Unfortunately, racism in the workplace is more common than people would think. If you are someone who does not face these challenges on a day-to-day basis it can be easy to think that it is not a problem. Many people tend to believe that unless the racism is blatant and out there, then it does not happen. However, you should never forget that many people have unconscious bias and that is hard to change. Racism is deeply ingrained into society, whether you want to admit it or not. Due to this, it thrives in the workplace if it is not challenged. Thankfully, more workplaces have begun to challenge Racism. However, it can be tough to know where to start. Here is just a little advice on how you can begin to tackle racism in the workplace.
Legal action
This is an option that is open to both employees and employers. Having a racial discrimination lawyer to hand can be a great way to challenge racism in the workplace. If you are an employer, then you could have the contact details of a racial discrimination lawyer to hand and place that information that can be accessed by everyone anonymously. Hopefully, this will deter any racism from generating in the workplace, but it can also create a safe place for your employees to go seek help if they do not feel comfortable within the workplace structure already.
If you are an employee and believe that you are experiencing racism, then it is a great idea to seek out a lawyer with expertise in this area. They can help to see if you have a case and can often provide advice on how to proceed. They will likely offer you emotional support as well. A professional will also be able to confirm if there is racism present in your workplace. It may give you the confirmation you need to take action and begin to tackle the problem. It is also important to realize that you may not be the only one to experience racism and so by taking action you may not just be helping yourself but others too.
People can do better.
This is a mentality that organizations should begin to employ within the work environment. It is a great mentality to have. It is no good forgiving people’s attitudes because of their age, position, or past experiences. It is not okay, and people can learn and do better. Most people tend to want to support racial equality but don’t know how to do it practically. Systemic racism has been around for centuries and in countries like the US, it has been there since before the country was even founded. The change will likely take just as long but that does not mean that nothing can be done about it now. Begin small and keep pushing for more equality. It will lead to better things and hopefully contribute to an overall change.
Define an organization’s commitment to inclusion and diversity
For years now many organizations have begun discussions on how they can become more inclusive. There are many commitments to equal opportunities for all applicants from many organizations advertising vacancies. However, what they mean by this can change from company to company. If you are unsure of what your company’s policy is then it may be time to ask them. If you are the head of the company, then it may be time to outline in clear and in no uncertain terms what you want to do and how you are going to commit to diversity and inclusion.
Diverse leadership
The true goal of diversity can only be achieved when an organization has a diverse leadership deciding on its direction of it. Recent statistics show that black people only account for 3.2% of senior leadership roles in large corporations and 0.8% hold a fortune 500 position. What makes this statistic worse is that these are all men. Latinos hold fewer than 2% of Fortune 500 CEO positions and most of these are men again. If racial equality is to be seen and believed, then people of color must be promoted to help lead companies. It has been shown in recent reports that men and women of color are less likely to be promoted than their white counterparts. A solution to this could be to create more opportunities for promotion. Do not look at your company as a finite position. You don’t have to promote just one person. You could do more than that in different sectors or new ones.
Keep track of progress
When people are looking for solutions, many people tend to turn to data to overcome the challenges that they face. They see where the problem is and work out how to fix it. This approach can be turned into racial equality. You can use the data of who your company has hired, who has been promoted, and who has left recently. You can make this information publicly accessible to show transparency (The data will need to be anonymized). Take the data of people’s ages, genders, races, and ethnicity. Collecting this data can inform you and your company’s decisions when hiring, firing, and promoting. It will also help you to see if you have a problem within your workplace that may have slipped by you.
Racial equality in the workplace
This is no easy task. However, this does not mean that it should be left for someone else to deal with. There are many things that organizations can do to promote racial equality, whether they are big or small companies. It all comes down to attitudes and forcing people to have an uncomfortable conversation. It can be easy to think that your workplace is free of racism, but the sad truth of the matter is that this is not likely true. You need to take a long hard look at yourself and your company to see where there may be problems. Who knows what small step will help you to create a better workplace for all employees?
