Racism Workplace

Racism In The Workplace

The term racism derives from credence placed on the concept of race, for inherent in the concept is an acceptance of the validity of racial distinctions. Racism, in fact, implies that superior or inferior behavior is determined by race. In scholarly works, the term scientific racism is employed to describe a racial interpretation of history, or the belief that peoples of different races have different histories and cultures as a result of their race. However, the vast majority of anthropologists who study both race and culture conclude that culture affects race much more than race affects culture. Despite this, in common parlance, the term racism connotes discrimination and prejudice.

Races, however defined, are not fixed entities with precise boundaries. Topologically defined races based on phenotypical likenesses do not correspond to genetic reality. In the light of modern genetics, races can best be defined as inter-breeding populations sharing a common gene pool (Brown, 1973). In a consideration of racial matters, a much more practical dictum, and one too often unobserved, is that all people belong to one and the same species and that the similar characteristics within the species are much greater than any differences that may be called "racial."

In any attempt to understand racism in the workplace, distinctions need to be made among: (1) institutional structures and personal behavior, and the relationship between the two; (2) the variation in both degree and form of expression of individual prejudice; and (3) the fact that racism is but one form of a larger and more inclusive pattern of ethnocentrism that may be based on any number of factors, many of which are nonracial in character. A review of American cultures clearly shows that the historical sources of American race relations are infinitely complex, and there is little doubt that racial bias and discrimination have been built into most American institutions. The United States thus can be called a racist society in that it is racially divided and its whole organization is such as to promote racial distinctions (Chia, Allred, Jerzak, 1997). In this frame of reference, every citizen is necessarily a product of institutional racism, but expressions vary from person to person, in both degree and kind. It is also well to remember that what is commonly called racism is part of the larger problem of ethnic identification, of power and powerlessness, and of the exploitation of the weak by the strong.

To relegate employees to less than full human status on the basis of their membership in a particular group, whether the group is based on race, class, or religion, is a phenomenon that has become increasingly intolerable to those who are oppressed. To abolish the dilemmas within organizations that stem from racism, institutional arrangements as well as personal behaviors must sometimes be drastically revised. The behavior we perceive as being racist inside the workstation may just be the individual's personal style.

When an organization's culture is set up in such a way that it provides advantages to some ethnic groups at the expense of others, it is practicing institutional racism (Krantz, 1992). Internationally, institutional racism exists because of the acts of individuals who either make and carry out discriminatory practices or, through their passive acceptance, allow them to continue. Intention is not a necessary ingredient in racism. Intended or not, it is the effect of the law, practice, or behavior that determines whether it is racist (Mizell, 1992). What most writers commonly call race relations should be properly understood in the larger context of human relations. Of particular concern should be the expression of negative attitudes and behavior by people toward others according to their identification as members of a particular group. The expression of these attitudes and behavioral patterns is not innate but is learned as a part of the cultural process. Because of this, hope that they can be modified is justified. Negative group attitudes and destructive group conflicts are less likely to arise when employees treat each other as individuals and respond to each other on the basis of individual characteristics and behavior. It is a truism that race-relations patterns are learned behaviors or cultural patterns. And cultural patterns are but the sum of a given people's way of thinking, feeling, and acting. These patterns are not unalterable, however, and with proper