Currently, there is an uproar of black lives matter movement all over the world. So, the people and the organizations have become more aware of the inclusiveness in the workplace. Along with this, many stories from employees, ex-employees have resurfaced about their experiences of racism at their workplace. In the current century of science and technology, such instances should have become old news. But it seems like racism is still a burning issue in the world and the workplace.
It is not only immoral to discriminate against people based on their race, color, nationality, or ethnicity. But it is illegal as well. Moreover, people face racism harassment not only because they are from different backgrounds. Sometimes, they are harassed because of other’s race as well. For instance, people face racism harassment if their partner is of another race, color, or nationality as well.
Discrimination against people can be direct or indirect. Direct discrimination is targeting the employee. Everyone can tell that the person is facing discrimination. For instance, a person is rejected for a job because he is black. Or a person is not getting a promotion because he is Jewish. These types of racism in the workplace are direct discrimination.
In indirect discrimination, the organization does not target the employees directly. The organization has policies or rules that put the employees at a disadvantage because of their race. For instance, a company is announcing a job vacancy for those people only who have UK qualifications. Here people are facing discrimination based on nationality.
RACIAL HARASSMENT
Every individual has a different race, skin color, ancestry, and nationality. So, if a person bullies on these aspects, it is racial harassment. The person bullying others does not need to be a senior. It can be your colleagues too. Racial jokes, insults, and slurs are also harassment. Moreover, people can make degrading comments on certain features of a person. For instance, if a person insults others based on hair types, accents, dressing styles, customs, and so on.
According to a statistics of New Zealand, employees faced racial discrimination the most. The result of the statistics is below.
| REASONS OF DISCRIMINATION | % OF THOSE WHO SELECTED THE REASON |
| Color, Race, Ethnicity, Nationality | 54% |
| Dress, Appearance | 19% |
| Age | 16% |
| Sex | 15% |
| Position | 14% |
| Language | 11% |
| Religious beliefs | 9% |
| Disability and health issues | 8% |
| Marital status | 5% |
| Political position | 4% |
| Family status | 4% |
| Sexual orientation | 3% |
WAYS TO AVOID RACISM AT WORKPLACE
If you see someone harassing others or if you are facing discrimination, take action immediately. The following steps can be helpful.
- Collect information
Gathering information is the first step to fight racism in the workplace. Uncover the problems and discriminatory practices. There are various sources to collect information. Talking with the employees can help. Managers and employees can talk individually or in a group.
Similarly, the management can also conduct surveys regarding the topic. This way, managers can get appropriate responses and feedback. Some other sources include:
- Workplace monitoring data
- Staff survey
- Brach equalities officer
- Labor force statistics
- Evaluate the information
After collecting the information, the second step is to evaluate it. It is not necessary to analyze the data by the experts. Managers can compare the demographic breakdown of the workforce and the community it serves. This method highlights the disparities. Also, the position of people from different backgrounds than that of the community can show discrimination. During the evaluation, managers should seriously look at the quality, formats, trends, and patterns of the employee profiles.
- Develop an action plan
After the evaluation of the information, the third step is to develop an action plan. Before doing so, consider the following queries.
- What are the major problems?
- What are the possible solutions?
- Who is willing to support the action?
- What to do to get support?
- Who should be involved in the plan?
- What resources are needed?
After analyzing these questions, it will be easy to develop a plan.
- Implement the plan
The final step is to implement the plan. Talk to the management or senior officers. Then, present the statistics. Also, if the manager is not taking the issue seriously, you can go to the court. Racism in the workplace is a real problem. It is illegal. So, there is no need to get scared to raise your voice against it.
