Volume 1 Issue 1 FROM SCIENCE TO PRACTICE: ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Winter 2015 Modern-Day racism in the workplace: Symbolic diversity or real change? Ashly Williams Coca-Cola made headlines when 16 current and continue to plague our organizations? There is former African American and Latino employees overwhelming evidence that modern day racism filed a racial discrimination suit against the persists, and although it doesn’t always resemble corporate hegemon. The suit claimed that the overt forms characterized by “old fashioned” minorities at Coca-Cola are surrounded by a racism, in many ways the covert forms of “cesspool of racial discrimination” (Greeenwald, discrimination in organizations may be more 2012, p. 1). A number of accusations pertaining harmful due to their insidious and pervasive to a discriminatory work environment were made nature. One recent study found that over a two against the company including inequities in week time period 78% of the Asian Americans promotional advancement, punitive and participants experienced a microaggression (Ong retaliatory actions against minorities, and et al., 2013). disproportionate dispersion of overtime hours (Greenwald, 2012). Several of the employees Since the emergence of the movement towards reported that racial slurs against minorities were political correctness, racism has taken on recurrent and had gone unpunished (Marzulli, distinctly more subtle and aversive forms. People 2012). Possibly the most shocking part of this suit have begun to guard against the overt forms of is that it was filed in 2012, and referred to events racism frowned upon in a politically correct occurring during the same period in US history as landscape (Deitch et al., 2003). Current research the election of the first black President. investigating discrimination within the workplace has revealed the disturbing fact that racial How much progress did our society make? microaggressions are frequent, pervasive, and Reports like these motivate the question of cause significant harm to both individuals and whether we have truly made the kind of racial organizations. Microaggresions is a term that has progress towards equality often presumed. Have been used to identify many forms of we truly experienced real racial change or has discrimination, but has most commonly been discrimination simply undergone a used to refer to the discrimination experienced by metamorphosis? Many people point towards the racial and ethnic minorities. Within this context election of a black President, or the increased Microaggressions can be defined as numbers of minorities represented within our “commonplace verbal or behavioral indignities, organizations, but are these truly indications of whether intentional or unintentional, which progress? Or is this purely symbolic diversity that communicates hostile, derogatory, or negative obscures a pervasive underlying problem and racial slights and insults” (Sue et al., 2007, p. 278). perpetuates denial about the inequalities that From Science To Practice: Organizational Psychology Bulletin, Volume I, Issue II, pp. 6-10 © 2015 is a publication of Vanguard University of Southern California Master of Science In Organizational Psychology Program Page | 6 Volume 1 Issue 1 FROM SCIENCE TO PRACTICE: ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Winter 2015 What is a microaggression? Microaggression can created equality within the workplace. While further be organized according to subcategories hiring disparities have certainly decreased, this that include microassualts, microinsults, and does not mean that experiences of discrimination microinvalidations. Microassaults are most similar within the workplace have been eradicated. In to the overt forms of “old fashioned” racism (Sue fact, the more covert forms of discrimination that et al., 2007). Examples of microassaults include are prevalent today throughout our organizations explicit racial epithets associated with language are astonishingly frequent. Sometimes these more characteristic of the antebellum period incidences are overlooked due to the inherent (Ong, Burrow, Fuller-Rowel, Ja, & Sue, 2013). covert nature of microaggressions which Microinsults are more covert styles of verbal and functions to perpetuate the problem because nonverbal communication that lack sensitivity they are difficult to identify by the perpetrator towards issues faced by minorities. For example, (Offerman et al, 2014). It would be a mistake to when an African American employee is promoted dismiss these occurrences as less harmful than within an organization, other employees often overt forms of racism due to the “daily frequency believe that the promotion was based upon and chronicity, microaggressions likely have a Affirmative Action rather than intelligence or cumulative, inimical effect on health and well- competency. Employees that then approach the being”(Ong et al., 2013, p. 197). The stealth newly promoted individual and question how the nature and frequency of discrimination in the job was acquisitioned would be insulting the form of microaggressions within the workplace minority colleague by implying that the directly refutes the argument that Affirmative promotion was due to something other than Action programs have gone far enough to create intelligence or competency (Sue et al., 2007). equality within organizations. Finally, microinvaldiation is a form of discrimination that invalidates or disavows the Recently Forbes magazine published an article psychological and emotional experience of describing the detrimental outcomes for minorities. For example, it has become widely organizations that ignore race by attempting to popular within the mainstream media to accuse adopt a color blind perspective (Nobel , 2013). minorities of invoking the “race card,” this The claim of colorblindness among people is often functions to invalidate the subjective used as a way to express that they view all psychological and emotional experiences individuals as the same regardless of skin color. described by minorities (Sue et al., 2007). Statements of color blindness often fail to address the underlying attitudes that are far more Symbolic Diversity or Real Change? Many times responsible for covert forms of discrimination. A people point to the progress that society has study on workplace discrimination revealed that made with respect to the more overt forms of people who ascribe to a colorblind worldview are racism as evidence that there is racial equality less likely to perceive discrimination within the within our country. For example, people often workplace. People that hold a color blind argue that Affirmative Action programs have worldview are therefore likely to be unaware of From Science To Practice: Organizational Psychology Bulletin, Volume I, Issue II, pp. 6-10 © 2015 is a publication of Vanguard University of Southern California Master of Science In Organizational Psychology Program Page | 7 Volume 1 Issue 1 FROM SCIENCE TO PRACTICE: ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Winter 2015 discrimination in the workplace and even Individuals and organizations are suffering as a unaware of their own discriminatory behavior. result of the blind spot that is created by the Fostering a belief that people are all the same and prevalence of symbolic diversity, colorblindness, are all treated equally is a form of denial that and misguided beliefs about the supposed “race minimizes the daily discrimination experienced by card” which all result in the failure to address minorities. Since this worldview denies the very actual issues of modern racism. Microaggressions real experiences of minorities, color blindness is have been linked with negative physical and itself a microinvalidation (Offerman et al., 2014). emotional consequences for minorities (Ong et al., 2013). These consequences affect the overall The media has focused extensively on the issue of health of individuals as well as the absenteeism minorities employing the “race card” within and turnover rates within organizations. Some of discussions of race relations. The claim that the individual-level outcomes include depression, minorities are falsely attributing certain lower self-esteem, and even PTSD (Ong et al., experiences to race is again a form of 2013). Also, discrimination within the workplace microinvalidation. The pejorative “race card” has been linked with poor job performance denies or invalidates the daily experiences of (Deitch et al,, 2003). These documented negative discrimination minorities face within the consequences strongly suggest the need for workplace (Sue et al., 2007). One study attempted organizations to work on solutions for their to discover if people really are incorrectly employees and organizations alike. assigning discrimination as the motive behind behavior within the workplace, as the race card Where are we, and where do we go from there? supporters would claim. In order to do this the There is a significant body of research on modern researchers used data previously collected for a forms of racism and discrimination that suggest completely different study that investigated initiatives like Affirmative Action, and cultural mistreatment within the workplace. Using this sensitivity training are not going far enough to data about mistreatment within the workplace, combat the problems of discrimination within our the researchers were able to examine if there organizations (Deitch et al., 2003). Arguments were in fact real differences between the extent that the symbolic representations