From the course: How to Speak Up Against Racism at Work

Recognizing racism

- Racism is a very complicated, multi-layered issue. So it's outside the scope of this course to unpack the concept of racism, but I would like to establish some foundational concepts. First, while there are many definitions of racism, I prefer David Wellman's simple definition of racism as a system of advantage based on race. Now, keep in mind that racism shows up in the workplace in three primary ways: systemic racism, individual racism, and/or internalized racism. Arguably, the most important consideration though is being able to identify aversive as well as overt racism, because this strikes at the heart of much of the conflict and misunderstanding around racism in the workplace today. Too many of us have grown up with the images of racism as depicted 50 years ago. You know, just like you and me, racism has grown up and it's evolved. These days, overt racism is socially unacceptable. So when we talk about racism, we're rarely talking about overt acts like policies that blatantly mentioned race-based preferences. Indeed, today's racism is much more subtle and often perpetuated by those who actually hold egalitarian views. You might say, "Well, how does that happen?" Well, let's consider an example. Jennifer is a white female executive who's worked for the same company for 30 years. She was one of the first in the organization to volunteer to join the group's first diversity committee, because she's absolutely an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She's also a member of the firm's leadership team, one of only two women, both white. While the executive team is all white, she's never voiced any concerns about that with her peers. Similarly, she's actively sponsored and helped promote several young, ambitious employees over the years, all of them white. If you presented her with a compelling argument for increasing racial diversity and promotion opportunities and leadership overall, she'd probably be quite amenable to it. But she would have never noticed these inequities on her own, much less prioritized extracting racism from her environment, even though she's in a position of authority to do so. In her interactions, she's pleasant to everybody and supports all her team members. But she's frequently confused some of the few black people on the floor for one another, and she exclusively socializes with her circle of other white female leaders. She's a great example of someone who might espouse egalitarian anti-racist values and views, but she may also be inadvertently supporting and perpetuating racism through her in group favoritism, unconscious bias, and general inaction. Some might consider this a great example of aversive racism where one may consciously reject racism, but still perpetuate race-based injustice through their unconscious bias and in group preference. Since we all have some level of unconscious bias, this type of behavior is actually quite common, which unfortunately means the impacts can be widespread. But the great news is that once we become more aware of our unconscious biases, we're better equipped to fight this silent foe.

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