims of workplace bullying. African Americans also face obstacles during the hiring process. For example, “African Americans are usually hired for low paid or low level jobs.” Furthermore, discrimination in hiring in job statuses between African American and Caucasian workers are considerably different. According to a study by Beauchup and Bowie in 1993, there was a major disparity in college educated Caucasians when it came to finding employment. This study showed that 1 out of 5 job searches for African Americans were discriminatory, despite the fact that both races were equally qualified and equally dressed. Notably, Caucasian applicants were able to submit an application in twenty percent of the cases when an African American was not. Research also showed that the higher the position being sought, the higher the rate of discrimination. Another study in a law firm in San Diego showed racial discrimination through the use of code words in the hiring process. For example, “Maria” meant “I favor Hispanics,” “see me” meant “No people of color,” and “No T” meant “No Blacks.” Finally the San Diego Study showed employers felt African Americans were lazy, did not have interest in working, were immoral and were not as intelligent as their Caucasians. Not only do African Americans face discrimination during the hiring process, but the advancement process also. Once hired, African Americans have a difficult time advancing in their career. This is due to the lack of opportunities due to racial prejudice and racial stereotyping. According to McCoy, qualified African Americans and other minorities are frequently overlooked for promotions in favor of less competent Caucasians. Moreover, McCoy’s research showed that African Americans and Hispanics are not taken as seriously as their Caucasian counterparts, in the workplace (1999). Therefore, they are given less work in which heavy decision making is needed. This is a obstruction because with the lack of proper knowledge and skills, which are acquired through experience and training, the person will not know how to handle situations if advancement does occur. Unlike any other ethnicity, African American women experience discrimination twice as hard because of two reasons. The first is because she is female and the second is because she is African American. Although racial discrimination against African American women is a rarely discussed topic, it is still very important. Not only does this specific group of people face he same problems as African American men, but they also have to deal with sexual harassment and the lowest wages. According to Norment, African American women suffer sexual harassment cases in the United States more than any other ethnicity. Sexual harassment is unwelcomed sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature (Norment 1992). In 1986, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of an African American bank teller who had experienced a tremendous amount of sexual harassment at her place of employment. She said her supervisor, regularly, fondled her in front of coworkers, followed her into the restrooms and raped her. This was a landmark case for the U.S. Supreme Court. The woman won her case and 3.1 million dollars. According to The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce. Tokenism is yet another obstruction that African Americans face. Rather than for their skill or qualifications, African Americans are often used to fill a quota to meet racial diversity. Tokenism is often seen at predominately Caucasian places of employment, colleges and Universities. Although racial discrimination has existed in America for hundreds of years, there have been attempts to discontinue it. These attempts were mostly enforced by national laws. For example, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 intended to stop discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin. This act is one of the most important acts in the United States history. This law guarantees equal voting rights, prohibits segregations in public places, bans discrimination in schools and in the workforce. This act also established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Affirmative Action was another legislative effort that helped to improve employment and educational opportunities for minority citizens and women. Affirmative Action was initiated by President Lyndon Johnson in order to improve civil rights. This legislation consisted of policies, programs and procedures that gave preference to minorities in the hiring admission and institutions of higher education. Its criteria were based on race, gender, disability and ethnic origin (Britannica 2009). Race discrimination in the workplace is still at large, especially amongst African Americans. Blacks face many obstacles in the workforce such as isolation, differences in the hiring process, workplace bullying, sexual harassment, lack of advancement and tokenism. Fortunately, there have been laws created such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Affirmative Action law, which help to subdue some of the injustices. Although the termination of discrimination in the United States is not were it should be, thank God it’s not were it was. Works Cited McCoy , Rutter (Eds.). (1999). Discrimination on the Job. Journal of Communications, 28, 97-103 Norment, Lynn (1992, January). Black Men, Black Women and Sexual Harassment. Ebony Magazine, 30-34 “tokenism.” The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009 Retrieved November 20, 2009 from Encyclopedial.com Tillman, Linda. (2001). Mentoring African American Faculty in Predominately White Institutions. Research in Higher Education, 42(3),pp.295-325.